The Digital Platform for Community Events

Contact:

Dennis Roche

President

Dennis@burbio.com

Direct: 212-729-3611

www.Burbio.com

Burbio “Community Activity Index” Shows Smaller States and

Counties Re-Opening Fastest

Oregon and Rhode Island Join South Dakota, Idaho, and Utah as “most open”

Chambers and Government Sponsored Activities Opening First

June 23rd, 2020 –   As the US reopening accelerates post-lockdowns, it is less populated states and counties that are leading the way in opening up in-person community life for residents, according to Burbio.com’s Community Activity Index, which measures in-person community life across over 150,000 community groups in all 50 states. 

Burbio’s index, which is updated daily based on real-time activity,  measures community life across five areas in every county in the US:  Chambers of Commerce, government, libraries, arts and recreation, and civic and volunteer organization, scoring each county based on the level of activity and then population weighting the counties to get indices at the state and national level.   

Nationally, the index sits at 20.8, having been at zero in late May, up from 15.9 seven days ago.  The states with the highest indexes are South Dakota (50.4), Rhode Island (47.1), Idaho (45.7)  Utah (41.2), and Oregon (38.3)   The lowest are Kentucky (6.1), Maryland (7.7) Montana (8.3),  Hawaii (8.4) and New York (8.9).  The District of Columbia sits at zero.  

The average index of the ten lowest population states is 24.2 while the average of the ten largest population states is 18.7.  The “small versus big” trend can be seen at the county level, as well, with counties over 1MM in population having an average index of only 16.5, counties from 500,000 to 1MM averaging 19.9  and those with populations between 250,000 and 500,000 averaging 26.2.

Nationally, Chambers of Commerce have the highest activity levels of all the sub-groups, along with government activities, driven by things like street fairs, markets, and youth activities.   Libraries are the lowest “open” category; only a handful across the country having in person events as most libraries introduced “virtual” programming during the lockdown and are not reopening as quickly. 

“We expect the trend of smaller states and counties being more ‘open’ to continue over the course of the summer as these tend to be areas where the COVID-19 had less impact,” said Burbio co-founder Julie Roche. “That said, larger metro areas are starting to open up so we should see the gap narrow.”   

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Contact:

Dennis Roche

President

Dennis@burbio.com

Direct: 212-729-3611

www.Burbio.com

Burbio Announces “Community Activity Index” to

Measure Local Life Post-COVID-19 Lockdowns

South Dakota and Utah are Highest State Indexes

Counties in Texas, South Carolina and Wisconsin most “open”

“Zeros”  for NYC, LA, Chicago

June 10th, 2020 –  Burbio.com, the  industry leader in aggregating community event information for digital media, consumers and civic partners, today announced the launch of a Community Activity Index that measures in-person community event activity as the country emerges from the COVID-19 lockdowns.

“As stay-at-home orders took hold across the US, in-person activity for local government, non-profit and community groups came to a halt along with things like going to restaurants and movie theaters,” said Julie Roche, Burbio co-founder. “Many groups moved to virtual offerings, but now we are seeing the re-emergence of traditional community activities.”

Burbio’s technology reads source sites for over 150,000 school, government, library, art, volunteer, and civic organizations from all 50 states.  For the Community Activity Index, Burbio measures library, government, chamber of commerce, arts & recreation, and civic & volunteer groups at the county level and calculates an index on a 0-100 scale based on the level of groups having live events.  The county-level indices are population weighted to create state and national level indices.  All indices are updated daily based on live events being announced. 

Burbio’s national index was zero as of Memorial Day as only a handful of local Chambers and scattered community organizations were active.   Since then the index has grown to 11.4% and is growing daily. Chambers and government sponsored recreation programs for children have been the fastest growing categories, and life has emerged fastest in less populated areas of the country. 

States with the highest overall index are South Dakota (46.7), Utah (30.3) and Idaho (27.3).  At the county level, Kendall and Comal County, TX, are tied with blocks of counties in Wisconsin, South Carolina and South Dakota as the most “active” in the country.     

As expected, the lowest scores for community life – zero – are concentrated in regions hit hardest by the virus and/or with the strictest lockdowns.  In addition to NYC, Cook County (Chicago), LA County, San Francisco County, and King County (Seattle) are at zero, as well as many of their surrounding suburban counties.    

“These numbers are a measure of community health,” said Roche.  “Engaging with these institutions is the way residents support their communities and socialize with neighbors.  They act as a source of mental and physical well being for everyone from children to senior citizens, and are a source of economic vitality.”

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Contact:

Dennis Roche

President

Dennis@burbio.com

Direct: 212-729-3611

www.Burbio.com

Burbio Announces Virtual and Online Event Resource Featuring Community Content From Across the US

April 30, 2020 - Burbio.com, the industry leader in aggregating community event information for digital media, consumers and civic partners, today announced the launch of a virtual events resource featuring a database of tens of thousands of virtual and online programs from local community organizations across the United States.

“As stay-at-home orders took hold across the US, traditional local life as we know it came to a halt,” said Julie Roche, Burbio co-founder. “After a few days, we noticed a transformation in the way community organizations engaged and entertained residents as they introduced a wide variety of creative and engaging virtual programming.”

Burbio tracks public event information across all 50 states from over 100,000 library, arts, government, volunteer, and recreation organizations - plus K-12 schools - automatically updating for changes and additions. The Burbio.com website and mobile app allow consumers to follow important local calendars, sync personal calendars, and receive updates via email about changes and upcoming activities. Burbio also delivers content to digital media and civic partners to keep residents informed.

With this new feature, Burbio.com users can search for online events from groups in their towns or nationwide, by interest, as well as events running at a specific time or always available. Programming is wide ranging, from virtual tours of national parks, foreign countries, and monuments, to exercise and meditation, foreign language instruction, art history, book club discussions, open mic nights, story times, zookeeper discussions, children story times, and music and singalong events led by local performers.  

“It was both fun and inspiring to see all the energy and innovation that went into all this great programming appearing – much of it literally overnight,” said Roche. “We fully expect in-person community life to resume in the coming weeks and months, but we also think that many of the great innovations around remote programming that have been developed will continue long after this crisis has past.”

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