Midtown Wednesdays

LIVE BLOG: 03-22-06 Midtown Wednesday: Branding and Marketing Innovation Zones

Review of the Midtown Wednesday social network map.

EdPro Blogspot: see "Branding Central New York"

Midtown Wednesdays

Downtown Portland is known for walkable and seeable assets with alot of locally owned businesses. More coffee shops. Ning.com could be a platform to identify Midtown restaurants. Google offers a tool

There are many assets in Midtown that people just don't know about. Inventory and assets. A central clearing house on the internet and accessible on the street.

Jim Haviland, Dir., MidTown Cleveland. MidTown Cleveland denotes a place rather than the old name of MidTown Corridor.

How can we leverage services and companies in MidTown?

MidTown has:
650 businesses
2100 residents
18,000 emloyees
250 non profits

So why is MidTown NOT an area of innovation? How can we leverage new business opportunities from 18,000 brains in and out of MidTown five days a week? What is the potential buying power of day time residents?

There is a strong need to add amenities. What is a collective vision of MidTown?

This is an area of opportunity. Great access to renovated wharehouse space in MidTown. Urban Ohio blog.

What is your experience in MidTown?
- stop lights on Carnegie, Euclid & Chester
- empty spaces, boarded up
- no connection with residents
- beautiful historic buildings

What are the needs of Midtown?
- exploration: places to eat and shop
- see what's happening? : development/validation/why we are here/things are getting better
- new housing in and around Prospect and 36th St
- biotech companies, design, photography, arts & communications businesses

What are the benefits of Midtown?
- The Agora
- cheap free parking
- reasonable real estate
- low crime rate

Solutions for building a Quality Connected Place:
- create an public inventory of community assets: zip codes
- creating alternate platforms to define MidTown: ie., Google Earth; http://www.niong.com; fly throughs, etc.
- more coffee shops
- progressive lunch/ happy hour
- block parties
- scavenger hunts
- great race
- bike tours/segways
- electric cars (Myers Motors/Vespa Golf Cart)

MidTown has good security. How situations are handled will strengthen a brand. Or, demolish it.

What does OPEN mean to you?
OPEN MidTown
open minded
Open source
Open for business
Open for living and play
Open to innovation
Open to intrepretation
Open for environmental and green technology
Open for lunch
Innovative living - not necessarily urban or traditional but open to alternatives
Open to collaboration
Open community
Open real estate because of low demand
Panoramas

How do we communicate with each other and spread the word about MidTown?
Conversations
Networking
Brainstorming
Chat Rooms
Blogs
Pod Casts
Other?

Other creative industries in MidTown: Taxel, ThunderTech,

Future developments in MidTown: August 2007 Silver Line

Follow up session at Nead Offices to take ideas to action:

When: 5:30-6:30 pm, Thursday, April 6
Where: Nead Brand Partners
3635 Perkins Avenue, Suite 6a
Website: www.neadbrandpartners.com
Phone: 216.431.9301 (Ext 13)

Driving Directions: Take 90 toward downtown Cleveland to the Chester Ave. exit. If coming from the East, turn left off of the exit, and then left at the light onto Chester. If coming from the West, turn right onto Chester. Go two blocks to 36th street. Turn left onto 36th, and right onto Perkins. Travel a hundred yards until you see a building on your left marked 3631 Perkins. Turn left into the large fenced lot just past the 3631 sign. Travel along the side of the building, past the striped awning entrance. We are located in the taller (6 floor) section of the building, near the back (North) corner of the lot. This entrance is marked 3635 Perkins. Enter the oak door with oval window to the immediate left of Dock Door B. Welcome!

posted by Unknown @ 3/22/2006