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    Virtual Dublin Business Appreciation Day Highlights a Supportive Community

    Added to the long list of events that are going the virtual route is the City of Dublin’s Business Appreciation Day. The annual event, which usually takes place in March, celebrates Dublin’s companies, employees and thriving business community with a “thank you.”

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    In normal times, the city, led by its Economic Development team, would host a mini roadshow that toured Irish bands to 10 different office sites across Dublin for a lunch hour performance. Employees would get to answer trivia, win gift cards to local businesses and generally get in the St. Patrick’s Day spirit.

    This year’s event will take a virtual approach while maintaining a fun and exciting appreciation of local businesses. The City of Dublin’s #WhyDublin campaign, with the help of personalized video platform ThankView, will help the city reach even more of its workforce and employers than they normally would.

    ThankView’s platform allows universities, nonprofits and businesses to connect with their audiences in a sincere and personalized way, said ThankView sales manager Mike O’Connell, a New York transplant originally from Dublin.

    O’Connell was a part of the team that was able to connect with Dublin to create this virtual event. He said the platform has helped companies and organizations provide meaningful experiences during COVID while still maintaining safety in all sorts of ways.

    Connecting Dublin’s energetic businesses and employees with status updates, access to resources, and a simple thank you goes a long way during a time when the rules around gathering have changed, but the desire and ability to say thank you hasn’t.

    “A lot of that human connection that’s been lost in the pandemic has been bridged through ThankView,” he said. “We created ways to easily request, collect and edit videos from your audience, wherever they might be.”

    Megan Roberts, Director of Global Real Estate Counsel at The Wendy’s Company, submitted her #WhyDublin story. She said Dublin’s business community matches the culture and what she does at her company.

    “There’s this Midwest friendliness, approachability mixed with top talent and top resources that come from all over,” said Roberts. “Both are full of people who care about each other, care about the world we live in, about growth and working hard and creating something that’s bigger and better than ourselves.”

    Roberts said when she took this job in Dublin just a few years ago, she made the leap deliberately knowing she and her family would be living in Dublin as well. Between the close commute and proximity to her kids’ schools and activities, the transition was easy.

    “The Céad Míle Fáilte [Irish for 100 Thousand Welcomes] is real here. It’s all interconnected and alive,” she said. “Dublin’s kept my children safe and thriving and has given us shelter in the storm of 2020.  I am excited to see what lies ahead, and know that Dublin only has more to share and shine.”

    Mimi Shalash, an account executive at Quest Software, shared similar sentiments on Dublin. She said the city allows for really great connections and the culture makes her able to leverage her network.

    “Being part of a community, whether that be a business community and economic community, a tech community, a woman’s community, all aspects that I personally identify with. It relates to that community component in Dublin,” she said.

    Shalash said for her, what makes Dublin special is the sense of safety she feels, not so much from a physical perspective.

    “I think more so now it’s being able to leverage those connections to check in on one another and to see, you know, how everyone’s doing,” she said. “I take a lot of peace of mind in knowing that the community wants to see everyone be successful. And I think there’s a lot of safety associated with that.”

    Participants who shared their #WhyDublin stories via the platform were entered to win one of more than 100 gift cards to Dublin restaurants, ice cream parlors, coffee shops, hotels and more small businesses that have been hardest hit by the pandemic.

    Ian Montgomery of Fadó Pub & Kitchen, said pre- and even during COVID, the Dublin business community has been collaborative, with support from the City of Dublin, Dublin’s visitors bureau, as well as fellow businesses and restaurants.

    “Pre-COVID in our first year open, we did a big St Patrick’s Day block party where we closed down the streets. And we had to work with the police and the fire and the building authorities,” he said. “They were just so accommodating and you weren’t going to them going, ‘Please can we do this.’ It was more of a ‘How can we help you achieve what you’re trying to achieve?'”

    “Even when they had extended patios, they put dining on the streets just so restaurants could make it last summer,” he said, adding that the extra patio space is one of the most important things that saved their business.

    Montgomery said not only has his business seen support from the city and business community, but Dublin customers as well. Their support especially during COVID, he said, has been phenomenal.

    “The support was brilliant from the customers. And I know a lot of people didn’t want to go back into restaurants straight off the bat, but they were online buying gift cards or getting carryout orders,” he said. “I’m grateful for doing business where I do business.”

    From the nearly 100 videos submitted, winners of the #WhyDublin campaign will receive a gift card to a Dublin business, like Fadó Pub & Kitchen, hardest hit by the pandemic. In addition, the City of Dublin’s Economic Development team has been delivering 5,000 pairs of sunglasses to workers across Dublin, and have dropped a 20-song playlist to help the Dublin workforce power through their workdays, as another means of showing appreciation and gratitude to a community that makes Dublin what it is.

    “The camaraderie and resiliency of the Dublin business community is unmatched,” said Colleen Gilger, Director of the City of Dublin Economic Development Division. “We are finally seeing light at the end of this year-long tunnel and look forward to celebrating with our Dublin businesses both virtually with our Business Appreciation outreach and in-person soon.”

    For more information on the #WhyDublin campaign, visit econdev.dublinohiousa.gov/whydublin.

    All photos courtesy of the City of Dublin Economic Development team.

    Our technology series is presented by our partners in the City of Dublin.

    Dublin is a city of more than 47,000 residents located just northwest of Columbus, Ohio. The City of Dublin Economic Development team has a vision to make Dublin a Midwest IT Magnet through business leadership and sustainable workforce development. This commitment goes beyond short-term skills training to include long-term strategic and cultural support for the entire Dublin business community. Dublin is one of America’s Top 20 Creative Class Cities and is home to more than 20 corporate headquarters, an entrepreneurial center, 3,000+ businesses, world-class events and the urban, walkable Bridge Street District.

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    Taijuan Moorman
    Taijuan Moormanhttps://columbusunderground.com
    Taijuan Moorman is a former reporter and social media specialist for Columbus Underground and The Metropreneur who covered civics, arts, entertainment, lifestyle, and business news and features.
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