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remind our businesses that the PDA is here for them. We have actively worked to advocate for <br /> the Parklet Program in Downtown, the return of Friday Night Concerts in the Park and for the <br /> new monthly street closure format of 1st Weekends on Main. <br /> We are so happy with the success, thus far, of the newly minted 1st Weekends on Main. It has <br /> taken time and effort to educate the community on this new format and we are pleased with <br /> the community's reaction and attendance each month. We look forward to having productive <br /> conversations with all stakeholders regarding the future of these weekends as we head into the <br /> final months of 2022 and begin making plans for 2023. <br /> The return of the PDA Gift Card Program has been extremely well received by the community. <br /> The program fell into disrepair during Covid and PDA staffing changes. It took tremendous <br /> effort of PDA staff, especially Office & Membership Manager to identify all the issues and get it <br /> back online. Year to date we have sold over$15,000 in gift cards and we look forward to a big <br /> holiday season. The PDA does not make any income from this program, it is an expense for the <br /> organization as we pay for the activation fees and card stock for the gift cards.These cards are <br /> only redeemable at the over 100 participating businesses in Downtown and, historically, we <br /> have had a 70-75% redemption rate which is significantly higher than the national average <br /> redemption rate of 35%. <br /> The PDA is proud of our Social Media efforts and our ability to amplify the marketing efforts of <br /> our Downtown businesses and provide marketing and promotions to support them <br /> throughout the year. Our Social Media channels continue to be strong and effective and have <br /> grown significantly over the past year, with a combined reach of over 50,000 unique followers. <br /> With personal and community-focused content, the PDA's social media continues to be where <br /> the community comes to talk about all things Downtown and to learn about the newest <br /> businesses, upcoming events and issues affecting our Downtown. Please see the attached <br /> Social Media summary for additional figures and examples. <br /> The PDA website received a major facelift and back-end overhaul in 2022. The primary focus <br /> of this refresh was to improve the user experience for our website visitors, provide better <br /> exposure for our businesses and to better reflect the charm and beauty of Downtown. We are <br /> extremely pleased with the results and happy to report that our web traffic has increased <br /> overall by 72% blended across the site as a whole. <br /> 2022 has seen the return of events in Downtown! Through the hard work of our Events <br /> Manager and wonderful support from our businesses and Board of Directors we have been able <br /> to bring March Brew Crawl, Summer Wine Stroll and Forkful back so far and look forward to <br /> hosting Halloween Brew Crawl and Holiday Spirit Stroll later this year.These events are <br /> wonderful ways to bring residents, guests&visitors to Downtown and introduce them to all <br /> that we have to offer.The also serve as key fundraisers for the PDA. We were also able to bring <br /> our Children's Events back this year, with Bunny Hop successfully welcoming 1000+ children in <br />