Archive: Business & Technology

Local First Ithaca announced the beginning of the 2009 Local First Ithaca Holiday Celebration.  This seven week campaign of fun and engaging events will encourage and challenge the community to “think local” when spending their holiday dollars.  Supporting local, independent businesses and invigorating our local economy is more important than ever in these economically challenging times.
 
The centerpiece event in the Holiday Celebration is the month-long “Local Lover Challenge” contest, in which 50 businesses and over four thousand community members participated in 2008, the inaugural year.  This year, Local First Ithaca expects to have 150 businesses participating, including a wider array of different kinds of businesses.

“Last year, we were focused exclusively on retail businesses,” says Local First Ithaca co-organizer Leslie Ackerman.  “This year, we will have a broad variety of service businesses participating as well, including restaurants, spas/salons, yoga/fitness, bed and breakfast inns, and more!”
 
Other planned events include a local music and food celebration, a festive “Shop Local Night,” a holiday bowl-a-thon to benefit local not-for-profit organizations, and an array of events hosted by the individual participating businesses.  Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson is expected to make a proclamation during National Buy Local Week, the first week of December.
 
“Spending our money locally has incredibly powerful economic “multiplier” effects that most of us don’t think about,” says co-organizer Jan Rhodes Norman, long-time Ithaca business owner.   “The holidays are a time when people are anticipating spending money, so it is a perfect opportunity to help people realize the positive impacts our spending can have on our local economy.”
 
Local First Ithaca will be banding with other New York organizations to promote a statewide campaign of the “10% Shift” movement, which began in New England in 2008.  Studies there showed that if the region’s five million households shifted just ten percent of their existing spending to local, independently owned businesses, the region would see 48,000 new jobs and over $5 billion in new economic activity each year.  10% Shift is now seeing campaigns form throughout the United States.
 
Local First Ithaca, which received certification this year as a member of BALLE, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, expects to see momentum from the Holiday Campaign carry over into an on-going 10% Shift campaign throughout 2010.

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