HxBIA Executive Director’s Report 2014 AGM

Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association

2011-2014 Lay the organizational foundation for the BIA Develop board and staff competency

Committees, strategic planning, work plan, internal systems, manage and guide the ED

Create HxBIA brand, voice, identity Website, logo, communications strategy

Position HxBIA accordingly - Canada’s social innovation BIA Create programming in accordance with brand and position

Experimentation, partnership building, collaboration, grant applications to try new things, prove the value of programming areas and testing assumptions

Take a leadership role for Community Economic Development in the DTES (advocacy, convening etc.)

Catchment area

450 businesses (retail, office/services, non-profit and social enterprise, post secondary, creative, web, design etc.)150+ properties with total value of nearly $400 million

Total budget

$103,000 starting budget Leveraged this through numerous grants and

sponsorship 40 cents per $1000 taxable assessed

value (class 5 and 6) Based on the impact of our

programming thus far we hope we can increase this levy in 2016 to keep the area even cleaner, safer and more active with events, public art etc.

Challenges Sheer magnitude of street disorder and street

debris along Hastings Mental health and addiction and other public health

challenges Keeping parks and other public spaces clean Tagging, vandalism, acid sketching etc. Current tax policies towards SMEs, particularly retail Rapidly rising values (and leases) Retention of existing businesses Decaying heritage properties Managing tensions and creating equitable

opportunities

Opportunities Young and energetic entrepreneurial

community DTES Local Area Planning Process Amazing cluster of heritage buildings and

affordable spaces with real character Already a good cluster of F&B and Cafes Newly renovated retail spaces along

Hastings and Pender Major post-secondary institutions Incredibly innovative non-profit sector Proximity to other BIAs and transit nodes

Branding and Communications

Branding and Communications

Business attraction

Addition of map-based and social media integrated business directory

Tool Share Library – Partnership with DTES Street Market (Free for HxBIA members)

Committed to social impact through our programming MP Neighbours Community Patrols -

Crime prevention, street debris removal, business and property owner support. Social Impact Employment.

Programming

Sep 2012- Sept 2014 (MP Neighbours)

Needles and street debris removed – 10,000+ items

Illegal dumpings reported to COV – 1,000+ cases

De-escalated hostile situations – 196 incidents 9 Part-Time flexible jobs created for residents

with barriers

Public spaces stewardship

Collaboration

Animating key outdoor public spaces

Public Art (mostly of a guerrilla variety)

The Lowdown – SFU Fine Arts Student Submission (FOUND Spaces Collective)

Remainder of 2014 and Spring 2015 CommunityWise

North America’s first social inclusion strategy for a Business Improvement Area. Decal recognition program for participating businesses.

Living History Series Innovative signature BIA event that seeks to

activate numerous venues by screening a documentary on a person, place or event of significance in our area’s history. Integrated crowdfunding, marketing and promotions.

The Living History Series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eZgysMa4

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This past year we have been working on the launch of what we envision as our signature yearly event., unlike many BIAs this event will be focused on activating spaces within businesses, as opposed to street closures. The event is called the Living History Series, and it is a multimedia celebration of the history of our area through the examination of a person, place or event of historical significance. Over the past year we have worked with a film production company to unearth the fascinating history of a long gone notoriously famous venue, the Smilin’ Buddha Cabaret, a venue that went through dramatic changes from the 1950s to early 1980s. It started as a supper club and ended as a punk rock dive, and in that time countless stories and lore were generated, including Jimi Hendrix’s connection to the Buddha along with Tommy Chong and other Vancouver artists who grew to great acclaim. With original never before seen performances by Joe Keithley of DOA and Neil Osborn of 54-40 and with dozens of interviews with people who performed, worked at or frequented the Smilin’ Buddha we uncover the story of one of Vancouver’s most legendary lost venues .

Now comes the truly innovative part of this. We have raised several thousand dollars in sponsorship to hire the production team who have done outstanding work thus far but we still need $5000 more to finish this project and provide some seed funding for the next Living History topic. In so doing we are turning to crowdfunding to both raise awareness of the project but also to reward our contributors with local swag that will market our member businesses.

  This is our first foray into utilizing crowdfunding not only as a means to complete a project but to also mobilize marketing

for our members, gift certificates, experiences, products etc. When the documentary is complete we will be screening it in several small venues throughout the neighbourhood, and will be working with businesses to activate their spaces if they wish to host a screening of their own. We are truly excited about this project as it is very close to completion. The Museum of Vancouver has also expressed interest in screening the documentary and assisting us with getting word out about the crowdfunding campaign. The combination of built in marketing for our members through the contribution system of the crowdfunding platform, the platform as a means to bring in revenue to complete the project, and the potential to activate multiple locations in our BIA catchment area make this a very innovative and well integrated signature event.

Advocacy – Small Biz Input Into Policy

 A chance for you as small business owners to influence policy, we lobbied hard for this…

Sunday, October 5th: 2pm - 5pm

Thursday, October 9th: 4pm - 8pm

Friday, October 10th: 730 am - 1030 am

Wednesday, October 15th: 8am - 11am

2015-16

RENEWAL Now that we have developed

foundational programming and demonstrated what this BIA is capable of doing we want to increase the levy to really have a more substantial impact.

We would love for you to be more involved on our committees, special events etc.

THANK YOU