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Group’s mobile App a winner
Pictured (left to right): Austin Asamoa-Tutu, LiveLocal.ly; Ed Wolverton, president and CEO of Downtown Greensboro and Award Committee Chair: Carolyn Dellutri, Executive Director of Downtown Evanston; Phil Dziedzic, LiveLocal.ly (Photograph courtesy of Downtown Evanston)
Updated: November 14, 2012 12:38AM
EVANSTON — Downtown Evanston recently received a Downtown Merit Award for its work and initiatives related to the Passport to Downtown Evanston Mobile App.
The organization, downtown Evanston’s marketing and management group, was recognized for its work at the recent annual conference of the International Downtown Association.
The Passport to Downtown Evanston Mobile App was among 10 entries in the category of Marketing and Communication, which highlights plans or strategies that used print, electronic media, or multimedia efforts to promote downtowns.
The app allows business owners to send notifications to subscribers, such as informing them about a new offer.
“The Passport to Downtown Evanston Mobile App is such a great project that reflects our partnership with Northwestern University. This project started as a Kellogg class project in January 2011 that has now resulted into a new business called livelocal.ly,” said Carolyn Dellutri, executive director of Downtown Evanston.
She said livelocal.ly co-founders Austin Asamoa-Tutu and Phil Dziedzic “are onto something that could revolutionize mobile marketing for small businesses” and that they generated a lot of buzz at IDA.
“As a team, we have diverse backgrounds: business, software and design. We were able to combine those skills in Northwestern’s NUvention class, which was nationally ranked as one of the top entrepreneurial courses by Inc. Magazine in 2011, to launch a successful business and the result speaks for itself,” Dziedzic said.
Asamoa-Tutu said the due cares “deeply about bringing new technology to the communities in which we live.”
It made sense, he said, to collaborate with people doing similar work.
“The Carolyns of our world work hard to grow beautiful communities and our technology enables the efficacy of their work,” Asamoa-Tutu said. “The success of our business is directly correlated with the success of a shopping community, so there is no question that livelocal.ly’s business model is simultaneously about community impact and generating a profit.”
David Downey, IDA President and CEO, said the Downtown Evanston project received the IDA Merit Award for delivering excellence in downtown management.
“Each year the IDA Awards Jury recognizes organizations that utilize best practices in our industry,” he said. “The Passport to Downtown Evanston Mobile App is a shining example of excellent downtown management that delivers real results.”
The Washington, D.C.-based International Downtown Association aims to inform, influence, and inspire downtown leaders and advocates. It has 550 members and thousands of friends.
