Opt for Optimism

First-ever fitness fest gives Dallasites reason to stretch and smile

At the first-ever FAME Fest (fitness + arts + music + experience), Frost Bank and CultureMap Dallas gave attendees even more to get hyped up about.

In addition to feel-good fitness, the more than 250 people who showed up to the VIP opening night also got a dose of optimism through free T-shirts, water bottles, cheerful pins, and "Do Good" postcards that they could mail to anyone needing a lift.

Poems were being composed on the spot by Scott James, while those looking to put their own feelings in writing could make notes on the Call Me Optimistic chalk boards. Prompts such as "I'm inspired by" and "In the next year I'd like to" were met with answers ranging from "Greta Thunberg" to "open my own nutrition club."

Two women who had won passes on social media were celebrating their "friendiversary," and shared how their relationship had kept them optimistic over the years.

Another couple wrote that they were thankful for life as a whole, since they had experienced a near-death moment in the last year that had "shaken them to their core." They told us how they had changed their whole mindset about what is important in their lives, and started to focus on their health and each other as a result.

CultureMap and Frost Bank will be hosting more of these pop-up events throughout the year, surprising and delighting folks all over Texas.

Want to know where we might show up next? Sign up for our emails and follow along on Facebook and Instagram for hints about our next stop.

FAME Fest brought several different fitness experiences to the Omni Dallas Hotel.

Frost Dallas FAME Fest

Courtesy photo

FAME Fest brought several different fitness experiences to the Omni Dallas Hotel.

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Dallas climbs back up in ranking of 'World's Best Cities' for 2025

Downtown Dallas skyline

Photo by Bryan Dickerson on Unsplash

Dallas had made a major leap back into the top 50.

Dallas has made a big rebound in its status among the top 100 best cities in the world, according to a prestigious new report by Resonance Consultancy.

The Canada-based real estate and tourism marketing advisors ranked Dallas the 55th best city worldwide for 2025 in its annual "World's Best Cities" list.

A ranking of 55 might not seem all that, but it represents a major rebound after Dallas plummeted to No. 73 in last year's report. (Let's ignore the fact that, in 2022, Dallas ranked No. 47.)

London held onto its crown as the No. 1 best city in the world for 2025, followed by New York (No. 2), Paris (No. 3), Tokyo (No. 4), and Singapore (No. 5).

The report quantifies the relative qualities of livability, "lovability," and prosperity for the world's top 100 cities with metropolitan populations of 1 million or more. New to the 10th anniversary edition, Resonance partnered with global market researchers Ipsos to include perception-based data into the rankings, surveying over 22,000 people in 30 countries worldwide to determine "the most desirable places to visit, live or work."

Resonance refers to its previous "World's Best Cities" reports and its 2024 "America's Best Cities" list – which ranked Dallas in the top 20 – when explaining the city's successes. The report praised Dallas' booming population, a thriving corporate economy, and its diverse culture.

"From 2021 to 2022, Dallas experienced the largest population increase of any U.S. metro area, with a net increase of more than 170,000 people, according to the Census Bureau," the report's author wrote. "Home to more than 10,000 corporate headquarters — the largest concentration in the U.S. — the city ranks No. 33 globally for Fortune 500 companies."

Elsewhere in Texas, Austin and Houston also earned spots on the World's Best Cities list for 2025, but only one made a similar rebound from the previous year's rankings. Houston moved up from No. 66 in last year's report to its current rank as No. 40. Meanwhile, Austin took its first tumble out of the 43rd spot (which it had occupied for two years straight) and now ranks No. 53.

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