I-SITE CEO Ian Cross recently attended the annual International Downtown Association Conference that took place September 7th to 9th in Atlanta. The Conference is the must attend event of the year for urban place professionals who are shaping and activating dynamic city center districts around the world. For I-SITE the conference provides an opportunity to discuss with marketers, planners and fellow technologists how downtowns can better use technology to serve their businesses, residents and visitors.

Thursday’s plenary session included announcement of the annual IDA Downtown Achievement Awards. This year I-SITE and The Alliance for Downtown for New York were recognized with a Merit Award for the redesigned downtowny.com website. The team was especially proud as this was the only website project recognized in the Marketing and Communications category.

Two of the conference highlights were a session on why downtowns should pay attention to Pokemon Go, and a session on Leveraging Social Media to grow partnerships. Hannah Lee, Social Media Coordinator of I-SITE client Times Square Alliance, was on the panel and shared insights into how she and the Times Square team have used social channels to build relationships with local businesses and attract the public to signature events such as their annual Taste of Times Square. I-SITE is currently developing a mobile App with Times Square that will be released on iOS, Android and Windows Mobile this fall.

For more information on this year’s IDA Conference, I-SITE’s work with downtowns and how we can help you with your project contact Ian.