As the Labour Day long weekend came to an end, we saw the final days of Meet Me on Bernard (MMOB) for 2022. The program, which again saw the 200 - 500 blocks of Bernard Avenue open to pedestrian foot traffic only for July and August, had a very successful second year given staffing challenges and weather conditions.
MMOB was launched two years ago thanks to a partnership between the City of Kelowna, Downtown Kelowna Association, and Tourism Kelowna. Our organizations worked together as an event team to animate and activate Bernard Avenue. The street was broken up into themed areas—Restaurant Row in the 200 and 300 blocks, Neighbourhood Plaza in the 400 block, and Community Square in the 500 block—where various cultural, musical, and art displays took place.
Our Community & Visitor Engagement team set up a mobile information centre again this year in Neighbourhood Plaza, which served as a hub to connect visitors and residents with information regarding our region and MMOB offerings. The information centre, which this year was a decked-out cargo trailer, was a huge hit on the street and was open most days, other than when we had challenges with heat. We also sold MMOB-specific merchandise out of the trailer and gave away numerous different items to those who came in to chat with our team.
In 2022, the Downtown Kelowna Association, City of Kelowna, and Tourism Kelowna partnered with the travel technology platform Bandwango to deliver a ‘mobile experience pass’ for this year's MMOB campaign. The Meet Me on Bernard Mobile Pass aimed to disperse residents and visitors throughout the entire downtown core with a fun scavenger hunt, while also encouraging them to stop into different downtown Kelowna businesses that had promotions and offers on display through the pass.
In August, the MMOB team hosted a business engagement event called Meet me on Bernard After 5 at CRAFT Beer Market in downtown Kelowna to gather information and feedback from Bernard Avenue businesses, which was considered to be a very informative and successful evening. We will use this feedback in the planning for MMOB 2023.
Although MMOB is over for this year, we look forward to supporting MMOB again in 2023 for its third year and welcoming even more visitors and locals to downtown Kelowna!
If you have any questions about Meet Me on Bernard or our mobile Community & Visitor Engagement team, please reach out to me at sydney@tourismkelowna.com or (250) 861-1515 ext. 220.