Episode 18 Transcript | Jacklyn Briggs of Utah City

PETER STEVENSON

Welcome to By Subject, a Silicon Slopes brand and marketing podcast. I’m your host, Peter Stevenson. And I’m here with my co-host Alicia Smith, managing partner of agency and modern Eight. And our guest today is Jacqueline Briggs, director of marketing at Utah City. Welcome.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Thank you. It’s nice to be here.

PETER STEVENSON

So nice to see you again. We’ve been far too long since we’ve seen you.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah, I know. I feel like we’d run into each other at little hotspots like Seabird, maybe cocktail lounge a couple of times, but yeah, been a maybe, you know, we.

PETER STEVENSON

Know you, we’ve known you for a long time. But maybe tell our audience where you were from, where you grew up, a little bit about growing up and what got you interested in marketing in the first place.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Sure. So I come from Vancouver, Washington. Well, not come from, but I moved to Utah from Vancouver, Washington and I was in my twenty s and in high school. And when I was younger, I don’t know that I was wanting to be a marketer per se. I had a lot of interests in throwing parties and different things like that. But I always had this really strong interest in psychology. I just thought it was nice to think about how you can affect the way people react to things. And so I always had that in me. And you would take those high school quizzes and they tell you what your aptitude was. I would get psychology and different things and so I thought that’s what I wanted to go into. And I love listening to people and hearing even my friend’s problems. I love being a sounding board for. So I didn’t necessarily have marketing in mind. And then I had a friend that was going to Weber State and she said, hey, I don’t love Weber State right now, but I love Utah. It’s very cool. There’s this amazing little ski town called Park City, Utah. You guys should move here and we should just spend, take a couple years off of school and we know, hang out and snowboard and ski. And I didn’t snowboard or ski, but I wanted to move and go somewhere else. And so I thought, hey, I’ll join. And me and four girlfriends moved to Park City, Utah and I worked up at the resorts there for a couple years and I don’t know, just like everyone else, I fell in love with Utah. I didn’t think I would. I was sort of the last person standing of, no, I want to go back to the northwest. And then you build a community kind of fast here, I think, which is why Utah is really amazing. And then I thought, well, I better start going to school here then. And I started going to the U during that time. I’m just going into this. Stop me if this is a rattle. Wow. I was like, let me about the.

ALYSHA SMITH

School and what there. Okay.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah.

PETER STEVENSON

So you’re in your early 20s. You didn’t go to college right out of high school?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

I did in Washington. I started going. I was just getting, like, generals. And where was that at? I was just going to the Clark Community College there and kind of trying to figure out what path and just a little, I guess, restless maybe. I just think I always had that buzz where you kind of want to live, somewhere you haven’t grown up for at least a little while. Maybe it’s not permanent. I didn’t know that I would stay in Utah, but I knew I wanted to explore other areas and get a feel for how other people live and just new sites, that kind of thing.

PETER STEVENSON

I can understand falling in love with Utah. Yeah, it’s pretty great.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

It is.

PETER STEVENSON

So you start going to the U, and you’re in your early 20s. Are you still living in Park City and just driving down to the U?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

I did that for, let’s see, I think, a year, and then I moved down to Salt Lake, and kind of the catalyst for that was I was going to the U, but then I applied for an internship with an alternative newspaper called City Weekly. And so I kind of was midway through, and I wanted to know some real world experience and also kind of hone in on what part of marketing I really liked. And so I got an internship with City Weekly, and I was doing that ten to 15 hours a week in the beginning, and that really blossomed. And I had quite a story there because I ended up being there from an intern for ten years.

PETER STEVENSON

Right.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

SO a long time. And that role evolved quite a bit through my time there. But it was such a great thing for me to do because it was this small newspaper, but it had a big impact at the time. They were doing a lot of community events, and they had tons of partnerships with community members like the Downtown alliance or visit Salt Lake. So I just got to touch and be part of a lot of things I don’t think I normally would have gotten to be a part of to kind of figure out what niche I wanted to be in. And that’s sort of where I discovered my passion for throwing events and being part of events. It started from just sponsoring a lot of city events with City Weekly, and we would sponsor them and promote them in the paper, and then it transitioned to doing my own in house events, and then I built my own team there and had a street team that they didn’t have before and built some festivals that didn’t exist before and just had a really good time there. Yeah.

PETER STEVENSON

And so what years was this that you started at City Weekly?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

I think I started as an intern. 2005, I guess. I think 2005. 2006.

PETER STEVENSON

Okay.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

I started as an intern and then was hired on as a coordinator.

PETER STEVENSON

An event coordinator. Was that first role that you took there?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah. So I was working with, at the time, the marketing manager there, and I was interning, and then she had left, and then they hired a new marketing manager that I was working under, and then she said, well, would you like to do a full time role here? And so then that’s when I started as a marketing coordinator there.

PETER STEVENSON

And what did that entail? What did you love about events that that job know, interacting with the community that made you fall in love with that role?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

I just felt like City Weekly was everywhere at the time, so I just got to be, because I wasn’t from there, I got to meet so many people through that job, and there was this strong emphasis on music. So we would do these music showcases, and I would get to go to all the cool spots and see all of the bands perform, local or national, and then we would do these foodie events. I just got to touch a bunch of Salt Lake culture that I don’t think I would have been a part of otherwise. And it just got me out and about. I mean, I remember those days of going out to these events, five days, six days a week, just nonstop. I mean, Twilight concert series was, like, in its full phase when it was free, and so they would get 50,000 people, and we’d have a booth there. I would have to wake up early and do, like, a whole booth for the St. Patrick’s Day parade, our whole float, or the Pride Festival. So it’s just like, I went to every single community event because it was my job, literally. But then also, it was so nice because I was new to the area, that I got to meet so many amazing people and also make great work, relationships, and contacts that I probably otherwise wouldn’t have been able to do just with a kind of more quiet role in marketing.

ALYSHA SMITH

What were some of the events that you were most proud of during your time there?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Well, there was a couple. So Utah isn’t necessarily known for its beer. I think it is now a lot more, but then it wasn’t, and so I started the Utah Beer Festival. Which was really fun. And it was quite a story. I mean, they had done smaller ones with the breweries that they would individually do it and then they would stop because the brewery just didn’t have a bandwidth. It needed to be someone sort of outside the industry to help with the organization of it. And so we kind of went around to the key players at the time when, like Uwinta and squatters and tried to rally the troops, like, we’re going to do another beer festival. And it was sort of like, good luck. And at the time, it was the 3.2% beer laws and you could only keg a certain amount. So a lot of out of state people were like, it’s too expensive. You’re going to have to buy all of our beer through the liquor store. And it was just a ton of hurdles, which I actually find was really kind of fun, and be like, well, we have to do it now. We have to have a Utah beer festival because they’re saying we can’t. And we did that event and it was insane because we kind of patterned it the first year after the tasting events that happen in other states where it’s one admission fee and then sort of all you can drink samples. I’ve been, yeah, they’re fun. They’re a fun time. And, well, Utah immediately outlawed that the next year. So we got one year into doing that, and then we went to the token system and I actually did that event for eight years. But the event at this point has been going on eleven, I think, 11th annual. So I learned something every year with that event because I had done things that were parties and different stuff, but nothing that was a full festival with so many pieces to it. Like, so many pieces to creating a really good festival and a safe event that’s going to have tens of thousands of people at it. There’s a lot that go into it. And so that was one of the big ones I learned from. And then I started a Miss City Weekly Pride pageant. So we had drag queens compete for the Crown of Miss City Weekly. And that was always a really fun one because City Weekly was really involved with the Pride Parade and the Utah Pride center and doing those booths. There’s so many, there’s like all categories. They started a foodie magazine called Devour, and I was doing the marketing for that. And we got to do these amazing wine tastings at Lakai. So it’s just like, that’s what I mean by different groups of people that I got to meet through those events.

ALYSHA SMITH

I could see how different. They all could be in terms of their attendees and who your contacts are and all.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Exactly. And it sort of honed my skills to be able to say, it’s not that I have to know everything about every category, it’s the skill set of finding the right resources. Like, okay, I know what makes an event successful. So regardless of the genre of the category, that’s sort of that baseline that I was honing at that time to be like, okay, well, this is what draws people out, this excitement, this organization, these details and all that stuff. SO that was kind of the beginning of it.

ALYSHA SMITH

Yeah, that is. So.

PETER STEVENSON

Was. Where were you holding the beer festival those first couple of years?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

The first couple of years we did it at the city and county buildings. And that was kind of a challenge, too, because Salt Lake is interesting with where you can hold events. They just had a lot of rules at the time of just the grass and different things. And so it was a challenge because we had to move that event a few times. So it started at the city and county building, and then because of restrictions there, we had to then move it over to more of the library square side. But then that was really hot in the summer because it’s no grass and not a lot of shade. And so then we moved it to the fairground. You know, I hosted it when I was the marketing director at the Gateway. They came and I wasn’t part of it, but I hosted it there. So it’s moved around a little bit just because event spaces in Salt Lake can be a little tricky when events get really large like that we had at Galvan center before. And it was kind of nice, though, because I got to see all these different venues, and now I kind of know how each of them run, which is another, I guess, bonus.

PETER STEVENSON

Yeah. You mentioned that you learned what makes an event successful over those first couple of years. What were some of those early learnings that you found that you figured out?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah. Okay, so you think about the math of things, where when we did the first beer festival, for example, we had a lot of people come early, which we knew we had the capacity for it. But you have to think about how long it takes somebody to get through a line, what has to happen. They have to get their ID checked, then somebody has to put a wristband on them, then someone has to scan their ticket, and you have to figure out what that time is. And then multiply that by 7000 people trying to get in so you can get a real idea how your gates will work and how many gates you need. So there are things like that that you don’t think of that. There’s a lot of planning where I’m like, okay, next year we need 15 gates, or whatever that might be, because most people come right at the beginning, or maybe it’s an event that’s more of an ebb and flow, so then you don’t have to have that many because there’s not like a hard start time. But with a beer festival, what I learned is people come right when it opens, and so you really need to have a lot of staff and volunteers. And then I always think, like, the devils and the details when it comes to events, that’s what makes them special. You can throw whatever party, but if you have an amazing atmosphere or you have great music or great visuals, whatever it is that sets it apart. Sometimes when you get overwhelmed with the necessities, like your gates and your bathrooms, you kind of start. The details fall to the wayside because you’re overwhelmed with the things that absolutely have to happen, that sometimes you don’t do that photo booth you wanted to do, or you don’t put the flowers on the table like you originally wanted or the candles or whatever that looks like. But I think those details are just as important because those are what creates the lasting memory. Ultimately, of course, you have to have bathrooms, of course you have to have signage. But those little special moments, I think, set things.

PETER STEVENSON

You know, you talk about you launched know career of event marketing at Cityweekly. So tell us who some of those early mentors were that helped you find your way and who you leaned on for that knowledge those first couple of years.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah. What was interesting working for City Weekly is it was a small business, and so it was family run, and frankly, there wasn’t a ton of resources. And so it was about creating relationships with people in the community where we can give you something and then you can give us something else. And it was a lot of learning on my own. It was trial and error, which was really daunting. But I think ultimately, it made me less afraid. Going forward now, I just go for it a lot of times where I don’t think if I had, okay, this is how things work, this is how they should work. I don’t think I would have that gumption to just be like, well, we got to try it because we have to do something kind of attitude, which I think I have. But then later in my career, I had some amazing mentors when I started. So I started working for the Gateway and helping revitalize that area and the vice president of marketing for Vestar was absolutely amazing. One, I had never had a female superior or mentor or anything before. And just the way she approached things with the trust and just the respect she gave everybody who worked under it just was really career changing and life changing in a lot of ways, because it just was so motivating for me. It was so motivating to have that space to grow and to know that somebody that doesn’t trample on you, because I think a lot of times the people that are in positions of managerial positions could sometimes be threatened by new talent or up and coming talent. And it was not that. It was so nurturing, and it just made me feel like I could be really creative. And she saw me. And then it also helped me when I was in a managerial role, just making sure that I was mentoring people and giving them the space to flourish.

PETER STEVENSON

Yeah, I would love to talk about that time that you were at the Gateway. So you left City weekly to go to the Gateway. That was your next jump, was there. And what was your role there? What were you hired to do at the Gateway during that time period?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah, so the Gateway was built in 2002, and it was just built as a mall, traditional mall. It has your regular retail stores that had the gap, anthropology, it had Apple Store, all those things. And then when City Creek was built in 2012, a lot of those retailers went to that new mall. So then Gateway was sort of left to figure out how to. It needed to redefine itself. And so the ownership company sold it to Vestar, actually, who recruited me to come over to the gateway. And it was my events background that was really appealing to them. They didn’t want a traditional, what you would say, mall marketer. They wanted somebody that kind of understood more of a community space. And so that was the directive that they gave me, is that let’s just go crazy with events. We have this great facility, and there’s a lot of capacity to have events here. And so I kind of set out to kind of start their events program, and also I got to infuse a ton of art there. And just really, my objective with the gateway was to sort of be different than a mall, but through visuals and through programming, and it wasn’t ever going to be a city creek or it wasn’t ever going to be a traditional indoor mall or anything like that again. And it didn’t need to be. I don’t think that everyone in Salt Lake needed two of those. They didn’t need two malls. So what did they need they needed a community space that was fun and hip and inspiring. More of an arts district entertainment know. It’s right across from Vivint Arena. So let’s sort of use what’s already there, which was Vivian arena, the depot owned by Live Nation, both entertainment venues, wise guys, comedy club’s already there. So it’s just kind of thinking through what’s already there and what that space could be redefined as. And so I kind of got busy making it an entertainment district. And during my time there, we would do 180 events a year. So we had events, multiple events a week. It could be a small outdoor yoga class. Kanye west came and did a Sunday service. That was a wild one. But yeah, we made that work in two days or whatever it was, but that was a crazy ride. Yeah. And we did New Year’s Eve, and we did 4 July. We did a ton of really cool, iconic events there that I’m super proud of.

ALYSHA SMITH

I would also say I hosted a couple of events with you through the gateway. And even on a small level, my events weren’t very big, but I felt like you even treated us as we were just as important, making sure all the I’s were dotted and the T’s were crossed. And I personally really enjoyed working with you.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Thank you. It’s so important. I was thinking, like, when I first started there, and I came from the other end where I would go to a host venue, and I was throwing an event with them. And so when I was on the other side of that, where I was the event venue, I thought that was super important because there were so many confusing things. When you would go to a new venue, it’d be like, oh, well, this venue doesn’t allow this glass or this venue. You can’t put anything on this patch of grass. There was just so many no’s, do’s, and don’ts, and they were all different. And so I just thought, if you can go to a venue where there was someone who was an event planner that can help you through it. And another thing that I loved about the gateways, that we would host, like you said, smaller events. And we had a ton of first time events, like the Dutch fest of all. It was a community of Dutch. People have never done an event in their entire life. And they owned the Dutch store, and they just wanted to do something for their community. But they didn’t know how. They didn’t even know where to start. They didn’t know they needed permits from the health department, none of that. And I think it would have been easy to be like, well, figure it out. And then once you figure it out, come back here and we’ll throw your event. And instead, it was really nice to be able to give them the tools to say, okay, you need to go to the city and apply here, and you need to go here and get this. And then now they’re on their third year, and it’s growing, and to see that, you have to start somewhere. And so I really loved that part about the gateway, is just being able to be sort of a welcoming home for people.

PETER STEVENSON

Yeah, I know you were the marketing director there. And what was the real challenge about changing the perception of pre city Creek to post City Creek, and what was it that you were trying to do that events allowed you to do that?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah. So one thing that I always find amazing about events is that they get a lot of people down really quickly. So I think there was a lot of just nuts and bolts renovations that happened at the gateway that nobody had seen, because there wasn’t a reason to go down there. So you didn’t even know that there were these amazing murals that were installed. You didn’t even know that these cool play equipment was installed. You didn’t even know if there was a new restaurant down there because you hadn’t been there in several years. And so events allowed us to get masses of people down there just to visually see the difference of the space. And then also, what’s so amazing about events is you create a memory when you’re there, and then it changes your affinity for a place, because if you went to an insane concert at the Gateway, you now love that place because you have this really fond memory there. So that was sort of the strategy is like, let’s give people amazing memories. Let’s have some shared experiences. Let’s do a bunch of things that get people to reconsider their notion of what the gateway was, which was an abandoned mall, essentially, and a lot of empty storefronts. And instead, now it is more entertainment, and it’s sort of buzzing with people walking around, and there’s bars, there’s a brand new hotel that’s going in there. That’s incredible. So there’s a lot of changes, but it took repetition and it took a strategy where you just had to go and go and go, and that’s sort of why we really stacked it there. I would just do, like I said, three events a week. Sometimes it might be goats and yoga, and then on the weekend it might be the Italian festival or whatever, and it’s just welcoming like I said, welcoming those community events, because once you do that and people have a good experience, they want to come back and host their event. If they have a bad experience somewhere, they’re going to look for another location, too.

PETER STEVENSON

And did the persona of your target audience change at all from the time you started to where you got to towards the end of your time there?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah, 100%. It had gotten kind of bad before it was resold. It was really distressed property in a lot of the sense of the word. And so building back a base of people, this sort of age group or type of person that wants to go out to a restaurant, wants to go to a comedy show, wants to grab a cocktail after work, that took a while to build up because people go where people are, and so you have to get the people there first so that more people come. And then once you get momentum, I think that’s when you just have to really hit it and just keep it up and be consistent, because if it goes, it dwindles again. It’s just hard. You have to get over that initial hump, I think. And then that project was so interesting, too, because when the pandemic hit, I felt like we had a ton of momentum, and then the pandemic hit, and we also had to, again, pivot a little bit. And then we were able to pivot into some biotech, and we had some amazing biotech companies come in there. So it was sort of this tech campus by day and then by night it was this entertainment district. And so you got to be flexible nowadays because things happen so fast and you just don’t know where the market will take you. And so I think that was one of the good things, is that Gateway was used to being flexible, and they knew that they had to continue to, and with a brick and mortar type to, it has to be what the current community wants, and that’s ever evolving. So you have to evolve, too.

PETER STEVENSON

Interesting. And so you now took this role at Utah City, which I’m very excited to talk about. I’m very excited about the whole project. So when did you end up over there, and what was it that made you want to take this role?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah, I always want to challenge myself, and I always like to kind of continue to grow. And I had five years at Gateway, and I felt like I had laid a really great foundation, and I had learned a lot there, and I loved the team, but it was sort of time to try something else. And so this opportunity arose. I was approached like, this is crazy, but we are building a new city and new community center in Utah. This is sort of a once In a generation opportunity because there’s not a lot of locations you can do this. And they had this amazing location against Utah Lake and Mount Tippinogus. And I wasn’t sure that it was right for me for a while. It took some back and forth, and then when I saw the full plans, the thoughtfulness, the scope of it all, I just thought, yeah, I got to do it. I got to try. I got to dip my toe in there and get started with something from an early stage, because with a gateway, it was all about reimagining what that space could be. And now it’s like starting from scratch and being part of the team that is building something new, that’s building something for generations and generations from now, that’s really exciting for me. And it’s just so much to do and so much to think about and just another new skill set that I’m developing.

PETER STEVENSON

Yeah, maybe explain what Utah City is to those who don’t know what it is yet. Give us the pitch about what the 15 minutes city is.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah, I wouldn’t say that 15 minutes city necessarily. That’s not how we talk about it because I think that’s scary to a lot of people. But it is a walkable city. Yes, absolutely. It’s a walkable city. And they have hired the world’s best walkability expert. His name is Jeff Speck, and he literally wrote the book on walkability. It’s called a Walkable city. He is amazing. So this is a 700 acre development that is located within Vineyard. Vineyard is in Utah county, and Vineyard story just itself is incredible because it’s the fastest growing city in the United States. From 2010 to 2020, it was the fastest growing city in the United States. It started with 133 people in about 2010, and then currently there’s 23,000 residents. So it’s just zipping up there. Yes. When you start from 100, you can be really fastest growing city because it’s not a lot of people, but there’s just so much happening. And the projections with Utah county is going to be growing faster than Salt Lake county. So there’s a catalyst to plan for smart growth and to get ahead of it and not to some ad hoc building where you’re throwing up apartments here or you’re doing a strip mall there where it’s like, okay, how do we build a holistic community knowing that growth is coming and we’re planning for it, and we’re providing alternatives to just cars to navigate, which I thought was incredible because I think about the best cities in the world and the ones that I love to go and travel to. You walk around, you walk around and there’s like cafes and restaurants, and it’s so easy. Yeah, there’s cars, but they’re more narrow streets, so you feel comfortable walking.

ALYSHA SMITH

When you’re done at dinner, you don’t want to ride, you want to walk home. Just exactly check it all out.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah, it feels so good. Exactly. Like after dinner, after a cocktail or something, you’re just walking home. That’s the best to. So, and we really don’t have anything like that here in Utah. And so to be part of a thoughtful team like this was just incredible. And they just sort of got the best experts in the world. I’m just like the dream team kind of thing. They hired KPF, which is this amazing architect firm out of New York City that have done Hudson Yards, they’ve done Bangkok Towers, they’ve done so much, but they’ve never done anything in Utah. They saw this project and they thought, okay, this is it. This is the one we’re going to work on. So that’s just one example of the amazing sort of group of community builders that they’ve gathered for this. And so for me to be a part of it is really neat. And there’s a lot that goes into it early stages. And since my sort of expertise was in the events, it’s nice to say like, okay, what sort of infrastructure would we need if we’re going to be hosting something, since it’s not built here, we don’t have to retroactively try to make it fit with power sources or weight limits. And all of those restraints that you normally have with some of these event venues that were built for events but not built for events, you later learn, like, oh, you can’t put a refrigerated truck on there because of the weight capacity, whatever it is. I mean, as an event planner, we run into that all the time with event spaces or so many do’s and don’ts. So it’s really neat to be on the front end of it and kind of create something special and then also just getting more into educating people about a brand that’s something that’s been new and exciting for me to do as well. And just getting all that collateral gathered up so that we could really tell the story of Utah City in a way that people can quickly learn about. And.

PETER STEVENSON

So what’s the plan? Your early stages? It sounds like you’re doing some consulting on how to make the city better for events, but you’re also doing marketing and helping people understand about the city. So what’s your plan going forward over the next couple of years as you get ready to sell your first apartment?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah. So in total, because it’s a huge master plan development. I mean, 700 acres is a lot. And so there’ll be phases of it. And during this first phase, there’s 450 residential units that are being built. There’s a new grocery store that we just announced. Huntsman Cancer Institute announced that they are going to be doing their second full comprehensive cancer research center within Utah City, which is really exciting just because of the impact that has on everybody that can’t travel all the way to Salt Lake City into the U. And so that just opens up their sphere of care for people. So all of those big pieces will start coming together in the next 18 to 24 months. And so, yeah, it’s just getting the word out there. And right now it’s educating people on what is a walkable community. I think you hear that. So it’s no cars. Yes, there’s cars within this community. There won’t be any ban on cars. It’s just safer streets that allow, again, those more narrow streets that are built with people in mind and then cars will navigate on them. But it’s for people and bikes first. And that’s the mentality of it. And these amazing trails because Utah, like I said, the reason why I stayed here, I mean, there’s so many reasons, but one of them is how beautiful it is. There’s just so much incredible recreation and to work on a project that marries that recreation with the urban lifestyle, I just don’t think it has been done really well. And so the plan here is to build something that is worthy of the landscape around us. And that is going to be so fun for me to tell that story throughout the next couple of years.

PETER STEVENSON

So, yeah, when is the first store front going to open? When is the first resident going to move in there? What’s the plan there?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah, so right now they have just kind of completed some of the road infrastructure. There’s currently a front runner station that opened last year on the site. And that’s another really important piece to the puzzle is it’s built around the train so that people can navigate even outside of the area. They can go to Salt Lake City, they can go to Ogden through the train. So it just frees people up to not have to have multiple cars, even if it’s just one per family or those that UVU is right there. In fact, they have 220 acres right adjacent on the site, too for their extension campus. And those students, there’s a lot of students that don’t want to have a car that can now navigate and get to those amenities. So that is already in place now with the roads. And then we’re going vertical now. So those will open about 18 to 24 months from now.

PETER STEVENSON

Okay, I’m curious about the, you mentioned that it’s a combined project between Woodbury and Ridgecrest.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Flagship. Flagship. Yes.

PETER STEVENSON

Sorry.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

No, it’s fine.

PETER STEVENSON

Ridgecrest is another client of ours. And so tell me a little bit about how that works and what the goals long term are. What is the long term goal of Utah City?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

To create the most incredible community here in Utah and beyond. Something that we can really be proud of. Something that’s maybe the best in the world. Honestly, that’s the goal. They’re not going small. They are putting so much thought into literally every detail of the design, and they’re making sure it’s special. And they’re creating opportunities for even current residents that have Utah Lake, that that shoreline is not really available. They can’t access it. It’s not cleaned up. So they’re doing a really beautiful shoreline and adding amenities that you don’t see in Utah County. Just the best in hospitality, the best in entertainment, the best in restaurants. They don’t want to do a repeat of what is already here. There’s plenty of chain restaurants that are in a lot of different neighborhoods and they kind of repeat. So it’s important to have something special and to have a curated brand to be thoughtful about what is put in there. So that’s the grand plan, but it is going to take ten to 15 years fully built out, but the first neighborhoods. One thing I failed to mention is that there’s 50 acres of parks and open green space all within this community. There’s 112 acre promenade that starts from the train station, goes all the way to Utah Lake. So it runs through the whole development. And they are breaking ground on that at the same time as these residential units. So the first five acres of that will then open up when the first residential units open. And that’s a $25 million park. So it’s gorgeous. OJB is the landscape architect, and they’ve done Clyde Warren Park. They just did a park in Omaha. These are top tier designers and planners. And so I think when people see the plans and they see what this is going to be, they’re going to hopefully be really excited for it.

PETER STEVENSON

Is there any concern, and we could cut this out of the podcast if you don’t want to answer. You know, is there any concern about the people of Utah county are not necessarily people who want to live in this type of know? I grew up in Orham. I definitely understand the community down there. And so I’m a little curious about how you’re thinking about changing the perception of who lives in Utah county and who lives in Utah City.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah, that’s really interesting. I think that’s a fair point, too. We look at the current population. One thing that, whether we like it or not, is growth is happening. And what’s projected is that our growth in Utah county will change from in migration, meaning having large families and the people that already live there, to people moving from outside of Utah or those that maybe did live in Utah but then moved somewhere else for a while and then came back. That new demographic is going to take over from the in migration, and that will change the demographics of Utah county and Utah as a whole as we know it. That is going to happen within the next 20 years. That’s the projections. That’s where things are going. So I think one, those people will expect a certain amount of amenities if they come from another location. But also I think there are a lot of people that live here now that would love to see some chef driven restaurants and from scratch places. I think there’s a lot of that that people just want right now, and they just don’t have it. And so to have that on the horizon in their backyard, they deserve it. They should have access to those wonderful things as well. They shouldn’t have to drive to Park City or to Salt Lake or wherever it is. I mean, this is a huge community that needs all of those things.

ALYSHA SMITH

And maybe that is just the obstacle, is just the distance they could go if it was closer to them and why they end up at a fast, casual, everyday.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah, exactly. No, it’s true. If I wouldn’t want to drive 30 minutes, necessarily. And again, it’s getting in your car and getting on I 15 and this busy freeway, and instead it’s a community built around a train station. So you can still access all those things. But the idea is that whether you have a car or not, or you live in Utah City or not, maybe you’re just a visitor. Even if you’re a visitor, you can go there and park once and then you’re parked and then you’re navigating around and you’re not just know on these busy city streets, you have these parks and paseos. There’s certain networks that are just green space, so you navigate them only for pedestrians and bikes, and then there’s other ones that are for cArs. So it’s really planned out and thoughtful that people can spend time there and do that safely. And just a great location that’s beautiful. The natural landscape there already is so beautiful. And so I think to really polish it up and add additional amenities, that’s the missing piece is there’s not really like a central core know, that has this gathering of all the entertainment, the restaurants. And you can go to one spot in Utah County. There’s sort of these amazing restaurants, but there’s one over here and one over there, and they’re all spread out and they’re not in a centralized location. And that’s really the aim here, is to create that cultural core for super.

PETER STEVENSON

Excited, as you can tell, I’m super excited about what you guys are building down there. Are there any problems about building on top of old, know, throwbacks to those of us who grew, know, throwing rocks down there?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Sure. You know, what’s so interesting, and I didn’t know this either before working with this new development, is that Geneva used to have what was called Geneva Resort. So pre Geneva Steel, that was a gathering spot for people. There’s these old photos of these party barges where people were dancing on these boats out there. And it was called Geneva Resort, which the owner of that, it was named after his daughter. And so when Geneva Steele came in for World War II, they took that name. So what is sort of full circle about all this is getting back to this being a central gathering space and a place for activity and for people to live and enjoy a lifestyle that is both recreation and also top notch amenities. So it’s really cool because I think that piece, everyone knows about Geneva still, but you don’t know the pre Geneva still story. So that’s kind of a cool component to, you know, this land has gone through million dollar cleanup effort with the city, the county, the state. And so it’s probably the cleanest because it’s the most tested amount of soil in all of Utah over and over. So, you know, a lot of vineyard now is even built on former Geneva steel.

PETER STEVENSON

I remember when that closed, I was super curious to see what was going to know after that because people talked about nothing’s ever going to get built here.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Right?

PETER STEVENSON

That was kind of the story down there. And 20 years ago when it was shutting down. And to see something that has been so beautifully crafted and designed down there. Is really such a joy for those of us who are pretty familiar with that area.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah, I mean, that’s why it’s such a rare opportunity, because you won’t find open land like this otherwise. If there wasn’t a Geneva still that was cleaned up, and now we’re able to reuse that land. So that’s why it is so rare. And that’s why I feel like everyone involved feels that great responsibility to create something different, elevated, something that will redefine what it means to build in Utah. And because you’re not going to get an open piece of land that’s 700 acres along the I 15 with a train station, you’re not getting that again against Utah Lake. And so we have to do it right.

PETER STEVENSON

Yeah. That’s amazing. Why don’t you go ahead and ask?

ALYSHA SMITH

Well, this is probably more a unique kind of marketing podcast, but if you were to give some just general advice or a top tip for marketing, what would that look like? It could be general. It could be event specific.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Sure. Advice is always hard for me because I just feel like we’re all such individuals. And one thing that motivates one person might not work for another. But for me, what has worked is just kind of going for it a lot of times and then asking for forgiveness or asking questions later. I just, jumping in for me has always been what has worked for me. And I think I used to say when I started my street team, I would tell my interns, just kind of create your own job. That’s just what you’re going to have to do. Because once you do that, you find a way to get things done, because you’re like, well, it’s up to me to find out what I need to do or what needs to be done, actually, and then I need to go and do it. And so I think I’ve always kind of had that mentality is that I have to kind of create my own job. Everything I’m doing or everywhere I’m going is that I have to create the thing to do. Because we see gaps in companies or you see where you can be useful and maybe use your skill set or your experience to help an organization. And so it’s just sort of jumping in there and not being afraid of what you know or telling people what you know, because that can be scary sometimes, too. Especially I always found that when I start a new organization is like, okay, will they take me seriously with this and with that, or whatever it might be? But then I look back now, at least, and I say, I’ve done all of this craziness and so of course I could do this. There’s no reason why I can’t do this because I’ve done all this other stuff. And so I think that will just come with experience. You don’t get the experience till you jump in. So it’s like, jump in, get the experience, and then you have this sort of like booster seat to really show what you are able to do.

ALYSHA SMITH

Love that.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah. Thank you.

PETER STEVENSON

Any suggestions on what asking for forgiveness if you’re married to your boss?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah, that one gets a little tricky because the forgiveness you have to ask a lot of times, whereas usually it’s once. So maybe every day for a month might work. Yeah.

PETER STEVENSON

Well, I’d love to end with know. Give us some suggestions about restaurants, bars, coffee shops. People should go know. There’s none in Utah City yet.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah, they’re going to be the best.

PETER STEVENSON

Can you announce any of them on this podcast?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Not yet, but I will say there’s a restaurant tour in New York that we are working with and talking with. Actually, we have a video coming out on Friday, which is tomorrow, that has a lot of these who’s involved with Utah City? And that will be the first time you’ll see these faces. So that will have some sneak peeks about who’s going to be there. And that’ll be available on UtahCity.com. But there is a restaurant tour that does an incredible job in New York, has three restaurants, and we are in discussions now with them bringing a totally new concept to be really great. But there’s a lot of great designers and stuff involved. But the current restaurants that I love, I have so many. There’s the tried and true favorites like Evas. I love them for small plates. And when I kind of want a more casual but always good restaurant, I’m a Takashi girl. I know that’s so boring, but everyone loves that and I love it, too. I love. Picnic is a great little spot across from Liberty Park. They have great bagels. They’re chewy and they’re so delicious.

ALYSHA SMITH

Great jam.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Great jam. Yeah, their jam is the best. And I always go to. I’ve been going to Finn’s for brunch for years. That’s another local favorite. So classic. And they do stuff that no one else does for brunch, which I love. And then there’s some new spots or new ish that I think are kind of great. Franklin Avenue, have you guys been there? Edison. I love their food. For a bar. I think they have great food. And then on that same street, which I also really love, Edison street, because it’s. Speaking of walkable little streets, I think that’s a great example. And then. What’s that one? There’s a taco shop there called Rock Taco. Inexpensive and good. I’m pescatarian, so they have, like, a fried avocado one. That’s so good, love. But yeah. Cocktail bars. I love.

PETER STEVENSON

Where’s the best cocktail in town?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

I know that’s hard. I have become recently a tequila gal. Not recently, but it’s just you go through stages sometimes. I’m on that, my tequila stage, and, yeah, Seabird has a great tequila margarita. I forgot what they call it, but it’s basically a Margarita that’s same.

PETER STEVENSON

Does Seabird have the same menu down south as they do Draper and Gateway?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah.

ALYSHA SMITH

You have to stop. I don’t know now.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah, exactly. I should. That’s a really good point. I’ve never been to the Draper one. I’ve only been to the one at the gateway. I don’t know. I think they probably have some of the regular menus, but it’s a full bar, so you could probably get whatever. And then there’s a little neighborhood spot called Cassat. Is that the one on 15th and.

PETER STEVENSON

15Th area, the new wine bar?

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah. I kind of love these neighborhood bars that are popping up because it’s nice to not have to go all the way downtown to that hustle and bustle if you want to. If that’s the vibe you’re going for, great. But sometimes you want to meet a friend for a glass of wine or one drink, and those neighborhood spots are the best. And I’m from the northwest of the Portland area. It’s all about neighborhood restaurants and bars. It’s the best part about it. Yeah. So I think Salt Lake is getting a bunch of those now, but it’s called Cassat, and it’s really cute. Brick building. I love it.

ALYSHA SMITH

I’m excited for you to know all of county.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Yeah.

ALYSHA SMITH

These little neighborhoods.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Exactly.

ALYSHA SMITH

Walk around and get our own coffee.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

I think there’s some laws we have to try to quickly fix because that is another thing, Jackie. No problem. Yeah, no fear. Ask for forgiveness from the state of Utah later. I’ll do it that way.

PETER STEVENSON

Yeah. I didn’t get into the laws that you were having to deal with down at Utah City, but we can deal with that.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

There’s a lot of liquor laws to navigate in general, which I was learning about distance from parks and all that sort of thing. And churches. Yeah. So there’s some challenges there, but I think we’re getting there. We’re on our way. Salt Lake is getting some good stuff, and they’re opening up in areas that are not just downtown, which is cool. Yeah.

PETER STEVENSON

Well, we’re super excited about what you’re doing.

JACKLYN BRIGGS BRIGGS

Thanks for being here, and we’ll see you. Thank you.

PETER STEVENSON

By Subjects is a production of modern eight agency and silicon slopes. Executive producers are Alicia Smith and Peter Stevenson. Editor and producer is Dave Meekham. Video Production by Connor Mitchell Development Production by Eric Dahl Production Management by Shelby Sandlin Original Music Composed by Josh Johnson Website Designed by Modernate Please make sure to follow and share the show with your friends and your enemies. Thanks for joining us. Our.