During Arizona’s statewide stay-at-home order, local organizations are turning to virtual events to keep the community connected.
Downtown bike shop Velo is among many organizations that are adapting to an online community. The shop normally conducts in-person group bike rides but is now utilizing online rides to keep the biking community alive. The bike rides allow participants to interact on a group chat while following along with a leader through an app.
“We wanted to stay connected with our customers, even though we’re not interacting face to face as much,” said Gilbert Remo, the co-owner of Velo.
R.J. Price, chief marketing officer for Downtown Phoenix Inc. (DTPHX Inc.) said his organization also had to adapt its operations after canceling all of their events since mid-March.
When the pandemic first hit, Price called upon his team to get creative in order to help the downtown Phoenix community.
“We spent the first three weeks of social distancing just reacting to the news and pushing our resources to help small businesses, arts & cultural institutions, nonprofits and those who got laid off,” Price said.
DTPHX Inc. decided their best approach to support the community was to go virtual.
“We want to keep our small businesses, venues, cultural institutions, parks, everything that makes downtown so interesting and so unique in the forefront of people’s minds,” Price said.
One way Downtown Phoenix Inc. has been helping those struggling is by hosting “Music and Murals,” a live-streaming event where local talent gets to perform in front of downtown art.
DTPHX Inc. has also been able to adjust some of its long-standing traditions, like “Urban Wine Walk,” to a virtual platform by partnering with downtown restaurants to offer special takeout deals.
“We started “Wine Walk” in 2010 as a way of drawing people into downtown,” Price said.
Now, DTPHX Inc. is hoping that same event will help keep small businesses afloat.
“We want to try to keep that money with the small businesses that are so integral to downtown and keep that drumbeat going,” Price said.
DTPHX Inc. plans to continue its focus on being a support mechanism for those small businesses.
“We know that just because we’re reopening doesn’t mean that it’ll look the same as it did in February. Downtown Phoenix is 85% locally-owned businesses, we want to reopen all those businesses,” Price said.
Heritage Square, which is often used for weddings and photoshoots, also saw the potential in hosting virtual events. They’re hosting a virtual concert on their Instagram page Tuesday with a full day of performances and online content for viewers to enjoy from their homes.
The virtual event will feature musical and narrative performances that Heritage Square’s Director of Events Matthew Aguilar described as “Phoenix-centric.”
“We also wanted to do our best to help out musicians and people that are our gig-based professions, because they’re also seeing a huge loss in income right now,” Aguilar said.
Aguilar said Heritage Square is focusing on keeping the history of downtown alive during these times.
“We want to continue to do different programs and have stories about historic Phoenix told virtually until we can safely reopen it and have people down at the square,” he said.
These times have helped Heritage Square discover new opportunities for the historic space. They plan to continue hosting virtual events even once the site is reopened as well, allowing access to more people.
Heritage Square has also set up a fundraiser for people to donate and show their support.
Contact the reporter at Abschief@asu.edu.
