With Bridge Park making such a big splash in Dublin, organizations throughout the Historic Dublin and Bridge Park areas had to figure out how best to promote and market the new development in a way that would attract folks to the area.
In the coming year, this alliance of organizations, dubbed the Downtown Dublin Strategic Alliance, is continuing to develop and promote Historic Dublin and Bridge Park as one single district, instead of two different Dublin areas.“We kind of sat down and looked at downtown
Dublin as a whole, and saw it as an opportunity to not only promote historic Dublin, but also Bridge Park with all the inventory there, as a destination,” says Scott Dring, executive director of the Dublin Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We thought instead of promoting it separately, that we would kind of promote it as one and really help market and sell this downtown district as one … world class destination.”
Besides the bureau, the alliance includes the City of Dublin, the Historic Dublin Business Association, the Dublin Historical Society, the Dublin Arts Council and Bridge Park developer Crawford Hoying.
“When we first sat down, we weren’t sure if all the organizations would be willing to sit down and work together, so we were pleasantly surprised that everyone did want to sit down and collaborate,” Dring says. “It’s the perfect example of this really unique collaboration between (organizations) that on the surface are competitors, really … but these folks have really been willing to collaborate.”
The promotional union is important, because Historic Dublin and Bridge Park are a huge deal for not only Dublin, but central Ohio as a whole, Dring says.
“Visitors, when they come into town, don’t know what’s historic Dublin or Bridge Park. … All they care about is where the best product is,” Dring says. “I think we, as a whole, think the visitors are really going to enjoy this downtown Dublin (area).”
Emily Real is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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