As more visitors discover — and regional residents rediscover — the charms of Over-the-Rhine (aka OTR), most are delighted to find a neighborhood rich in art, history, and community plus plenty of food and drink establishments and independent retailers. Architectural treasures like Music Hall and Memorial Hall sit side by side with the School for Performing Arts and Washington Park in this neighborhood that's been heralded as a national leader in urban transformation. Vine Street, Main Street, Race Street, and Pendleton are the area's hot spots for an eclectic array of restaurants and shops near the Ensemble, Woodward, Cincinnati Shakespeare, and Know theaters. Findlay Market, between Race and Elm Streets north of Liberty Street, is Ohio's oldest continuously-operated public market where you will find locally sourced food, cafes and restaurants as well as the Rhinegeist Brewery taproom. The community's remarkable 19th-century buildings feature one of the country's largest collection of Italianate architecture and provide a dramatic background to the diverse residents that call OTR home.
Palo Alto it ain't, but still, Cincinnati is trying. It has a well-regarded accelerator, the Brandery, which borrows the regional expertise in consumer marketing (this is the homeown for P&G, after all) to help start-ups build a brand. Read the full story here.
The first beer to be produced from Christian Moerlein's new brewing facility in Over-the-Rhine made its debut in the Queen City’s oldest tavern, Arnold's. Watch the magic. Video courtesy The Queen City Project.
Fourteen-year-old Emerson Walker decided to pitch his idea, now named mPlanner, at the Cincinnati Startup Weekend event. It’s only a 60 second pitch in front of 100+ ridiculously smart developers, designers and business people. Why wouldn’t a fourteen year old have the courage to do this? Read the full story here.
On the weekends, Findlay Market is packed with shoppers and vendors, but during the week, things quiet down, especially later in the day. The goal of Findlay After Four is to promote shopping at the market on Thursdays between 4 and 6 p.m. “We hope that this will drive more shoppers to the market between 4 and 6 p.m., and begin to chip away at the confusion around market hours,” says Karen Kahle, resource development director for Findlay Market. “There’s a perception that the market isn’t always reliably open until 6 p.m., and we hope to convince those merchants who don’t remain open to stay open because there is more money to be made if they do.” Every Thursday, Findlay Market has a variety of activities planned to encourage people to shop. This week, there will be a cooking demonstration by a guest chef, and recipe cards will be handed out so shoppers can take them and find ingredients for the dish. Christian Moerlein and MadTree beers will be available at the OTR Biergarten, and there will be a raffle and giveaways. The first Findlay After Four was July 11, and Kahle says she is pleased with the result. “We want to learn more about what the hours of operation are that shoppers want and need in order to conveniently and consistently shop at Findlay Market,” she says. However, it will take more than a handful of people requesting extended hours of operation to make extended hours financially feasible. Findlay After Four is spearheaded by Julie Gosdin of Wine Me, Dine Me; Bob Schwartz of 5chw4rz blog; Annette Wick of TheseWritingShoes blog; and Barb Cooper from Daisy Mae’s. By Caitlin Koenig Follow Caitlin on Twitter
Scott Miller doesn’t like waiting in lines. Not for his driver’s license. Not at the doctor’s office. And not for a meal at one of his favorite restaurants in Over the Rhine. So Miller and fellow software geek Scott Avera designed a new mobile app to leverage the power of crowd-sourcing and help diners get a real-time sense of the minutes they could spend waiting for tables in the city’s popular urban restaurant scene. After calling OTR restaurants hourly for weeks to gather preliminary wait-time data, OTR Line launced last Friday to the public in both Apple and Android versions. It's a simple, streamlined app that offers information and a process for gathering in put in clear, easy-to-follow formats. “The app calculates average wait times based upon history,” explains Miller, who grew up in Anderson Township and now lives in Blue Ash. “But we really want people to report. As people report wait times, the app gets better. The more input you get, the better predictability.” Avera, a Springboro native who now lives in Hyde Park, brings his experience as former owner of Ascent Solutions to the new business venture. “We have been software entrepreneurs all of our lives,” says Miller, 52. The key to OTR Line’s success lies in users’ willingness to log wait times, he says. The app allows users to scroll through a list of eateries and compare wait times, and it also offers space for restaurants to place ads. “The restaurant will get to play the game as well,” he says. Miller and Avera plan to approach restaurateurs with OTR Line window stickers later this week; the free app is available for download now. By Elissa Yancey Follow Elissa on Twitter.
The shop will cater to an underrepresented demographic, says founder Anthony Graziani.
Top digital marketing trends, techniques and strategies are ever-evolving. New tools, networks, devices and technologies make the rapidly changing space competitive and dynamic. You master one (or five) techniques, and then a new one comes along. Keeping up with those tools and getting the best out of them is the foundation of a new group, Cincinnati Digital Xchange, which meets downtown once a month to explore the ins and outs of the digital marketing space. The Xchange was founded by a group of local digital marketing experts as an open place where people can learn and swap ideas. It began as a web analytics group but expanded to include other dimensions of digital marketing as well. "We decided we wanted to bring in more people in the digital industry," says Xchange's co-founder Russ Shirley, a digital marketing consultant. "We'd focus on social, local, mobile—anything trending or coming up." The group meets the last Tuesday of each month at Cintrifuse, the region's newest corporate-backed startup investment fund and incubator. The group has had some impressive, on-trend speakers, including inaugural speaker J.B. Kropp, Brandery co-founder and Twitter V.P. of Strategic Partnerships (and Cincinnatian), who spoke about engagement and how brands are leveraging the platform. Other speakers include marketing pros from Cincinnati powerhouses like dunnhumby, Possible, Empower MediaMarketing, Rockfish Interactive and Procter & Gamble. The group has grown quickly—some months, meetings attract more than 100 people. The meetings are free, and Xchange receives major support from Cintrifuse, Empower MediaMarketing and CincyTech. "The main goal is kind of self-serving," Shirley says. "I wanted to get information that I want to learn, find out things that are not usually accessible to anyone who is outside of an agency." The next meeting is set for July 30. Stay connected with Cincinnati Digital Xchange through its Meetup page. By Feoshia H. Davis Follow Feoshia on Twitter
Graduating high school students of the class of 2014 will be the first group in Ohio that is required to learn financial literacy. “So many teens were graduating high school without basic knowledge of financial literacy, like avoiding high-interest credit cards—scams that are so present on college campuses,” says Jennifer Korn, TeenSpot manager at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. “And there have been a number of studies that say students who don’t have the basic knowledge are likely to end up in serious debt as very young adults and are unable to get ahead and unable to save money as they go into adulthood.” To fill that void and to encourage more teens to be conscious of their finances, the library is offering a series of workshops for teens between the ages of 12 and 18. The workshops will teach the students how to create a budget and open a savings account. Thanks to a grant from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Investor Education Foundation, PLCHC is one of just 14 public libraries nationwide to offer the workshop. “I think a majority of teens across the board don’t have a very good understanding of the importance of saving or of budgeting your money, so maybe they get an allowance or have a job or babysit, but it’s mostly for entertainment purposes,” Korn says. “But there’s not a lot of consideration for the future and the long term—that if you start saving your money now and that money starts to build, then in 15 or 20 years, you can be in a much better position than if you would not have started saving.” Korn says all the activities in the series are teen-focused and engaging, so students might be given a sample scenario where they have a set amount of money and want to go to the movies, but also need to consider the fact that their best friend’s birthday is coming up. “Anything that reinforces what they’re doing in an interactive or a social way,” Korn says. “The hope is that once they graduate high school and enter their postsecondary education or the real world, they feel confident, can handle their money and are savvy consumers and savvy savers.” Do Good: • Learn about the financial literacy workshops, and sign up to attend. • Keep up with teen programs at the library, and attend an upcoming event. • Like the PLCHC on Facebook. By Brittany York Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.
Calling all backers with enthusiasm for music, theater and/or beer for this historic renovation project in Over-the-Rhine. Read about the project, first highlighted here on Soapboxmedia, here.
Business owners and history buffs in Cincinnati want Ohio's third-largest city to carve out its own niche in alcohol tourism and transform a bedraggled, crime-prone neighborhood into a thriving brewery district. Read the full story here.
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