Performers dance in the street during Bourbon Street on Broadway in downtown Frankfort Friday night. The event was part of Bourbon on the Banks. Visit bourbononthebanks.org for a full list of events this weekend. (Hannah Brown | State Journal)
Performers dance in the street during Bourbon Street on Broadway in downtown Frankfort Friday night. The event was part of Bourbon on the Banks. Visit bourbononthebanks.org for a full list of events this weekend. (Hannah Brown | State Journal)
City officials met with several merchants and economic development agency representatives Wednesday morning to announce the implementation of an impact study to assess the benefits of special events in the downtown commercial district.
The study, which will begin in May with the annual Downtown Derby celebration, will focus on collecting data regarding foot traffic, returning visits to businesses, and sales figures to determine which events are beneficial to the business community and which events could potentially move to other sites that would better serve both organizers and businesses.
City Project Manager Blair Hecker explained that this is a way to create "as holistic a picture as possible" of how festivals and summer concerts directly affect merchants, offices, and museums.
Over the course of what Hecker deemed Frankfort's "festival season" (May through late November), participating merchants will be able to volunteer traffic/financial information for the study, and will compare it to previous years' data or similar days of the week when an event is not taking place.
"We are starting with zero data," she explained. "This study will give us a way to collect data from as many subjective and objective areas to give us the broadest possible picture of how these events affect our businesses."
The study would help the city develop future ordinance practices based on detailed reports that organizers will now be required to submit upon completion of their event, data collected from merchants/businesses, and the results of a digital marketing campaign.
The city is also looking to improve the way that special event information is communicated to the residents and merchants around town, with the goal of having road closures updated as soon as an event permit is approved, and weather information updated in real-time on the day of special events.
The digital marketing campaign, will utilize "geofencing" to target visitors to the city with direct advertising on social media channels and websites to promote return visits. Geofencing relies on GPS and radio frequency signals from mobile devices to target advertising or programming for a particular area or event.
"This won't be targeted at any specific business," Hecker explained. "It is simply a way for us to be able to track visitors, and hopefully encourage them to come back for our special events around town, even if they are visiting when there aren't any events going on."
There will also be a schedule of permitted events across the city that will be available to study participants, allowing for easier advanced planning.
"It's our hope that this way, we can make it easier for scheduling across the board," Hecker said. "There are events going on all over the city, and this way we can prevent too many events from happening at the same time.
"We want all of our events to be successful, and this will hopefully be a way for us to improve the permitting process."
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State-Journal.com’s comments forum is for civil, constructive dialogue about news topics in our community, state, nation and world. We emphasize “civil” at a time when Americans, in the words of the current president, need to “turn down the temperature” of political debates. The State Journal will do its part by more carefully policing this forum. Here are some rules that all commenters must agree to follow:
Absolutely no attacks on other commenters, on guest columnists or on authors of letters to the editor. Our print and online opinion pages are sacred marketplaces of ideas where diverse viewpoints are welcome without fear of retribution. You may constructively critique the ideas and opinions of others, but name-calling, stereotyping and similar attacks are strictly prohibited.
Leeway will be given for criticism of elected officials and other public figures, but civility is essential. If you focus your criticism on ideas, opinions and viewpoints, you will be less likely to run afoul of our commenting rules.
Keep comments focused on the article or commentary in question. Don’t use an article about the Frankfort City Commission, for example, to rant about national politics.
Hyperpartisanship that suggests anyone on the other side of an issue or anyone in a particular particular party is evil is not welcome. If you believe that all Democrats are socialists intent on destroying America or that all Republicans are racists, there are lots of places on the internet for you to espouse those views. State-Journal.com is not one.
No sophomoric banter. This isn’t a third-grade classroom but rather a place for serious consumers of news to offer their reactions and opinions on news stories and published commentary.
No consumer complaints about individual businesses. If you’ve had a bad experience with a private business or organization, contact the Better Business Bureau or the government agency that regulates that business. If you believe the actions of a private business are newsworthy, contact us at news@state-journal.com and we will consider whether news coverage is merited.
Absolutely no jokes or comments about a person’s physical appearance.
No promotion of commercial goods or services. Our outstanding staff of marketing consultants stands ready to help businesses with effective advertising solutions.
If you state facts that have not been previously reported by The State Journal, be sure to include the source of your information.
No attacks on State Journal staff members or contributing writers. We welcome questions about, and criticism of, our news stories and commentary but not of the writers who work tirelessly to keep their community informed. Corrections of inaccurate information in news stories should be sent to news@state-journal.com rather than posted in the comments section.