Putting Things into Perspective
“Downtown events make a vital impact in downtown revitalization efforts and present a strong marketing opportunity for the local business owner.”
This past year, Live Oak has welcomed two new events to its annual schedule, with the inaugural Live Oak Chocolate Festival in March and Flea across Florida Flea Market event in September.
It is the underlying goal of each of our downtown events to ’fill the sidewalks’, and those that attended any of these events, know that that goal quickly became a reality. Not only with these two events, but the Junebug Festival, the Scarecrow Festival, and the holiday events including the Chamber’s annual Christmas on the Square and Parade.
Special events play a vital part in our downtown program, and can reap huge benefits for the local business in three primary ways. 1) Events provide an opportunity for sales, promotions, sponsorship, advertising and publicity. Local businesses can use events as promotional tools, and incentives to gain additional customers and clients. 2) Events lead to residual income and future business. Not everyone that visits storefront businesses make a sale on that particular day, but the potential of future or even ongoing business is greater during an event. 3) Events help create a destination for the consumer. It is often through events that travelers, vacationers or residents of neighboring communities visit a downtown community. In order for these factors to be realized, we as a community, not just business owners, must embrace the visitor, welcoming them to our community, providing them with a reason to come inside, a reason to want to come downtown, a reason to come back, even when there is not an event going on in our humble community.
I applaud the work of our event planning teams and those of the Chamber of Commerce. I ask you to join me in extending a positive attitude in regard to events. Work with event organizers in these endeavors. Recognize the factors involved in these events. Such factors as public safety, vendor access, and consumer expectations. A primary goal of all events is fundraising. Support the event sponsors in this effort as well. Understand that every dollar raised by the local organizations are returned into the local community. The participation of the entire community is needed to make these goals a reality.
To help put these things in perspective, I encourage you to get involved in the planning and initiation of these events and programs. In addition to events, the Partnership and the Chamber offer several programs and opportunities for involvement. The efforts of the Live Oak Partnership and The Suwannee County Chamber of Commerce are only coming to fruition through the efforts of local business owners and community members just like you!
