Community Events Survey: What We Learned About Your Priorities
06/01/2023
Midtown Alliance is fully engaged in community events, activations and programming to build community. Our staff will produce 40+ community events this year as part of our workplan. The goal? Get more activity to happen on streets and sidewalks, in parks and plazas, that brings people together and fosters stronger connections to Midtown as a place.
We fielded a brief online survey in April/May to help put a finer point on our community event strategy and planning. Among the questions we asked of daytime workers, residents and students:
- What do people who spend time in Midtown want to see/do at outdoor community events?
- What time of day is best?
- Would they be interested in helping to organize an event?
A secondary goal was to assess the health of our contact list to see which contacts at member organizations, employers and residential buildings would oblige.
Thank you to the 740 people who took time to respond! Here are the top takeaways from our findings:
When it comes to outdoor events, respondents want unique opportunities to socialize and shop.
We asked respondents what types of outdoor activities would get get them excited to attend. Of note, social events that involve drinks and live entertainment was top-ranked (83%), followed by outdoor markets themed around selling produce or works by artisans (81%) and historical walking tours of Midtown (44%).
"Employee Appreciation Nights" at arts venues and purely social events would be good draws.
Respondents have stronger interest in attending "Employee Appreciation Nights" at arts/cultural venues potentially with a dedicated space to gather for a reception and discounted/free tickets. Purely social events - hosted in a Midtown venue where you can casually meet other people who spend time in Midtown, with background music, seating, beverages and light food - also polled very high.
Respondents indicate Thursday after work hours is the sweet spot for attending community events.
Not surprising that preferences skewed toward the work week as more than 80% of respondents work in the district.
Fewer people are using our online event calendar than we thought.
The MidtownATL.com events calendar needs more work to become the go-to resource for people seeking events in the district. Not gonna lie: we were bummed to learn that only 36% of respondents indicated they use the calendar to find events to attend. But we know there are moves we can make ... both to improve the user experience (design) and to make it more top-of-mind (marketing). If you have suggestions on either of these fronts, please drop us a line at Info@MidtownATL.com.