Hello 2021!
Summary lead. || Photo Credit.
I am NOT a personal resolutions person. Heck, I spend so much time working that I am so focused on the business that I rarely make the time to focus on personal goals until I am on vacation for more than 3 consecutive days.
But with so much extra time on our hands between 2020 and 2021, I thought what the heck, why not put actual goals down (and yes it might overlap with work a bit) and share them with the world to keep me honest. Here we go.
GOAL #1: Helping local businesses - I want to help others that are struggling far worse than we are. I have received tremendous support from this recent blog post of mine. And what feedback keeps coming back is that more of us need to SHOP LOCAL and support each other to get through the next 6-8 months of projected extended hardship. I’ve been personally focused on curbside dining and trying to shop more locally online. But what about the B2B sector? Every time RED VELVET receives a new contract, we try hard to support other local, small businesses because we know how much the income means to them. For the first time ever, we truly don’t have borders and restrictions on who we can use to help us supply that next virtual happy hour entertainment or the personalized gifts that go into the curated gift boxes. We have actually increased our database of event partners in the past 10 months. So if you have not reconnected with us since March 2020, what’s holding you back? We are committed to supporting other locally owned businesses even if it means a referral to use them over us if we are not the right agency for you.
GOAL #2: I understand why corporate has been hesitant to plant a date on the calendar and host their first in-person event since North America shut down, however I am committed to finding ways to ease us back into safe live events in 2021. RED VELVET has been updating our internal protocols; our expectations with event partners that will be on-site and already working on what a well produced and strategic hybrid event will look and feel like so that we are ready for you. This is probably one of my loftiest goals for 2021 because this IS NOT controlled by me rather I have to rely on our clients to meet us halfway. What are you doing so you’re ready when hybrid and IRL events are back?
GOAL #3: I love Austin; it’s been home for me for almost 27 years now; I got married here; both my kids were born here, and I started RED VELVET here 18 years ago. So when I say we have a major problem when it comes to addressing the homeless situation, I don’t write this lightly nor does it make me proud of how we’ve handled the situation to date. For a city of our size, we actually don’t have a very high percentage of homeless people. HOWEVER the plight of the homeless is extremely visible due to a very controversial ordinance that was passed back in 2019. You see the challenge was that before this ordinance was passed, any homeless person caught camping on public or private property would get arrested. And let’s be honest, our tax dollars could have been spent more effectively by building affordable housing, or giving proper treatment to the homeless vs just throwing them into the local jail cell. Austin has completely gone 180 on this and now allows them to camp almost anywhere and this is NOT good for tourism nor for business owners that work hard to keep their stores open and welcome shoppers/visitors. As we continue to get through this pandemic, we need to address this challenge head on-- otherwise I’m afraid we’re going to lose the opportunity to continue becoming that world-class city where everyone wants to have their in-person meetings and conferences. As a city, we need to agree on what’s a realistic solution, how to measure progress, and stick with it. My personal recommendation is first, to ban all camping in Downtown Austin, especially near hotels and The University of Texas Austin, and we need to discourage panhandling. Second, use the funds that have been set aside for purchasing a hotel to help transition the unsheltered homeless until they find a more permanent home - this effort seems to have paused. With only ~1600 unsheltered homeless in the City of Austin that have immediate needs, we are a thriving city with lots of tech companies paying taxes; this should NOT be a hard solution to make happen. I am going to devote more of my attention to ECHO Austin and figure out how we need to come together as a community and get our City Council moving on a realistic solution because I want our city to be ready for when group business is back in high demand for our city. Who would like to join me to keep our city accountable?
Keep me honest and check in with me each month to see how I’m progressing towards these goals for 2021. One thing I have always admired about Austin is how we LOVE our city and will come together to better the community so let’s go about this together. Feel free to follow me on Instagram or LinkedIn and ask me what I’ve done lately to make sure these resolutions are being worked on each month. Here’s to a much brighter 2021 for all of us!
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