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Introduction by Ryan Smolar <br />Downtown Inc. Lead Consultant <br />When I look back at 2017, I see a busy year <br />spent bringing downtown together for great <br />meetings, amazing events and shared <br />experiences. <br />In 2017, we doubled the number of <br />opportunities to meet -up and spend time <br />together to strengthen an inclusive <br />downtown vision that is powered by <br />comradery and collaboration across many <br />interest groups and industries. <br />We tackled important issues together like <br />transportation and planning with our <br />"Pizza with a Planner" and "Walk Audit" <br />and we even collectively re-desigined <br />public space through a national arts grant <br />and our first downtown "Place Game." <br />We gave downtown businesses and <br />initiatiors opportunities to speak to each <br />other and share information at our open <br />format "Downtown Open Forum," monthly <br />Caged Chameleon Arts Lunches and at <br />various meet -ups and mixers like Dino <br />Perez's "Coloring with the Community." <br />We spent time this year building our <br />community's capacity to communicate by <br />hosting the Santa Ana Media Summit while <br />we maintained our shared communications <br />network of 60,00o social media followers, <br />weekly newsletters, fliering, printing, <br />mapmaking and door-to-door visits. <br />We ran awesome culture and food events <br />including DTSA Artwalk and Savor Santa <br />Ana and we brought the show on the road <br />with Santa Ana Restaurant Week which <br />connected downtown more deeply with <br />other parts of the city. <br />We saw our great partnerships with the <br />City of Santa Ana and Santa Ana Unified <br />School District expand: partnering with the <br />City of Santa Ana constantly on both our <br />and their initiatives and working with the <br />school district on countless events from the <br />"XQ Challenge" to the "School of Choice <br />Faire." We also received more grants and <br />sponsorships than ever before with new <br />partners including the the Santa Ana <br />Chamber of Commerce EDC and National <br />Endowment for the Arts. <br />When I look forward to 2018, I see our <br />focus continue on our key objectives: 1) To <br />continue to facilitate bringing people, <br />affinity groups and whole sectors together, <br />2) to get neighbors, business clusters and <br />small teams collaborating on big visions <br />through quick and ready implementations, <br />and 3) to keep the parts of downtown <br />connected and working together through <br />communication and building relationships <br />across all disciplines and geographies. <br />Ryan, Smelali <br />Ryan Smolar <br />Lead Consultant, Downtown Inc. <br />12A-17 <br />