DCVB Teams Up with Bull City Buck$

The Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau, Durham's official marketing agency, has teamed up with Bull City Buck$ as a way to give visitors value and increase their engagement when they visit.

BCB is a consumer loyalty program only available in Durham, NC.  It works on smart mobile devices that scan bar codes.  Buck$ can be redeemed for rewards - some of which are rather significant, and many of which are attainable at low point levels which makes the program attractive to visitors here for only a short period of time.

"An important factor in our consideration to join this program," said Shelly Green, DCVB President and CEO, is the fact that in just a few scans, a visitor could amass enough points to redeem a food reward at one of the restaurants on BCB."  Visit BCB's website to see all the places to ear and redeem points.  Points can be earned for visiting places, like DCVB's Visitor Information Center where there is a scan code anyone can grab 24 hours a day since it's posted on the door, and another worth more points for when people come in and get specific information about Durham from one of the staff on hand.

As a way to push local engagement of the application, and to support the effort to get people to come to the CCB Plaza on Tuesday, May 8th at 4:30 AM to be a part of the live broadcast of the NBC-17 Today Show, there will be a scan worth 100 Buck$ and only available on the plaza.  The show will be on air until 7:00 AM.

Additional efforts to encourage crowd engagement are prizes including restaurant gift certificates and a painting from the New Neighbor series, as well as some of Durham's most popular food trucks.  The plaza event is open to the public.

Visit the New Neighbors and Experience Durham

New Neighbors are moving into the NE Central Durham community. Ok, maybe not literally, but artist Dave Alsobrooks has created a series of paintings depicting Durham residents living their lives. The paintings will be displayed in the windows of vacant buildings to capture the potential of the buildings and encourage their preservation. During the course of the project, close to 50 paintings will be placed in properties such as the Y.E. Smith Elementary School and four other homes within a block of the school.

Called New Neighbors, this project was developed with the hopes of getting people to take a second look at homes, like the ones in the project, to see the preservation potential. The first installation will occur next Thursday, March 3 on the 100 block of Driver Street. The event will last from 5:30 until 7:30 and will include a walking tour of the neighborhood. Food trucks, Only Burger, Farmhand Foods, and Daisy Cakes, will also be on hand.

“New Neighbors seeks to capture the potential of abandoned properties and bring them to life. It’s a community outreach and arts initiative rolled into one local project,” says Alsobrooks. “Vacant buildings and homes share one thing in common: empty (or boarded) windows. What if we could visualize New Neighbors living their lives in abandoned properties?”

The New Neighbors project is an illustration of Durham’s community-minded spirit and innovation. For more information on the project, download this PDF of information, "like" the project on facebook or read more from Dave Alsobrooks’ blog.