“The mission of SyracuseFirst is to educate the community about the importance of buying local and supporting local and independently-owned businesses in our community,” Shannon Fults, strategic programs and events coordinator, tells CNYBJ in an email. Before joining CenterState CEO as an organizational partner, SyracuseFirst functioned as a member-based organization, Fults notes. Now, as a […]
“The mission of SyracuseFirst is to educate the community about the importance of buying local and supporting local and independently-owned businesses in our community,” Shannon Fults, strategic programs and events coordinator, tells CNYBJ in an email.
Before joining CenterState CEO as an organizational partner, SyracuseFirst functioned as a member-based organization, Fults notes. Now, as a program of CenterState CEO, it has a formal steering committee that includes local member businesses who “ensure it provides highly targeted support” for local businesses through the development of programs and events.
SyracuseFirst organizes the Buy Local Bash, which is held in November. It’s described as a “social, shopping and tasting event” that features locally owned, independent businesses of Central New York.
The Buy Local Bash helps to “spread awareness and support for SyracuseFirst’s mission of educating the community about the importance of buying local while also kicking off Buy Local Month, an effort to increase support for local independent businesses during the holiday season,” Fults contended in the email message.
Besides the Buy Local Bash, SyracuseFirst also organized a few other events in 2019. They included a “Morning Meet Up” at Café Kubal, where people could gather over coffee to network and a “Lunch Mob” at Kitty Hoynes to “drive traffic in to the restaurant and allow for an atmosphere to network,” according to Fults.
SyracuseFirst will continue to work with its steering committee to develop new programs that it will promote to CenterState CEO members and “specifically to those interested in SyracuseFirst.”
Fults adds that SyracuseFirst is planning a training and education session on podcasting in late March.
Partnership history
CenterState CEO announced it had acquired SyracuseFirst in July 2017 after the two organizations had collaborated for “more than five years.”
At the time, CenterState CEO said SyracuseFirst executive director Chris Fowler had “stepped aside.” Fowler was running for Syracuse mayor that summer.
Founded in 2009, SyracuseFirst says its “mission is to create a thriving local economy by maximizing the potential of local businesses, and transferring market share from non-locally owned businesses to local independently owned businesses.”
SyracuseFirst and CenterState CEO in 2012 formed a legal partnership to “advance their shared goals of supporting” small and locally owned independent businesses.
Under the original agreement, CenterState CEO licensed the SyracuseFirst brand, keeping it a separate membership-based entity. CenterState CEO, in return, provided “significant” programmatic and administrative support to SyracuseFirst.