9:45am | 562CityLife is part blog, part social media experiment, and part real-world networking. The brain child of Matt Saunders and his wife Julie, the last four years have seen it transform into a successful resource for community members, artists, and small business owners. A big part of thier success has been the participation, and now partnership, of Floyd Hampton Livingston [aka ‘The Man’], who is celebrating his 25th birthday today.
Recently, they announced the launch of the CityLife Access Card, which provides discounts to members at local businesses. Also, this Sunday, they’re teaming up with the Arts Council for Long Beach to present Business Meets The Art(s), which will help small local businesses learn how they can benefit by creating relationships with the creative community. The event is taking place at The Collaborative gallery, located at 421 West Broadway, from 6 – 10 PM. Both of these efforts are great examples of creating innovative micro-economic development.
I asked Matt about the origins of 562CityLife.
Matt: I’m a bit of a nerd so, at the time, I became completely fascinated with the whole social media thing. I wanted to expiriment with that. At the same time, I think as we get older we become more aware of the community around us, and our desire to have a greater connection with that community increases.
I A) needed a hobby, and B) wanted to establish a stronger connection with my community. I also believe that, in order to get anything in life, you must first give what you want. I figured if I put up an open platform for the community to better connect with each other, then I would too in turn create a stronger connection for myself.
Sander: Had you looked around to assess what other folks had already been doing, just to see if starting a new online community resource was necessary?
Matt: I did a bit, but really I just dived right in head first and, of course, soon after I discovered an enormous amount of resources available both in physical real world form, and in on-line virtual form. But, I also belief that different people respond to different formats. I saw a wide variety of news platforms, and of course there’s facebook, but I really have yet to see another open platform that combines the sharing of information and a social networking ability in a way that is specifically targeted towards the niche of Long Beach itself.
Julie and I started going out into the community and exploring and sharing what WE saw. It was about what we discovered. From there we started using other social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to build our connections. Eventually, I connected with “TheMan” via MySpace, who was a journalism student at LBCC at the time, and he came on bored as a regular blogger, contributing more “news worthy” stories. The LBPost actually did a post highlighting the site, with Ryan commenting how much he believes that there can never be enough voices within the community. That really stuck with me at the time…
Since then, TheMan and I have basically been working to continue to build upon the exsisting community [relationships] we’ve built so far. We’ve truly seen some amazing connections come out of the community.
Sander: Can you talk about some of those connections?
Floyd: Being a Long Beach native, it was easier for me to put literally all of my efforts into helping 562CityLife grow and thus, learning and growing our own awareness of the community of Long Beach. We have always tried to tailor our content to the Gen. Y demographics (20s-30-something age group) and, from there, we have see our connections strengthen all throughout the City, whether it’s all the cool shops on 4th St, to the growing and lively Bixby Knolls scene. Providing news, and hosting events, has connected us in a way that I never thought of before when we first got started with this. Our connection to the local Arts and Music scene has really came to fruition.
What I think is cool is that we have so many organizations in Long Beach that provide unique opportunities for people to connect and get involved, and I think 562CityLife fits into that category – as a way for people to know what’s going on. Most of our content and information is usually items that aren’t on everyone elses radar. We try to find different angles to all of our work. I think the fact that we’re more than just a blog site is shown when people are able to join the site and leave feedback whether they agree or disagree with some of the things we share with other CityLifers.
Matt: Or if we want to hear a different perspective on something that is already being discussed elsewhere, we might put something out there as well. A wide range of conversation is always healthy. My favorites include seeing artists get connected with gigs, or in watching things like the 4th St. Zombie walk take off. Of course, being able to play even just the smallest role in First Fridays has been mind blowing.
Floyd: Our connections with the local businesses has increased also, and we are looking forward to making sure the Long Beach business sector is supported by fellow businesses like us, and others.
Sander: Tell me about the new CityLife Access Card Program.
Matt: Well, one of our core principles is the belief in supporting local businesses. I’ve thought long and hard about this idea, and about how we can best help with that effort. We’ve done a variety of things, and plan to continue to do more, including both video and written blog features, featuring and sharing events for local businesses, and shouting at the top of our lungs, as loud as we can, about shopping, eating, playing, (and networking) locally. We really believe that the City Life Members Access Card program can be a powerful tool to further support these efforts.
What we do is we invite Long Beach based businesses to offer special deals and discounts to card holders. Through this, we look to drive local dollars directly to local businesses.
Floyd: It is a discount card. Present this card to participating businesses and you can get hooked up with a variety of things. CityLifers can head on over to CityLifeCards.com and purchase one for 10 bucks. This gets you discounts from It’s a Grind to Lola’s Mexican Cuisine, and much more. What’s cool is that this list of businesses is still growing, and this is our way to give back to all of the people who supported 562CityLife. At the same time, we’re helping small businesses get connected to the community, and get some foot traffic in the door. Nino’s Italian Restaurant (the oldest Italian spot in LB) is offering 20% off an entire meal! Long Beach Playhouse is offering 20% off tickets. Businesses choose their own offers, so they have free range on what they think is best to offer to their clients/customers.
Sander: Let’s talk about the radio show for a moment. Not only do you have some amazing guests, it is often hilarious!
Floyd: [laughs] Yea, that show is a lot of fun.
Matt: It feels like such a powerful way to connect directly with people
Floyd: We’re getting to the point where we might need someone to help line up guests! But I think Matt and I have good chemistry on the air, er, wi-fi waves. But most of the time Matt and I can’t stand each other [laughs], but I digress. We have had guests like LMNO, a Long Beach rapper, to Councilmember Steven Neal.
Sander: One of the great things about the show is that they’re archived so, if I miss one, I can go back and listen.
Matt: We blend Culture, politics, and community pulse, mixed with good fun and humor.
Sander: I have to confess that I never ceace to be amazed by both the quantity and quality of talent in this town.
Floyd: Every day, man, I’m learning about some new talent going on, and I don’t think I’ll ever completely know Long Beach inside and out. Which is a good thing!
Matt: Seriously! We could do a show every night of the week and never run out of someone to feature!
Sander: Tell me about this event on Sunday evening at The Collaborative.
Matt: Really, what we’re trying to do here is to close the gap, to bring all of our efforts around full swing. Between the site, the radio show, other networking groups and platforms, the card program, and events such as this weekend’s “Business Meets the (A)rts” mixer, we’re trying to create a full 360 connection experience.
Floyd: Thanks to The Collaborative Art gallery, and grants we received from the Connected Corridor and Long Beach Community Foundation, we’re able to have this event. It is for small businesses to get together and learn about each other’s work while creatively figuring out ways to incorporate the Arts in their ventures. It is a great opportunity for small businesses in Long Beach to get together and learn how to grow their business while meeting other people who have their companies off the ground!
Matt: The ultimate goal being to strengthen our virtual “on-line” social connections by bonding them to real world “off-line” in-person connections.
Floyd: We know that there are people who don’t think they can incorporate artists into their venture, but this event is to encourage to people to basically figure it out, to be creative with how they can make this happen.
Matt: Arts bring eye balls to businesses, eye balls bring green dollars, so when business owners connect with artists, it’ really a win-win for all parties.
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Validated parking is available in the structure just West of The Collaborative. Dress for the event is ‘business casual.’