Downtown Walk/Crawl Set-Up Guide

Participating Business Registration

Downtown walks and crawls turn local businesses into stops along one connected community experience. Visitors move throughout the district, discover participating locations, enjoy activities or specials, and experience more of downtown along the way.

Before promoting the event to the public, organizers first need to know which businesses are participating and what each location will offer.

A Participating Business Registration Campaign creates one place for downtown businesses to join the event, submit their information, and provide the details organizers need to build the experience.

Whether you're planning a Valentine’s Day Crawl, Stroll into Spring: Sip & Stroll, Browse and Bloom, Girls' Night Out, Witches' Night Out, Christmas Crawl, Chocolate Walk, Art Walk, or your own creative theme, the same basic registration structure can be used again and again.

Why Create a Participating Business Registration?

The businesses are what bring a downtown walk or crawl to life.

Each participating location can become a stop along the route, giving visitors another reason to explore the district and businesses an opportunity to attract new and returning customers.

Recruit Downtown Businesses Give businesses a clear and organized way to join the event.	Collect Participation Details Learn what each business plans to offer during the event.
Keep Event Information Organized Manage participating locations and important details from one place.	Build Your Event Route Collect the location information needed to plan your walk or crawl.
Coordinate Promotion Gather business names, descriptions, logos, and other details for marketing.	Create a Repeatable Process Reuse the same framework for different themed events throughout the year.

Instead of collecting participation through emails, phone calls, or spreadsheets, businesses can submit their information through one organized campaign.

How to Set Up Participating Business Registration

1. Define How Businesses Can Participate

Start by deciding what it means to become an official stop in your walk or crawl.

Depending on the event, participating businesses might:

• Offer a sample or tasting during a Sip & Stroll
• Create a themed shopping special for Girls' Night Out or Ladies Night Out
• Host a spring activity, display, or giveaway for Browse and Bloom
• Create a seasonal experience for a Valentine’s Day Crawl, Witches' Night Out, or Christmas Crawl
• Host an activity
• Provide an event-exclusive special
• Offer a giveaway
• Display artwork or entertainment
• Host a scavenger hunt stop
• Stamp or mark participant passports
• Simply serve as an official destination along the route

Give businesses enough direction to create a connected event while still leaving room for them to bring their own personality to their stop.

One Format, Lots of Themes The basic structure of a Downtown Walk/Crawl can be adapted into dozens of community events throughout the year. Food & Drink: Chocolate Walk, Coffee Crawl, Cookie Walk, Restaurant Crawl, Stroll into Spring: Sip & Stroll Shopping & Social: Boutique Crawl, Shop Hop, First Friday, Girls' Night Out, Ladies Night Out Arts & Culture: Art Walk, Gallery Crawl, Music Walk, History Walk Seasonal: Valentine’s Day Crawl, Browse and Bloom, Witches' Night Out, Christmas Crawl, Holiday Stroll The theme changes. The foundation stays the same: participating businesses + an experience at each stop + a reason for visitors to explore downtown.

2. Build Your Business Registration Form

Once you've defined participation, determine what information you'll need from each business.

Your registration form might collect:

• Business name
• Primary contact
• Email and phone number
• Business address
• Business website or social media
• Business logo or image
• Participation description
• Special, sample, activity, or experience being offered
• Event-day hours
• Accessibility information
• Additional notes or requests

The questions you ask can also change with the theme. For example, a Sip & Stroll might ask what tasting or beverage each location will offer, while Browse and Bloom might collect details about flowers, spring activities, specials, or giveaways. A Witches' Night Out or Christmas Crawl could ask businesses to describe their themed experience, promotion, or activity.

If participating businesses will later appear on a digital event map or guide, collect information with that next step in mind.

Accurate addresses, business descriptions, images, and event-day details can make it much easier to turn each participating location into a useful stop for visitors.

With SeeMyLegacy, organizers can create a centralized registration campaign where businesses submit their participation information online and organizers can manage submissions from one place.

Collect It Once, Use It Everywhere Think beyond registration when deciding what information to collect. A business's name, address, logo, description, and event offering may also be needed for your event map or guide, social media, website, printed materials, and event-day communications. Collecting those details during registration can save your team from chasing businesses for information later.

3. Promote Registration to Downtown Businesses

Your first audience isn't the public. It's your businesses.

Give businesses plenty of time to understand the event, decide how they want to participate, and prepare their location.

Promote registration through:

• Direct Email: Send the opportunity to businesses throughout your district.
• Business Newsletters: Include registration details and deadlines in regular communications.
• Personal Outreach: Encourage staff, board members, and volunteers to personally invite key businesses.
• Business Meetings: Introduce the event at merchant meetings, networking events, or downtown gatherings.
• Social Media: Use business-facing posts to recruit additional locations.
• QR Codes and Registration Links: Give businesses an easy way to access registration from printed materials or presentations.

Clearly communicate the registration deadline and what businesses receive by participating.

Business Recruitment Playbook

Tailor your message to the type of Downtown Walk/Crawl you're creating:

• Sip & Stroll: Invite businesses to create tastings, specials, activities, or other experiences that encourage attendees to visit multiple stops.
• Girls' Night Out or Ladies Night Out: Emphasize shopping, dining, special offers, entertainment, and social experiences throughout downtown.
• Browse and Bloom: Encourage businesses to incorporate flowers, spring displays, seasonal products, giveaways, or activities into their stop.
• Valentine’s Day Crawl: Encourage themed specials, treats, shopping experiences, photo opportunities, or activities for couples, friends, and visitors.
• Witches' Night Out: Invite businesses to create Halloween-inspired shopping specials, contests, treats, entertainment, or themed activities.
• Christmas Crawl: Encourage businesses to create festive experiences, holiday shopping specials, treats, giveaways, or seasonal activities.
• Art or Culture Walk: Invite businesses to host artists, performers, displays, or activities.
• First Friday: Position participation as part of a recurring downtown experience that encourages visitors to return.

Businesses don't just need to know what the event is. Show them why becoming a stop is valuable.

4. Organize Participating Businesses

Once registrations begin coming in, turn those submissions into your event plan.

Keep track of:

• Participating business
• Primary contact
• Location
• Participation details
• Event-day offering
• Hours
• Logo or image
• Registration status
• Special requirements
• Map or guide information
• Promotional information

Confirm participation details before publishing your final event materials so visitors receive accurate information.

With SeeMyLegacy, organizers can keep participating business submissions centralized as they prepare the next pieces of their Downtown Walk/Crawl.

Your Registrations Become Your Route Every approved participating business can become another destination along the walk or crawl. Once registration closes, use the information you've collected to build your event map or guide so visitors can see participating locations, understand what's happening at each stop, and explore their way through downtown. Business registration isn't just an administrative step. It's the foundation for the public-facing event experience.

Ideas for Business Participation

Give businesses examples to help get their ideas flowing without requiring every location to offer the exact same thing.

Participating businesses could:

• Offer a small sample or tasting
• Create an event-exclusive discount
• Host a demonstration
• Feature a local artist or musician
• Offer a giveaway
• Create a themed photo opportunity
• Host a game or activity
• Provide a passport stamp
• Offer a scavenger hunt clue
• Extend their business hours
• Feature a special menu item or product
• Decorate around the event theme

Encourage businesses to create something that fits naturally with their location. A boutique, restaurant, bank, salon, museum, and professional office don't need to participate in exactly the same way to contribute to the overall experience.

For example, the same business could offer a tasting during a Sip & Stroll, a shopping special during Girls' Night Out, a floral display during Browse and Bloom, and a holiday giveaway during a Christmas Crawl. The event theme can change while the participation model stays familiar.

Every Stop Should Give Visitors a Reason to Enter The experience doesn't have to be elaborate. A sample, discount, activity, display, giveaway, or friendly interaction can be enough to turn a business from a location on the route into a memorable stop. Encourage each participating business to answer one question: What's happening here that visitors can experience during the event?

Manage Participating Business Registration with SeeMyLegacy

A Downtown Walk/Crawl brings many independent businesses together into one coordinated community event.

SeeMyLegacy can give organizers a centralized place to recruit participating businesses, collect their information, and organize the details needed to build the event.

A Clear Business Registration Experience Invite Businesses → Register Locations → Collect Event Details → Organize Participants → Build the Event Experience

From there, participating business information can help power the next pieces of your event, including your event map or guide and public-facing promotion.

Combined with Event Ticket Sales, these campaigns create a simple framework communities can adapt to their own downtown event:

Participating Businesses + Tickets + Event Map or Guide = Downtown Walk/Crawl

Build Your Own Downtown Walk or Crawl

The theme is up to your community.

Start by deciding what kind of downtown experience you want to create. Recruit businesses to become stops. Collect what each location will offer. Then use those participating businesses to build a walk or crawl visitors can explore.

Once the foundation is in place, the same model can be transformed throughout the year into experiences like a Valentine’s Day Crawl, Stroll into Spring: Sip & Stroll, Browse and Bloom, Girls' Night Out, Witches' Night Out, Christmas Crawl, Chocolate Walk, or Art Walk.

Launch your Participating Business Registration Campaign with SeeMyLegacy and start bringing your downtown businesses together around one connected experience.

Ready to Build Your Participating Business Registration? Bring business registration, event details, participation information, and downtown locations together in one organized campaign. Book a Demo → Contact Us