The Downtown Ithaca Alliance is currently looking for a new Special Events Director for immediate hire.

Position Description

This position is charged with the planning and execution of the various festivals and special events of the organization. This is a full-time, exempt position requiring supervision and oversight of temporary employees, volunteers, and interns. The position requires knowledge of budgeting, event planning and management, and volunteer coordination.

The Special Events Director shall report directly to the Executive Director and shall prepare budgets and plans for each event. The Special Events Director will work with the Executive Director and Marketing Director on obtaining needed sponsorships for events.

The Special Events Director will also staff the Special Events Committee of the DIA and provide support and technical assistance as required for the DIA’s Festivals contract with the Strategic Tourism Planning Board. The Special Events Director will work with the Executive Director and other staff to recommend an annual roster of events. The Special Events Director will cultivate and maintain close working relationships with City staff that are involved with the special events process.

The major events of the organization currently are:

• The Ithaca Festival craft fair
• The Summer Concert series
• The Apple Harvest Festival
• The Holiday/Winter Festival and related activities
• The Chili Cook- Off
• Any special purpose event (such as the Commons Reopening Gala)

The smaller events of the organization currently are:

• Office Worker Week
• Downtown Living tour
• Oktoberfest
• Halloween
• Restaurant Week
• Gallery Nights

This list of major and smaller events is subject to change.

The Special Events Director will also serve as a secondary staff person for the following activities/tasks:

• Working with Conferences
• Annual dinner
• Strategic Tourism Planning Board contract
• Summer sale
• Restaurant weeks
• Gallery nights

The Special Events Director is an integral part of the DIA staff team and is expected to be knowledgeable and conversant with all of the programs and activities of the organization. As a team member, the Special Events Director will provide temporary assistance as required to support other project, programs, and activities of the organization.

The successful candidate will possess most, if not all, of the following attributes:

• Background in event planning
• Capacity to manage large scale public events
• Creative, entrepreneurial, and innovative
• Someone who can work in a team environment
• Ability to work with and recruit volunteers
• Ability to prepare and execute budgets

Salary Range: $35,000-$45,000, based on qualifications, plus benefits.

Organization Description

The Ithaca Downtown Business Improvement District (IDBID), is a State of New York chartered 501c3 not-for-profit organization charged with the revitalization, development, promotion, and management of downtown Ithaca. The IDBID operates as the Downtown Ithaca Alliance (DIA). The following vision statement guides the work and operation of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance: “Downtown Ithaca is the economic, social, and cultural heart of Tompkins County. The Downtown Ithaca Business Improvement District will strive to preserve and develop the central downtown core as the region’s center for banking and finance, business and professional offices, government and community services, downtown residences, and as a retail destination highlighted by specialty shops, restaurants, arts and entertainment. Downtown serves people who live and work downtown, city and county residents, college communities, area visitors and tourists.” The Downtown Ithaca Business Improvement District was founded in 1997. It is governed by a 24-member Board of Directors and operates with the following staff: A full-time Executive Director (Gary Ferguson); a full-time Marketing Director (Vicki Taylor); a full-time Events Manager (TBD); a full-time Outreach & Communications Coordinator (Evan D. Williams); a full time Operations Director (Kris Lewis); a half-time Art Director (Shannon Williamson) and a three-quarter-time Ambassador (Gary Miller).

Application Instructions

Please send a letter of interest and resume in DOCX or PDF form to info@downtownithaca.com and gary@downtownithaca.com. Please put Special Events Director in the subject line. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis.

On Monday, March 2, 2015, the Downtown Ithaca Alliance and City of Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick will welcome two new businesses to the urban core.

At 11:00 AM, there will be a ribbon cutting for Bramble, located on Press Bay Alley, 118 West Green Street. The latest addition to Urban Core LLC’s innovative micro-retail environment in the former Ithaca Journal lot, Bramble is a collectively owned and operated store that offers bulk herbs and spices, medicinal supplies, and locally handcrafted products. It is also a community space offering herbal health consultations, a lending library, and special classes and events. Says co-founder Amanda David, “We believe that a healthy community requires access to sustainable local healthcare. We chose to be in downtown Ithaca in order to be more accessible to all members of the area and to be a part of the thriving network of downtown businesses.”

At 11:15 AM, there will be a ribbon cutting for Taitem Engineering, located at 109 South Albany Street. Founded in 1989, Taitem undertakes consulting services in the areas of engineering, commissioning, LEED, energy modeling, sustainability, and energy studies. They also offer specialty contracting services including solar PV installation and Aeroseal duct sealing. Their new downtown office building was acquired to accommodate a growing solar design and duct sealing crew. Says President Lou Vogel. “We have grown steadily over the past two years and we’re looking forward to continued growth that supports our local economy, reduces greenhouse gases, and provides a positive work environment.” Adds founder Ian Shapiro, “We like having our office downtown because we can walk and bike to work.”

All Downtown Ithaca Alliance ribbon cuttings are free and open to the public and members of the press.

On the opening track of his 1977 debut album, Elvis Costello sang, “Welcome to the working week / Oh, I know it don’t thrill you, I hope it don’t kill you.” Back then, there were very few opportunities for creative types to break out of the nine-to-five grind; Costello himself hung onto his day job as a data entry clerk until his record company offered to match his salary. Today, experts are predicting the demise of the working week as we have known it and are heralding in a new era: “Welcome to the gig economy!”

A 2014 study conducted by Edelman Berland found that more than a third of American workers are now freelancers, and that nearly eight in ten are making the same or more money than they did at their old jobs. A recent Forbes article reported that half of all Millennials would choose increased flexibility over increased pay and that most plan to leave their companies within three years. Furthermore, a mounting body of scientific research in the fields of psychology, neurology, and organizational behavior has demonstrated the inefficiencies of the continuous eight-hour workday – a holdover from the Industrial Revolution – and even traditional bricks-and-mortar employers are taking note.

These fundamental shifts in how we view work are also physically reshaping our workplaces. Since 2005, when Brad Neuberg organized the country’s first shared open office space in San Francisco, there has been a tremendous proliferation of coworking spaces, maker spaces, business incubators, and other flexible, low-barrier options for the nation’s growing legions of contractors, inventors, and entrepreneurs. And now, this evolution can be witnessed not only in major metropolises but in smaller nodes of smart urban growth like downtown Ithaca, New York.

Located above a popular café in the middle of the Ithaca Commons outdoor pedestrian mall, CoLab Hive is a coworking space with a mission to “change the paradigm of the way we live work and exchange goods and services with each other here and around the globe.” The facility features permanent and part-time desks available for lease on a monthly or yearly basis, plus a shared conference room, printer, scanner, and projector, and high-speed fiber optic Wi-Fi throughout. With monthly fees starting at $150, Collab Hive even gives its members credits for massages at an adjoining body work studio.

Anna Coogan, an internationally touring singer-songwriter, uses CoLab Hive as a part-time office to book her shows. “I love working here for a few reasons. For one, it’s in a super-cool historic building right on the Commons – walking distance from where I live. I can take breaks to get coffee and wander around a little. When I was new to town, it got me out of the house and into a creative place where I could focus and also meet some interesting coworkers. One of the other member companies ended up building my killer website.”

Just a block away, STREAM Colab is a shared space specifically geared towards independent design professionals. With both open workstations and a private office available by reservation, the space also offers dedicated pin up space for illustrations and renderings and access to a library well-stocked with resources for architects, engineers, illustrators, and planners. In addition to their shared workspace, STREAM also includes a 400 square foot suite with room for up to four full-time workstations. This private suite is adjacent to their main space and allows for workers to furnish and personalize their individual spaces.

Scott Whitham, a planning, project design, and management professional, is a co-founder of STREAM Colab. “Working in a CoLab has changed the professional lives of many of us who have single-person or small-staff businesses. We have the ability to invite clients back to a well-appointed conference room and to share resources that would have been out of the reach of any of us as individuals. The ability for me to use other lab-mates as resources, both formally and informally, has expanded the services I am able to offer my clients. We are separate companies but we function in many ways as a single office.”

Rev Ithaca Startup Works is the third and newest coworking space within the compact, walkable urban core of Ithaca. Unlike Hive and STREAM, Rev is formally a business incubator, offering entrepreneurs not just shared workspace but also access to expert advice on business development. Members and “graduates” of the incubator may also be eligible for state tax incentives. With support from the State of New York, Cornell University, Ithaca College, and Tompkins Cortland Community College, Rev will double in size as the historic building undergoes a $3.5 million renovation, wich is expected to be completed by December 2015.

Tom Schryver, a successful startup founder, chartered financial analyst, and independent consultant, is the current Executive Director for Regional Economic Advancement at Cornell. “Rev’s objective is to serve as an epicenter for the entrepreneurial community in Ithaca and beyond. We intentionally sited Rev in the heart of downtown because of the importance of being tightly linked with the downtown business community. Rev members work with nearby law firms, accountants, marketers, and designers. We want to create a virtuous cycle of businesses starting, growing, and staying downtown.”

But what if your entrepreneurial aspirations require more than a desk and a Wi-Fi connection – what if you need access to high-tech and industrial equipment like 3D printers, laser cutters, and radial arm saws? Enter the maker space, like Ithaca Generator in downtown Ithaca’s Press Bay Alley. Ithaca Generator provides these and many more specialized tools to both experienced and novice inventors, artists, and engineers. Members can reserve workshop times or pay a surcharge for 24/7 keyholder status. A 501c3 nonprofit, they also offer low-cost classes like Advanced Lego Robotics Programming and Welding in a Day to underserved populations in the community.

Xanthe Matychak is a designer and educator working at the intersection of creativity, sustainability, and technology and serves on the board of Ithaca Generator. “Our suite of traditional and ‘desktop manufacturing’ tools allows almost anyone to come up with an idea and actually make it. We have a democratization of technology that presents us with an opportunity to harness the creativity and intelligence that lives in every corner of our community. We foster diversity of participation and we believe that all of the collaborative workspaces in downtown Ithaca have that aim as well.”

Whether or not the traditional nine-to-five office is truly headed for extinction as quickly as some are predicting, it’s clear that alternative workplaces like these are not a passing fad but an economic force to be reckoned with. “It’s a natural evolution,” says Sande Golgart of the Regus Group, one of the largest providers of alternative office space in the world. “It’s a blend of technology and people getting smarter about getting efficient use out of their space. They find it inspiring, they find it more cost effective, and they find they’re able to be very productive in that environment.”

Gary Ferguson, a seasoned economic development professional and the Executive Director of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance, the city’s business improvement district, would tend to agree. “Downtowns are where innovation and entrepreneurship intersect. Here in downtown Ithaca, we have not only a high concentration of retail, entertainment, dining, and traditional office businesses, but a growing, dynamic sector of alternative workspaces that can take advantage of this density and vibrancy. We are very excited to see this trend continue.”

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