Tag: events

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Arts & Entertainment Development News

Weekend events to celebrate new riverfront park, progress in Over-the-Rhine

This weekend is poised to be a busy one with a variety of unique events taking place throughout the basin. We do not often plug events nowadays, but this is a weekend where you do not want to be absent from Downtown and Over-the-Rhine.

GoOTR 5k + Summer Celebration
The next big event will take place Saturday morning in historic Over-the-Rhine. The sixth annual GoOTR 5k will begin at 10am, and will raise money for the Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce. While online registration has closed, those interested can still register in person today from 5pm to 7pm, 11am to 7:30pm on Friday, or immediately prior to the race on Saturday starting at 8:30am.


Festival-goers enjoy the 2009 OTR Summer Celebration. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.

The race is the first leg of the Cincinnati Triple Crown. The winner will receive a custom trophy from Rookwood Pottery and the rights to continue on their hunt for Triple Crown glory at the Hyde Park Blast and Downtown Dash.

The accompanying OTR Summer Celebration will take place immediately following the completion of the race along Vine Street between 12th and 13th streets. Officially starting at 4pm, the street fair will include local merchants and live music from Wussy, Josh Eagle and the Harvest City, Shiny and the Spoon, The Cincy Brass, Young Professionals Choral Collective, Pones Inc., and a special performance from the Blue Wisp’s Young Lions and their legendary jazz drummer Philip Paul.

Smale Riverfront Park Grand Opening
On Friday evening, city officials and community leaders will celebrate the grand opening of the first phase of the Smale Riverfront Park. The new park is the latest piece of Cincinnati’s central riverfront transformation. The completed first phase includes the area along Mehring Way between the Roebling Suspension Bridge and Great American Ball Park, and includes the Moerlein Lager House, an event lawn, multiple water features, monuments and the new Bike Mobility Visitors Center.

The bike center is seen another step forward for the city’s bike program after recently receiving an award from the League of American Bicyclists. The facility features bike rentals, shower stations, lockers and indoor bicycle parking, along with a knowledgeable staff at the center to perform bicycle repairs.

The grand opening celebration will begin at 6:15pm at the Schmidlapp Event Lawn, and will feature live music, free UDF ice cream, and a fireworks show at dusk. Those looking for a sneak peek of the new park can view the most recent construction progress video on YouTube.

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Business News

EACC conference aims to jumpstart region’s skilled labor workforce

The European-American Chamber of Commerce (EACC) will host its annual conference at the Hilton Netherland Plaza in downtown Cincinnati today. The goal of this year’s conference is to examine the best practices for recapitalizing America’s skilled workforce for global competitiveness.

While the discussion will be aimed at large economic trends, local business leaders see the conference as an opportunity to better position the Cincinnati region for additional foreign investment.

“While this conversation has been ongoing in our region, we are providing a platform for community stakeholders to connect and discuss how we can work to grow our skilled labor work force on both sides of the Atlantic,” EACC executive director Anne Capel stated.


Sites like the former Newport Steel property offer land for potential expansion of the region’s skilled labor workforce. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.

According to local business leaders, one of the ways in which the United States in general, and the Cincinnati region specifically, could improve is through better training and coordination between academic institutions and businesses.

“There is a great need for skilled manufactures like machinists and mechatronics,” explained HAHN Automation CEO, and EACC President, John Baines. “And a common complaint from European business leaders is that they can’t find this kind of talent.”

Baines went on to say that a key difference between Europe and the United States is the prevalence of apprenticeship programs. Such programs, he says, give Europeans a leg up in skilled manufacturing since, in some cases, people have been working in the fields since they were 13-years-old. Cincinnati-area business and community leaders are hoping that this year’s EACC conference will help change all that and close the gap between workforces.

“Skilled trade is a great way to go,” said Baines whose company opened its North American headquarters in Hebron, KY in 2001 and currently employs 50 people. “You are able to avoid debt by working while you study, and get both theoretical and practical experience.”

He says that the EACC is trying to encourage skilled manufacturing companies throughout the region to develop apprenticeship programs of their own, and hopes that academic institutions will stay up-to-date with technological advances and skills training needed by the industry.

The issue is so important to Baines and HANH Automation’s North American operations based out of Hebron, KY that he says the company is working on its own apprenticeship program that will hopefully be in place in no more than one to two years.

“I hope business leaders will walk away [from the conference] seeing the value in these apprenticeship programs,” Baines concluded. “It is important that community leaders appreciate the value of skilled labor and see it as a good career path. It’s a very respectable career with good pay, and an almost guaranteed job should you have the right training.”

The 2012 EACC Skilled Labor Workforce Conference will host more than 200 attendees today and will feature speakers from academic, public and private sectors. Keynote addresses will be given by Karen Eizey, director of the Skills for America’s Future program at The Aspen Institute, and Joerg Ernst, executive vice president of global business at Siemens AG.

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Up To Speed

Urban innovators to gather in Cincinnati at CEOs for Cities event

Urban innovators to gather in Cincinnati at CEOs for Cities event

A group of some of the nation’s most innovative urban minds will gather in Cincinnati on May 17 and 18. While here, they will examine the city’s ongoing urban success stories at CEOs for Cities bi-annual meeting titled, “The City as a Startup.” More from the Cincinnati Enquirer:

They’ll hear innovators from San Francisco to Songdo, South Korea, share stories of building smarter technology infrastructure, training, attracting and retaining talented young workers and creating a vibrant community of entrepreneurs. The meeting also lets local organizers Eric Avner and David Ginsburg spotlight how far our region has come since the men joined the group in 2004.

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Arts & Entertainment News

The Heights Music Festival returns this weekend

Music fans will get the chance to see over 90 performances this weekend across five venues in Uptown. The Heights Music Festival, formerly known as the Clifton Heights Music Festival, will return on Friday and Saturday for its sixth installment.

Street musicians, stand-up comedy, and other unique activities will be featured in addition to bands such as The Minor Leagues, Skeetones, State Song, Mad Anthony, Eclipse, The Kickaways, Josh Eagle & The Harvest City, Evans Collective, The Yugos, Sassy Molasses, and The Ohms.

Shows will be held at Rohs Street Cafe, Baba Budan’s, Mac’s Pizza Pub, Christy’s Biergarten, and Roxx Electrocafe. One pass will give attendees access to all venues. A two-day pass is $10 in advance ($12 at the door), and one-day passes are also available for $5 in advance ($8 at the door).

A new addition to the festival is the Day Fest, starting at 3 p.m. on Saturday, when all venues are open to people of all ages. All other shows, starting at 7 p.m. each night, are for ages 21+.

You can find a full schedule and purchase tickets online at The Heights Music Festival website.

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Business News Transportation

Metro officials looking for public feedback to develop new regional transit plan

Officials with the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) are looking for public input about how to improve the region’s Metro bus system. The feedback is being solicited in order to update the organization’s plan which was last completed in 2008.

Since the last transit plan was completed, SORTA officials tout the completion of several major items include new articulated buses, hybrid buses, Uptown and Western Hills transit centers, GoogleTransit interface, payment technologies, Google Transit interface and a revamped website.


An articulated bus picks up passengers at Government Square. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.

With those initiatives now in place, the transit authority is looking to do more. In an online survey, available now through August 2012, officials ask what could be improved about existing service and what kinds of new service would add value to the regional bus network. The survey also asks whether amenity upgrades like bus shelters, benches, and real-time arrival at busy stops would be of value.

In addition to the online survey, SORTA has held four public meetings to date, with another four scheduled to take place by this Friday. The final four meetings planned will take place as follows:

  • March 28, 2012 from 10am to 11am at 602 Main Street, 12th Floor (Metro’s Offices)
  • March 29, 2012 from 10am to 11am at 7000 Hamilton Avenue (Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired)
  • March 29, 2012 from 7pm to 8pm at 3017 Harrison Avenue (Westwood Town Hall)
  • March 30, 2012 from 10am to 11am at 9555 Plainfield Road (Science & Allied Health Building at UC Blue Ash)

The public input gathered, officials say, will help develop a new transit plan that will be released at the end of 2012.

“Through surveys, phone interviews and public meetings, we’ll map specifically where Metro needs to evolve its routes and services,” Metro CEO and General Manager Terry Garcia Crews stated in a prepared release. “This planning initiative will help us define how Metro should best allocate its current resources and prepare for the future.”

Those unable to attend the public meetings can expect a video to be posted online in the coming weeks that will summarize the key points of the public presentations. Additional public meetings will then be scheduled in the fall as the final plan is rolled out to the public.

Officials also emphasize that every person who completes a survey will be entered to win a 30-day rolling Metro pass, with winners being announced in early September.