Attendance:
Heather Reichel / Off Color Gallery
Tim Kirk / Meadville Fine Art
Mary Kirk / Meadville Fine Art
Bill Grasinger / Hovis Interiors
Nancy Asmus / Nancy’s Under The Steps
Jennifer Murphy / Tattered Corners
Viki Allin / Creative Crust
We reviewed the information we received from the Crawford Count Convention and Visitors Bureau. We will propose to the members that we join the CCCVB but not advertise in their directory at this time. It is expensive and we do not have a clear identity yet.
We will create our own identity instead of handing it over to the CCCVB and all the services that we can 'buy' through our members, we will buy from our members. Services that we ask the CCCVB to provide will be purchased through them. Brochures that they would put on the interstate etc…
There was a great discussion about 'Branding' Meadville. How do you sell it? How do you bring more businesses into the Downtown?
'Tool City' was a brand. This brand does not bring shoppers into the Downtown.
What is Meadville none for? Allegheny College, Zippers, Channel Lock and Dad's Dog Food. Meadville Medical. None of which bring shoppers into the Downtown.
Most of the retail in the Downtown is comprised of Arts & Crafts. There are 8 art galleries, 3 theaters (this includes Park Ave. Cinema), 3 specialty bakeries, 1 micro brewery and another on it's way, 3 florists, 3 frame shops, 3 print services of different types, 3 dance studios, 4 places to work out. And DMBA must market these businesses as a whole. The Think Tank came up with "Experience The Arts".
The spin-offs are endless. "Experience The History", "Experience The Taste", "Experience Second Saturday", "Experience Meadville".
This lead to experiencemeadville.com
This leads us to the next topic of discussion. The Dot Com directory site. We threw out all different kinds of names:
ourmeadville.com
whatsinmeadville.com
makeitmeadville.com
celebratemeadville.com
thinkmeadville.com
mymeadville.com
experiencemeadville.com
Everyone at the meeting chose experiencemeadville.com
Of the members so far, there are a total of 16 yeas 2 nays and about 15 who haven't given an opinion.
The last thing that came out of the meeting was the discussion of subcommittees. These are small groups of people, focused on one topic.
At this time we are forming 3 subcommittees:
Advertising
Networking
The Think Tank
It was a great meeting and everyone really liked using the Council Chambers at the City Building.
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Downtown Meadville Business Alliance
'Strength In Numbers'
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