When she was 22 and freshly out of college, Katie Ritchie landed her first job. Doing what, you ask? She joined the opening team of an ambitious new project in Tulsa, Oklahoma: a park called Gathering Place. She watched as an idea transformed into a plan, then into a thriving destination that now welcomes millions of visitors each year. “That was an incredibly unique experience to start off my career with,” she said.

But as the saying goes, growing pains were inevitable. One of the park’s challenges stemmed from its location, which is situated in an affluent part of Tulsa. The issue, as pointed out by Ritchie, was that “it did not make it feel like everybody was welcome in the park.” And for a place called Gathering Place, that was a problem.

To counteract this predetermined idea that it was only for certain groups of people, the team had the immediate idea to host different cultural events that felt like “open invitation[s]” for different communities.

Ritchie: “I don’t want to use the word ‘pandering’ to specific audiences, but that’s what it really came to feel like–which was a lot more inauthentic than we had predicted. It was meant to be this unique invitation, but the result of that was…these different community groups felt like that was the only time they were welcome in the park instead of ‘This is your first invitation for a taste, but now you’re welcome here all the time!’ So that was quite unexpected but also a beautiful way to just learn about how the community responds to these different invitations.”

Ultimately, the solution was to create events that brought people together based on shared interests and demographics other than race or culture. Whether that be a painting class or a fitness course designed for the older population, Gathering Place found huge success in these new programs that seemed more welcoming to the general public. A couple years ago, the park celebrated its 5th anniversary, and these types of events were a big part of a fun way to commemorate Gathering Place’s birthday.

Ritchie: “But that’s part of being innovative and starting something new is just responding to the changes that you see.”

However, innovation doesn’t always mean replacing tradition. Sometimes, it enhances it. At Gathering Place, technology isn’t used to overshadow nature but to highlight its beauty. When I asked Ritchie how she sees parks evolving in the digital age, she emphasized the role of social media in encouraging people to step away from their screens and experience the world firsthand.

Ritchie: “A few of my favorite things when it comes to social media is just highlighting the beauty of a real-life experience. That moment of pause, of, ‘Oh, wow, look at the world that exists off of the screen!’ And I really think that that’s the beautiful thing you can create through social media when it comes to any kind of travel destination or natural attraction or green space, is creating a pause to make people shut their phone and go out and experience the pause in real life.”

At Gathering Place, social media isn’t purely about engagement. It’s a bridge, leading people away from their screens and into the park itself. In an era where technology often competes for our attention, Ritchie’s approach reminds us that sometimes, the best way to connect is to disconnect–and I think that’s extremely innovative.

The Gathering Place team also understands that innovation is not always about technology; it’s also about people. Gathering Place was built to be a park for all, but how do you ensure that a space truly feels inclusive? That’s where community engagement plays a crucial role.

When asked how community feedback drives innovation, Ritchie’s answer was clear: a brand isn’t just something that exists online.

Ritchie: “A brand is a community. A brand has legs. That’s the way I always think about it. Brand building has nothing to do with visuals and everything to do with people and making people really feel like they are part of something.”

For Gathering Place, this meant identifying the community members that weren’t already part of the conversation. Through school outreach programs and initiatives that brought the park to the community, rather than waiting for the community to come to the park, the team worked to ensure that Gathering Place wasn’t just a park people could visit, but a park they could feel involved in.

To celebrate this, they launched the Five Years of Gathering Place: A Park for All campaign. Inspired by the wildly successful Humans of New York, it invited people to share their personal stories and experiences at the park over the years, turning digital engagement into something deeply personal and real.

Ritchie: “That was really bringing that beautiful touch of humanity into a digital space, but then also into a physical space. It let people see that they were part of the park, not just invited to hang out here sometimes.”

At its core, Gathering Place thrives because of the people who make it their own. And through intentional efforts to engage with the community, Ritchie and her team have helped transform the park from just a physical space into something much more: a living, evolving story, shaped by the very people who walk through it every day.