Family Movie Night
Saturday night my Mom and I took SM down to Fountain Square for Family Movie Night. Kung Fu Panda was playing and I knew SM would love to see it.
I’d heard about the event through Fountain Square’s Twitter account earlier in the day. More about this in a minute.
The movie was scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. so we headed downtown around 6:30 p.m. so we could stake out a good spot on the Square for our lawn chairs. Turns out this was a good idea as the Square was already starting to get crowded.
We ended up getting an awesome spot close to the Fountain (not such a good spot when the wind blew…..). With about 45 minutes to kill before the movie started, I ran over to Graetersand got everyone a scoop of ice cream. Chocolate for Mom, Black Raspberry Chip for SM and I. What a delish treat!
Watching the movie on the Square’s jumbo screen was awesome. The graphics were great and the volume was just right. We had a blast watching Kung Fu Panda and it was great to see so many families out for the evening.
In addition to watching the movie, the Square at night provides for some amazing photos. My Mom had a great time snapping photos of the Fountain and the downtown skyline.
This was a great event and our family will definitely be back down in the future! I wish I would have attended one of Fountain Square’s Family Movie Nights sooner. If you are thinking about going down here are a few things to note: Parking is easy to find. We parked right under Fountain Square for $4. While we packed our own drinks and snacks, there are concessions on site.
Back to the Fountain Square Twitter account.
I have to say I was really disappointed here. After seeing them Tweet about movie night, I replied asking what time the movie started and if we were allowed to bring chairs. I also noted that I’d never been to Family Movie Night before. Much to my dismay, Fountain Square NEVER responded. Disappointed, I went online and checked their Twitter account. Turns out they pretty much just use the account to push information out. They haven’t @ someone since the beginning of May.
In my opinion they are missing out an a huge opportunity to engage with people who are interested in, or thinking about, coming downtown.
Their Twitter bio says “Fountain Square is the heart of Cincinnati, Ohio. It’s a public space where we gather, celebrate and connect as a city.” My experience with them via Twitter makes me really wonder about the “connect” part.
I was recently in Chicago where I got to experience first hand how a downtown organization leveraged Twitter to make coming/being downtown easier. Perhaps they could learn from @ExploreChicago.
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I'm Shannan. I'm a Mom, wife, career gal & technology geek from Cincinnati, Ohio. The lone woman in a house full of men, I blog about life in Cincinnati, my family and things of interest to me as a wife, mother, woman and tech junkie. 
8.31.09 at 9:47 am
Mike Weber comments:
Hey Shannan – I was the PR guy a couple years ago when FSQ first got up and running. I’ll forward your comment onto the powers that be. Sorry you had that experience. But I’m glad you loved movie night. I <3 that event so much. I’ve gone several times over the years.
8.31.09 at 5:16 pm
Kelly comments:
Our church does something like this in the summers. My girls have a blast being outside and watching movies.
9.7.09 at 3:15 pm
5chw4r7z comments:
Shannon,
I harassed them forever it seemed before they created a twitter account. And I’ve told them they need more back and forth.
They’ve gotten record breaking crowds this year so interaction is not high on their priority list, what’ya gonna do.
I’m not sure but I think a couple different people use the account.
The emails they send out should also have the bullet points twittered, something else I’ve suggested to them.
9.10.09 at 4:45 pm
Zac comments:
We’ll get there, I promise. When we re-opened Fountain Square, we didn’t even drive cars or use electricity. The fact that we use computers at all, let alone twitter, is something of a big deal for us.
In the meantime, just know that we know that it’s an issue that needs to be addressed. Also, we ♥ Mike Weber.