The Challenge

The City of Palmdale has been establishing itself as a thriving, forward-thinking community. The City sought to effectively communicate its successes in creating a business-friendly environment, notably in the transportation and aerospace sectors, as well as community investment in public safety by elevating its annual State of the City event. Therefore, the City turned to Tripepi Smith to create a sophisticated event that would not only showcase the City’s achievements, ongoing projects and vision for the future, but highlight its role as an innovative, affordable desert oasis.

Our Approach

Planning for the State of the City began months in advance, with extensive research to establish messaging. We identified four major priorities:

  • Informative: Highlight achievements, such as infrastructure improvements
  • Educational: Promote Palmdale’s initiatives that help to benefit businesses and residents.
  • Perception-Shifting: Showcase Palmdale as a thriving community.
  • Inspire: Encourage residents to engage with the City by participating in events, utilizing resources and embracing sustainability.

Our team worked to tailor messaging to attract residents, business owners, community organizations and stakeholders. We developed program elements, including awards for Youth Excellence and Veteran of the Year. To help the City meet its budget obligations, we reached out to stakeholders for sponsorship support. Our efforts brought in $25,000 in contributions, which allowed the City to make the event free for residents.

Tripepi Smith then created a dynamic speaker lineup, including all council members, and secured local singer-songwriter Joei Fulco-Strader, who was featured on Season 18 of The Voice, to sing the national anthem. We created a series of videos for the event to focus on five key strategic themes. The videos were showcased live during the event and later shared on social media:

  • Economic Vitality – Showcasing small business growth and the City’s ranking as a top 10 city with $200k+ income households.
  • Aerospace Leadership – Celebrating the city’s role in national security and supersonic flight.
  • Cultural Appeal – Positioning Palmdale as the next frontier in film.
  • Innovation – Highlighting the City as the future home of high-speed rail.
  • Public Safety – Featuring innovative technology and a strong partnership with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

To build engagement, Tripepi Smith prepared a press release, a media alert, graphics and design elements, social media posts and swag with the City logo to give away to attendees.

Results

The attendance and feedback were a massive success. More than 300 people attended the State of the City, making it the largest and most-attended in Palmdale’s history. The event not only told Palmdale’s story but also positioned the City as a bold leader on the regional and national stage.

Our team sent out 19 social media posts on X, Nextdoor, Facebook and Instagram. More than half of the City’s followers saw or engaged with the posts, prompting nearly 41,000 impressions, more than 2,500 engagements and 100 post link clicks.

The State of the City was also shared on YouTube where, as of June 2025, it has been viewed 500 times, collected 2,100 impressions and generated nearly 60 total watch hours.