May 01 2008
A new comprehensive searchable online calendar of events is now available for arts, sports and entertainment events in Virginia’s 757 area code.
Your757.com, with the slogan of “every event, every day,” is a website designed to serve as the all-inclusive resource for what to do and where to go in Hampton Roads Virginia.
“Your757.com is a huge new resource for regional residents and, indeed, anyone anywhere in the world to find out what’s going on in our metro area,” said Gus Stuhlreyer, chair of a steering committee that launched the new web site. “It will benefit residents and visitors, and all of the arts, sports and entertainment venues and producers in the region.”
Stuhlreyer is General Director of the Virginia Opera, one of a dozen organizations who have worked for months to develop the website and build the membership-based not-for-profit organization to oversee it.
Your757.com is a member of the Artsopolis Network, which started in California’s Silicon Valley. The network is spreading rapidly across the country and now includes sites in many major cities, including Phoenix, Denver, Indianapolis, Memphis and Austin. Artsopolis features a standard, colorful and user-friendly format that makes it easy for searchers to find events and activities and organizations to promote their attractions.
Content for Your757.com is being collected and processed by BeDynamic Inc., a Seattle-based company specializing in web content and travel information.
BeDynamic’s destination content services specialize in capturing, formatting, updating and delivering data on local entertainment, arts, culture, sports, festivals and special events to empower destination and lifestyle marketing initiatives. BeDynamic’s content management specialists take on the time- and resource-consuming job of regularly contacting a destination’s entertainment organizations, producers and venues, updating the critical event information so it is always accurate, complete and timely.
“Many convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs) and arts services organizations (ASOs) have challenges managing destination content,” said Anne Payne, CEO of BeDynamic. “For the last six years we have been working exclusively with CVBs and ASOs to solve the problem of aggregating relevant destination content on a massive scale. This involves not only listing descriptive information and compelling images, but capturing date-specific details - information that is critical for planning leisure, business and convention travel.”
The Your757.com project was initiated by the Downtown Norfolk Council as a means of supporting arts organizations in their quest to build audience and improve financial viability.
“We quickly realized that the audience for the arts is a regional audience and the project needed to be expanded beyond downtown,” said Cathy Coleman, President & CEO of the Downtown Norfolk Council. “Through the generous support of the Norfolk Foundation and strong partnership from a number of cultural organizations, we have put together a program that adds great value to arts organizations of every size and from every corner of Hampton Roads and, provides regional residents and visitors a one-stop location to find all that the region has to offer.”
In addition to the Virginia Opera and Downtown Norfolk Council, charter members include WHRO, the Contemporary Arts Center of Virginia, Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, Ferguson Center for the Arts, SevenVenues, Chrysler Museum, Virginia Stage Company, Virginia Arts Festival and Virginia Symphony.
Your757.com is now reaching out for members, partners and sponsors to help showcase the region.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all of us to work together to the benefit of every person and every organization in the region,” Stuhlreyer said.