An online promotion campaign and nighttime safety plan topped the agenda at the first meeting of Ottawa’s new nightlife council, members say.
The meeting earlier this month gave newly-appointed nightlife councillors an opportunity to meet and discuss the city’s first nightlife action plan, member Eric Vance told CBC’s Ottawa Morning on Monday.
Vance, who is also a drag performer and co-owner of Glittershaker Events, said it’s important for Ottawa to have a central online resource for event promotion.
“We hear a lot of the time, that event sounded so great but we really didn’t know it was happening,” Vance said. “I think the online resource for promotion … that’s a really great way for people to find out about events.”
Vance is part of the new team of volunteer nightlife councillors assembled by the City of Ottawa and nightlife commissioner Mathieu Grondin in an effort to reverse Ottawa’s image as the “city that fun forgot.”
The nightlife council was greenlit last year as part of a nightlife action plan to develop and promote a “more vibrant, diverse, inclusive, viable, safe, and well-managed nightlife.”
Vance said in addition to larger organizations such as Ottawa Tourism, members representing “the little guys who make some really great stuff happen” also appeared.
‘Spirit of celebration’
Rachel Weldon, director of Ottawa arts non-profit Debaser, attended the meeting.
Although Weldon acknowledged that some people might be fatigued by family commitments during the holidays, she said nightlife can still thrive.
“Everybody’s budget is a little bit stretched tighter this time of year, and they have other social events,” said she said. “But there is also a spirit of celebration in the air.”
Like Vance, Weldon often works on smaller scale events that range up to 1,000 people.
She hopes by bringing a voice for those events to the nightlife council, she can help artists and cultural workers carve out a better career in nightlife.
“We’re looking for a better industry for the people who participate in it, who make it run,” she said.