The BOB BBQ was held July 25th and was a complete success! We gave out our free meals in the first 50 minutes and all of the businesses and candidates were happy with the experience and felt it was a great way to market themselves. The 14 businesses all want to come back next year. We had some businesses attend and not set up a vendor spot and they were also impressed with the event and will participate next year. We had community comments for weeks afterwards expressing their gratitude for a wonderful event.
This event is meant to be our annual flagship event of the GBBA help establish Brooklyn’s reputation as a vibrant business district and relaunch the GBBA in a post-Covid era. It is designed to help the GBBA promote our area businesses as well as expand the membership of the GBBA. As a community facing event, it provides an opportunity for neighborhood businesses to connect with local community members and southeast Portland as whole.
The BOB BBQ included free food options (150 free meals) from the food cart Retrolicious for attendees and live music from the Kivett Bednar Band, creating a festive atmosphere for attendees to picnic in the park on a summer evening. A business fair with casual browsing of 14 Brooklyn-based businesses was available. We also had about 6 local District 3 candidates attend to table and introduce themselves to the neighborhood.
Widespread promotion took place as we advertised this event to all of the businesses in Brooklyn. We walked the streets passing out flyers to all businesses and shared the opportunity in our emails to all. We had several women owned businesses, LGBTQ+ businesses, and the event was advertised to the entire community with no cost or barrier to attend.
