Calling all Dubliners!

Dublin, Ohio has launched an initiative to share Dublin by tapping into the City’s greatest assets– its residents. Your involvement in organizations can turn into influence and help our local economy. Then you get rewarded too, it’s a win-win for everyone.

Flogging Molly at the 2007 Dublin Irish Festival

How does it work?
It’s easy. Do you go to any conferences? Just let us know. You don’t have to be your organization’s decision-maker or meeting planner. Typically referrers are professionals actively involved in government agencies, medical associations, or hobby and religious groups on either a state or national level. Even if you are planning a wedding or reunion you can still enter.

You can stay involved throughout the bid, if you choose. Having local influence during the selection process has proven to help the city be chosen. Open your group’s eyes to Dublin and the Dublin Convention & Visitors Bureau will try our best to bring them here.

What do you win?

Every month, those who submit a qualified lead will be entered into a drawing to win Dinner for Two at a signature Dublin restaurant

If the lead you submit results in a booking for a Dublin hotel you could win our Grand Prize:
A free weekend stay at Old Man’s Cave Chalets in the Ohio Hocking Hills.

What do visitors mean to the City of Dublin?

The economic impact of a meeting or function in Dublin reaches far and wide. Every year visitors generate tens of millions of dollars to Dublin’s economy. They come to Dublin for business, athletic tournaments, special events, conferences, reunions, and vacations. Attendees who stay at the hotels spend money directly in Dublin on dining, transportation and entertainment.

Did you know?

A portion of the bed tax dollars generated by overnight stays during an event are reinvested back into the community. These are just a few programs your event could help fund:

• Dublin Parks
• Dublin Youth Athletics
• Dublin Arts Council
• Dublin Irish Festival
• Independence Day Celebration
• St. Patrick’s Day Festivities
• Spooktacular

Events in Historic DublinNationally, travel and tourism is a $1.6 trillion industry and is one of the country’s largest employers with 7.5 million direct travel-generated jobs.

For more information or to submit an entry please contact:

Allison Potter
Dublin Convention & Visitors Bureau
614-792-7666
apotter@IrishisanAttitude.com

The more I know Eric Leslie of OnScene, the more I like. He is infusing an energy into the Historic Dublin / BriHi District / Old Dublin (my personal favorite moniker of the area) like I’ve never seen before in Dublin.

Cases in point: the Six Degrees of Community project, Slainte Thursday, BriHi Band Battle 2010, and many many more.

What I love is Eric’s passion for community and his desire to learn how other towns build community. Eric is embarking on an ambitious 12 in 6 project, where he will visit twelve central business districts in six days. Eric and video crew will visit the below districts and will hopefully find things we can implement here in Dublin to make Old Dublin (yeah, I said Old Dublin) more vibrant.

• Huntington, WV
• Asheville, NC
• Fayetteville, NC
• Raleigh, NC
• Chesapeake, VA
• Virginia Beach, VA
• Richmond, VA
• Roanoke, WV
• Lexington, KY
• Cincinnati, OH
• Dayton, OH

Here’s the video that was shown during the premier of Six Degrees of Dublin. I’m looking forward to more. Great job OnScene, Palestra Creative, JAM Sessions and the Historic Dublin Business Association (HDBA)!

Six Degrees: Episode 1 from Palestra Creative on Vimeo.

Tonight marked the premier of Six Degrees of Dublin. What is it? Here’s what This Week said:

“The Six Degrees of Dublin” video and event project is a partnership between OnScene, Palestra Creative, JAM Sessions and the Historic Dublin Business Association (HDBA) that takes a multi-touch approach to showcasing the current status of Dublin, OH’s local community.

Checkout the trailer:

Six Degrees Of Dublin Trailer from Palestra Creative on Vimeo.

And finally, the live blog/tweets from the event. Congrats to all involved.

• 5:59 PM: WaywardSeedFarm twitpic.com – Set up is under way at #SixDegrees.
• 5:59 PM: WaywardSeedFarm
• 6:00 PM: shoetuesday I’m looking forward to tinight’s #sixdegrees event
• 6:01 PM: wyliemac Yes! It’s working with the feed. See everyone tonight.
• 6:02 PM: wyliemac I’m capturing all of the #SixDegrees fun here at ScribbleLive.
• 6:04 PM: wyliemac All tags of #SixDegrees will be captured by ScribbleLive. See everyone soon.
• 6:09 PM: mattholley Setting up for #sixdegrees event at the Abbey Theater yfrog.com
• 6:09 PM: mattholley
• 6:17 PM: wyliemac2 I’ll do most of my tweeting for #sixdegrees here and also on ScribbleLive
• 6:21 PM: wyliemac Since @beonscene seems to reside in the Dublin and cbus hipster worlds, I wonder if his urban dweller friends will make it to #sixdegrees
• 6:33 PM: beonscene twitpic.com – Sound checking all the way up till the last minute! #sixdegrees
• 6:33 PM: beonscene
• 6:38 PM: nickjones82 At the Abbey Theater for tonight’s premiere. The bands are soundchecking ow.ly #sixdegrees
• 6:59 PM: amoon66 Crowd coming in for #sixdegrees.
• 7:14 PM: wyliemac2 People starting to file in. #sixdegrees yfrog.com
• 7:14 PM: wyliemac2
• 7:18 PM: nickjones82 About to get this show on the road! ow.ly #sixdegrees
• 7:20 PM: amoon66 Panel discussion starting at #sixdegrees. yfrog.com
• 7:20 PM: amoon66
• 7:20 PM: jacobstoops At #sixdegrees big props to @beonscene and #palestra for putting it on! Can’t wait to see what’s in store.
• 7:24 PM: wyliemac
• 7:32 PM: aharperhess Wishing I was at #sixdegrees, but instead I’m doing grad school work for my 8AM class tomorrow.
• 7:44 PM: amoon66 Fade to Blue performing. #sixdegrees yfrog.com
• 7:44 PM: amoon66
• 7:49 PM: xmainer1 Musical performance by Fade to Blue at #sixdegrees of Dublin. Really good. @beonscene created a great program tonight.
• 7:52 PM: ChristianGAdams Weekend Reading: Blogging to Drive Business, by Butow and Bollwitt bit.ly
• 7:53 PM: beonscene twitpic.com – @jaredmahone just hit the stage…great transition!
• 7:58 PM: GAaronHolley @jaredmahone on stage at #sixdegrees yfrog.com
• 7:58 PM: GAaronHolley
• 7:59 PM: wyliemac2 One of the bands at #sixdegrees. Great sound! Thanks @beonscene yfrog.com
• 7:59 PM: wyliemac2
• 8:03 PM: wyliemac @GAaronHolley thanks for the Twitter handle of @jaredmahone playing at #sixdegrees yfrog.com
• 8:03 PM: wyliemac
• 8:06 PM: xmainer1 Lots tweeps at #sixdegrees of Dublin. I’m sitting with @kris1010 right now listening to @chrismahone and band
• 8:09 PM: jimmyrowe @xmainer1 where’s that? I live here and don’t know sixdegrees
• 9:23 PM: amoon66 @jacobstoops great to meet u tonight at #sixdegrees
• 9:33 PM: wyliemac Great to see everyone at Six Degrees of Dublin. More info about the series here: yourdublin.thisweeknews.com
• 9:33 PM: wyliemac Have a great evening.

Well, actually it’s at Scioto Park located at 7377 Riverside Dr. in Dublin, Ohio. But I always call it Leatherlips because of the monument to Chief Leatherlips located there.

We all know that Columbus, Ohio is pretty flat. Much flatter than the hilly places that I have lived. Like Ann Arbor, Cuyahoga Falls and Fort Collins, Colorado. (Actually, Ft. Collins is probably much flatter than Columbus, but a five minute bike ride, and you are in the foothills of the mountains. Gosh, I miss riding my bike up the mountains. But I digress.)

Luckily, Scioto Park has a decent sized hill where people can go sledding. They even placed hay barrels at the end of the run for those out of control sledders. And for crowded days, there is a barracaded off walkway to walk safely back up the hill.

I took my kids to Scioto Park this morning, and here is one of their sledding runs (with me running along side of them).

Get your little ones and take them to Dublin’s Touch a Truck day on Saturday, September 13. From 10 a.m – noon, at the Dublin Community Recreation Center’s Overflow Lot, your kids can climb all over all sorts of trucks, tractors and fire engines. They can even sit in the Dublin Police’s paddy wagon. Hopefully, that will be the only time they do that.

Trust me. Your munchkin will have a great time!

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The other night, we went to Oscar’s Restaurant & Wine Bar for dinner. As per past experience, the food was excellent. The weather was great so we sat on the Patio and listened to live music as we ate.

Unfortunately, the service that night sucked. Which is unfortunate, because we like that place. But once we get bad service, our expectations drop and we tend to not go there again in a while. Hopefully, it was a one time deal.

Our waitress did not give us bread until AFTER our meal came out and only AFTER we told her we didn’t get any. Plus, she only refilled my drink ONCE. So basically she starved us and made me go thirsty.

Let’s get it together Oscar’s.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. There are a couple of reasons for that, but recently it was because I was on vacation. Which leads me to the topic of this post.

The Dublin Police Department has a great program called House Watch. Sign up online and the Dublin Police Department will watch your house while you are away.

And they really, really do it! We had a pet sitter watch our dogs and one day she accidently left the back door unlocked. That night, the Dublin Police called our local contact to tell them the back door was unlocked. This is proof that the Dublin Police does not merely do a drive by. They actually get out of the cruizer and inspect your property. They also do it more than once a day. We came home early because of Tropical Storm Fay. Before I had a chance to cancel the House Watch, an officer stopped by the house to inspect my property. I went out to talk to the officer and explained that we got home early. He told me that he would cancel the watch so that the second shift officer won’t stop by later in the day.

I wonder if any other Columbus suburbs have this service. If they don’t, I recommend you contact your local police department and request that they start one.

Dublin FTW!

Already? Cool. I’ll be at the Dublin Irish Festival tomorrow. And woo hoo! We’re going without our kids, who will be at their grandparents house. You know what that means! Yep. We’ll be partying at the Irish Festival. Staying late and watching some cool bands.

We’re planning on seeing the Prodigals and Brother at the Killian’s Celtic Rock Stage. If you’re on twitter and you’re there, you can DM me. I’m @wyliemac.

Can’t wait.

Here’s a very favorable letter to the editor from a former Dublin resident now living in Utah. Judson moved to Utah from Dublin for various reasons, including “better employment and lower taxes.” He wrote the letter in response to an article about the Utah legislator’s plans to “privatize” city services. Here’s what he said about Dublin:

Sure, Ohio had higher income and property taxes, and Dublin even had a 2 percent local income tax. But the city provided world-class services, all of which competed with, and were far superior to, any “private” business venture. These included thousands of acres of park space, hundreds of miles of pedestrian trails, a classy recreation center, and more karate, dance and swim classes than digits in Utah developer Al Mansell’s bank account. Oh, and the best school system in the Midwest. Teachers never complained about being paid too little, and parents never worried about large class sizes.