MAY 1-7, 2023 SPRINGFIELD BUSINESS JOURNAL · 3 NEWS CONTENTS Meet the finalists for the Springfield chamber’s annual small-business award. page 9 Small Business Open for Business Cassidy Station adds a flower shop to its development in Christian County. page 4 Business Spotlight A beauty salon themed after the 1920s marks two years in business. page 6 Opinion Page Publisher Jennifer Jackson asks local decision-makers to participate in SBJ’s annual economic survey. page 21 Paint (and More) by Numbers by Karen Craigo · kcraigo@sbj.net In preparing for this year’s Artsfest on historic Walnut Street, set for May 6-7, organizers are outfitted with a little more knowledge than they had going into previous events. Last year’s festival had an estimated attendance of 22,000, boosted by nice weather, said Leslie Forrester, executive director of the Springfield Regional Arts Council Inc., which runs the event. Forrester said geofencing of arts festival visitors in 2022 revealed that 17% of visitors were out-of-towners, and of this group, 81% had an overnight stay. The average length of stay for Artsfest visitors was 2.3 days, according to data collected by the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau Inc. Eightynine artist vendors from throughout the country account for some, but not all, of these. It’s useful information, according to Forrester. “We don’t know if they were in town for Artsfest specifically – geofencing data doesn’t tell us that, and that’s an important detail – but we know they came and spent a lot of time here,” she said, referring to visitation to the city. It’s rich information for promoting the festival to more attendees, Forrester said, noting the technology tracked the location of mobile devices along Walnut Street during the two-day festival. “Gathering that data tells us what kind of draw the festival has,” she said. “It helps us understand where the market is, and where to target new audiences in the future.” She added that depending on weather, the festival is anticipated to draw 20,000-25,000 attendees, a figure that is on the rise from prepandemic attendance that averaged 15,000-18,000 annually. “We are seeing an uptick in attendance, especially in the spring for an outdoor event,” Forrester said. “We have been more intentional about targeting visitors from the region, in Joplin and Branson-Hollister markets.” She added that a lot of the work is done through social media, aided by word-of-mouth and return visitors to the event that is in its 43rd year. “It has a reputation that keeps people coming back year after year,” she said, noting this year’s festival will have 108 artists, compared with 89 in 2022. By obtaining visitor data, the picture of festival visitors is becoming clearer. Forester said a new ticketing software being used by SRAC, Ticket Spice, also provides attendee data, including ZIP codes. What is geofencing? Megan Buchbinder, marketing director for the Springfield CVB, said her organization geofenced Walnut Street during the time of the festival. That means as people entered the seven-block perimeter with phones or other mobile devices, CVB software received a ping to record their attendance. Out-of-town visitors were generally classified as those with homes 50 or more miles away from Springfield. To be recorded as qualified visitors, the out-of-towners who pinged within the festival venue remained in the city longer than four hours but less than two weeks, and their device pinged at least five times while they were moving around, rather than, say, coming to Springfield and staying in a hospital for several days, provided by THE SPRINGFIELD REGIONAL ARTS COUNCIL INC. BIG DRAW Artsfest is expected to draw more than 20,000 people to Historic Walnut Street May 6-7. Here, 2019 crowds experience the sights and sounds of the event. See ARTSFEST on page 24 Leslie Forrester: Arts council is targeting regional visitors for the annual festival. Geofencing technology offers better idea of Artsfest visitor demographics 17% Visitors who attend Artsfest from 50-plus miles away 20K-25K Projected Artsfest attendance
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTU2Njc4