Subject: Subject: 🎉 A New Year, New Resource, New City Activation Inspiration! 🌆

Greetings Friend,


Welcome to the first 2024 Creative Cities newsletter! We hope this month finds you in high spirits and surrounded by the vibrant energy of your city. 🌟 In this edition we have city activation case studies, resources, and an invitation to join us for coffee, a dinner or a show…


…A podcast show that is! To showcase what makes your city revitalization efforts special to some of the other 200+ organizations across the country who also signed up to receive this newsletter! Let’s dive in.

SXSW Meet-Up: Let's Connect in Austin at South by Southwest! ☕🎉


Emily Craven, our CEO, and Tim Souza, our Head of Community Activation, will be at SXSW this year. We'd love to meet up with you! If you're attending, let's grab a coffee (we’re buying!), drink (we got you!), or dinner (uh… hello tex mex food trucks!). If not, but you know someone we should connect with, share the love ❤️ We're looking to expand our network and create more meaningful partnerships over some delicious treats and stories.

Join Our Podcast: Showcasing Placemaking & the Brilliance of Cities like Yours! 🎙️

We're launching a podcast to celebrate the incredible efforts across North America and the world in placemaking, city activations and revitalization. Be our guest and let your city shine at our version of a conference in your pocket! 

Whether you're a city team driving downtown revitalization, know a local creator with stories to tell, or just want to share more about amazing placemaking insights, we want to hear from you - reply to this email now! 


Let's turn your city's achievements into a community activation and knowledge sharing powerhouse. Together we rise up!

Projects in Motion 🌍🌆

We're thrilled to announce our new partnerships with the cities of Edmonton and Calgary launching Summer 2024! Leveraging Story City’s community engagement framework, each city respectively allocated budgets of $80,000 and $32,000 to create community impact like this:

  • 77 applications, 70 creators up-skilled and 34 local creators employed: 12 writers, 8 actors, 6 musicians, 6 artists, 2 editors across both cities. 

  • 13 adventures/passive digital activations, covering a whooping 137 locations, in the City of Edmonton as part of the Edmonton Downtown Vibrancy project, a combined effort of three partnership organizations: City of Edmonton, Edmonton Arts Council, and the Edmonton Heritage Council.

  • 4 adventures/digital activations, covering an impressive 60 locations, in the City of Calgary

  • To service an expected 30,000-80,000 adventurers per city by the end of 2025. 

Creation for these downtown vibrancy projects are in full swing. The stories in production range from chronicling local music history to solving a murder mystery of a newly famous hockey player. It's a celebration of arts, history, and the incredible locals who make each city unique. 


We can’t wait for these stories by locals, for locals and visitors to our partner cities to be enjoyed this coming spring and summer!

 Case Study Inspiration - Gnometober 🎨📖

Where we highlight placemaking case studies and cool things city orgs are doing that have absolutely nothing to do with Story City - we just think they are an amazing model for other cities to replicate and make their own to build vibrancy, foot traffic, and place.

  • When: Oct 2022

  • Where: DeKalb County, Atlanta

  • What: Scavenger Hunt

  • Activation: DeKalb County Public Libraries

  • What: Participants were invited to seek out handmade Gnome Homes hidden at six County libraries that had just installed Fruitful Library Gardens to learn about pollinators, get cute fun pocket stories about the Gnomes themselves, and engage in a social media contest to increase visitation and awareness of new facilities.

  • Aim: Engage locals in libraries and their surrounding grounds, Highlight literacy, new facilities and programs, Allow families to actively ‘add’ to the story of the library by writing letters to the gnomes.

Create-a-thons: Join the Creative Extravaganza🎨

Picture a hackathon, a game jam, and a carnival of creativity – that's our Create-a-thon! We're hosting two in Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta. Join us for two days of fun, workshops, and collaborative storytelling that drops a big culture and activation bomb right in the city centre. Did we mention there's a $3,000 prize for the best experience? Check out the details below:

Edmonton Create-a-thon: Learn More!


Date: Feb 23rd (Kick-off) & Feb 24th-25th, 2024

Location: Edmonton Unlimited 

Prize: $3,000 for the best story experience over the weekend

Cost: Free, with delicious food and childcare options

Calgary Create-a-thon: Learn More!

Date: Mar 2nd-3rd, 2024

Location: Calgary Central Public Library 

Prize: $3,000 for the best created experience over the weekend

Cost: Free, with delightful food options

Updated Creator Tools: Unleash Your Imagination! 🚀

We've given our app and backend creator UX a dazzling makeover. It's now more beautiful, user-friendly, and ready for your whimsical storytelling adventures. Dive into the magic of creativity without any technical hassle – because creating stories should be as easy as a stroll in your favorite park.

Quarterly Newsletter Inclusion: Be Part of the Story! 📬

Have a case study you want featured in our quarterly newsletter? Have questions or ideas on how to get more involved? Reach out to us! We'd love to spotlight your city and collaborate on telling its exceptional story.


Feel the excitement? We certainly do! Let's continue weaving the tapestry of stories that make our cities extraordinary.


Cheers!


Tim Souza

Head of Community Activation

The world is full of adventures. Choose yours.


Web: https://about.storycity.app

Book a Chat: https://calendly.com/ecraven/30min

Ph: +1-559-797-0204

FB: www.facebook.com/StoryCityAdventures


Powered by:
GetResponse