The Tysons branch of The Container Store, a national chain of stores selling all types of storage and organization supplies, is moving across the street this weekend.

The store is relocating from 8508 Leesburg Pike to 8459 Leesburg Pike near the Best Buy on Route 7. While the distance is slight, the new location promises a completely new feeling for the store.

In a press release, the Container Store announced the new store will include a revamped store design with unique interactive technology elements that aim to make shopping for containers more convenient and customized. This store will be the first of a “new generation” of container shopping, following on a prototype store that opened in Dallas in June, the company said

The location opens at 10 a.m. this Saturday (Oct. 20). The opening weekend will include giveaways every hour on the hour, including a $1,000 Elfa custom closet with installation, both Saturday and Sunday.

The Container Store is also hiring new full-time and seasonal employees, with applications available online.

Photo via The Container Store

(Updated at 9 p.m.) Some 425 people attended today’s Social Media Week Fairfax event in Tysons, absorbing insights and ideas for anyone working in social media, marketing or startups.

The event, hosted by Fairfax County Economic Development Authority at Capital One headquarters, was a one-day convention of panels and networking that primarily focused on how businesses, large and small, engage on social media.

The keynote speaker and celebrity for the PR world was Judy Smith, a crisis management expert and the inspiration for the show Scandal. The biggest points Smith highlighted were speed and tone of responses to calamity.

“There’s an appreciation of mistakes when you embrace it and you own it,” said Smith.

Smith said organizations often wait more — sometimes much more — than 45 minutes before responding to an incident, by which time public opinion has already started to form.

One cause, according to Smith, is that companies can get tangled up in communications between different departments. Companies can also be slow to admit the whole truth, while Smith says the best answer is usually just to let all of the bad news come out at once like tearing off a Band-aid.

“You also have to pick the best time and vehicle to respond,” said Smith. “There was a CEO who apologized in 15 posts on Twitter. Given the seriousness of the matter, I would not have responded to that on Twitter. If a food company has a massive recall where people are sick or dying, I wouldn’t tweet ‘sorry about the bad food.'”

Smith said part of working in crisis management is working on controlling the narrative. In her own life, when the producers on Scandal approached her about adding in an intimate relationship between her character and the President, Smith said she got on the phone with President George H.W. Bush, for whom she had worked as a press secretary, to let him know.

Smith said when President Bush called her back and left a voicemail, joking that “you called me” and “you left me,” she fired back that he couldn’t make jokes about that.

“If you don’t follow these talking points,” Smith recalled telling Bush, “I will call Barbara.”

These days, Smith said things are moving faster in social media, saying her largest concern is that the population seems to have increasing difficulty discerning fact from fiction.

“One year ago, there was something I was looking at on social media and it was trending too fast,” Smith said. “When my team checked, it was because the other side had hired two bot companies to tweet about it. That’s how it went from zero to five million tweets in two minutes.”

Despite the prevalence of untruth on social media, Amanda Waas and Tammy Abraham from National Geographic emphasized the importance of being genuine.

“People can see right through anything on social media,” said Tammy Abraham. “If you’re not authentic, if it doesn’t feel true, everyone knows it.”

To this end, Abraham said that the National Geographic’s Instagram account is handled almost exclusively by photographers in the field. There are general guidelines, but Abraham said letting photojournalists have unfiltered access to the social media has helped build a following for the brand.

This extends to working with sponsored content as well.

“We’re not just going to post an ad,” said Waas. “Even for branded content, it needs to follow certain guidelines.”

“We have to find a common place to tell an authentic story,” said Abraham. “We can’t tap into an authentic story without something meaningful to tell.”

Alarm.com, a Tysons-based home protection system, started as one of the pioneers of remote home security management. Today the company is fighting to hold its own in a market becoming increasingly saturated with smart home technology.

The company was started in 2000 as an innovation project within MicroStrategy, a business intelligence company based in Tysons. Matthew Zartman, the company’s director of communications, said Alarm.com has benefited from the technology talent pool in the Washington, D.C. area and that Tysons serves as a good central office location for employees living throughout the region.

Part of the company’s core model has been working with authorized dealers to install the products in client’s homes.

“The smart home can be pretty complicated and daunting to the typical consumer,” said Zartman. “There are a ton of options out there, and consumers want help understanding how they can get value from this new technology, and how they can get it installed and working properly.”

Investor’s Business Daily reported that the company took a stock market hit as a result of worries about competition from Amazon and Google’s smart home technology. Both companies offer smart home technology that customers self-install, while Alarm.com distributes its product through home security dealers.

“They are smart home security experts,” said Zartman. “They can provide advice for getting the right system, and they can provide installation and ongoing support. We believe that the combination of our solutions and our service provider partners’ expertise has been key to driving the mass market adoption of smart home technology.”

While smart home technology often focuses on entertainment and other home amenities, Alarm.com’s technology has remained focused on security. Recent moves into business protection and international coverage could help the company carve out a new niche.

In April this year, Alarm.com announced that it would be adding a new service for protecting small and medium-size businesses. Alarm.com for Business offers intelligent intrusion detection, video surveillance, access control and energy management

The company has also been making moves internationally. Alarm.com announced on Aug. 2 it was partnering with European insurance provider Aviva to offer Alarm.com coverage under the banner of Aviva Smart Home.

There’s a lot of new stuff in Tysons, and plenty of people come here to work or shop, but what about nightlife?

We posed a question on Facebook earlier this week: is Tysons is a fun place to go out at night?

The overwhelming response thus far is no. With nearly 70 people voting, only 20 percent agreed that it was fun to go out in Tysons.

Though new developments like The Boro will be bringing new dining and entertainment options, those commenting on our Facebook post said that the current options are limited.

“Could use more bars/restaurants in between fast food and $$$$ places,” said one commenter.

“[Tysons] Biergarten is a perfect example of what I think we need more of here… a super social place without needing to spend too much,” said another. We’ve got plenty of swanky places… we just need more places that offer a casual atmosphere to hang out with neighbors and friends, and get some decent food and beer.”

Didn’t get a chance to weigh in on Facebook? Let us what you think below.

Photo via Tysons Partnership

(Updated 4:30) — A series of improvements for 1676 International Drive are planned to bring the building more in line with newer developments like the nearby Boro project.

1676 International Drive is currently a 13-story, 300,000-square foot office building. Brandywine Realty Trust, the owner of the property, said the renovations will focus on transforming the interior space into a more popular flexible workspace environment. Renovations begin this month and are expected to be completed next fall.

New outdoor and recreation spaces will include an outdoor fireplace and lounge, an oversized outdoor TV, a bocce court and other relaxation areas. A new penthouse suite will include a 120-person conference center and a luxury fitness center.

Infrastructure enhancements are also planned for the area will also improve the building’s accessibility to Tysons Galleria across International Drive and the Boro, diagonally opposite the property across Greensboro Drive.

Brandywine Realty Trust said in a press release that the added walkways and a new traffic signal planned for Tysons Boulevard will improve accessibility to the building.

Allie Seifert, a spokeswoman for Brandywine, said the redevelopment is part of a broader strategy of reinvesting in existing assets in burgeoning neighborhoods outside D.C., like Tysons and Ballston, and converting them into more modern workspaces.

Brandywine also recently announced a new line of flexible office offerings similar to MakeOffices and WeWork called BEX, with the first location opening at 8260 Greensboro Drive in Tysons.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder can make life difficult, but the ADHD Awareness Month Resource Fair this Saturday (Oct. 20) in Tysons aims to make living with the disorder a little easier.

Attendees will have a chance to meet with professionals, school representatives, and nonprofit organizations to access resources for those with mental illness and learning disabilities. The event will run from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. at BASIS Independent McLean (8000 Jones Branch Drive).

The keynote speaker will be Kathleen Nadeau, a clinical director in Washington, D.C. specializing in the treatment of ADHD. Sessions and panels throughout the day will focus on building supportive environments for people with ADHD and advice for young adults with ADHD.

General admission is free but a $10 donation to Children and Adults with ADD (CHADD) is suggested.

Photo via CHADD

Metro ridership in Tysons has been increasing, bucking the transit system’s overall downward trend.

According to a recent county report, from April 2017-2018 ridership increased across Tysons stations by eight percent, from 7,142 to 7,723 riders per weekday.

According to the report, the most active Metrorail station within Tysons is Tysons Corner, which averages over 3,400 passengers per day (total entries) on weekdays and over 2,500 for Saturdays, exceeding the ridership at the other three stations.

The only station to show a decrease in ridership has been the Spring Hill station, which declined from 1,220 riders to 1,188, a three percent decrease.

The same report also showed that morning and evening peak period traffic to and from Tysons in single-occupancy vehicles had decreased after years of mostly trending upward. Morning trips for single-occupancy vehicles decreased over the last year from 106,389 to 99,472, while evening trips decreased from 108,604 to 104,596.

Professor Frank Shafroth, director of the Center for State and Local Leadership at George Mason University, said the two numbers are likely rooted in traffic and tolling along I-66.

“I think the uptick reflects how terrible I-66 traffic is — and, increasingly, how expensive it is,” said Shafroth. “I know when I go out to Tysons, I do not even think of driving, even though it is almost a straight shot, when I can, instead, relax, read, and prep for whatever meeting I am headed to.”

Graph via Fairfax County

The 4th annual DC Sustainability Summit and Green Product Expo (DCSS) is bringing industry leaders to Tysons to discuss sustainability.

The summit will be held in Valo Park (7950 Jones Branch Road) from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. this Thursday.

Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and Seth Goldman, CEO of Honest Tea Company, will be the keynote speakers in the day-long discussion of environmental equity issues. Discussions will focus on helping to develop regional solutions to work towards reducing carbon emissions.

The Green Product Expo following the summit will give attendees a chance to ask questions about, and see in action, new green building technology and products.

A full schedule of events is available online.

General registration for the event is $95 and student registration is $45. Breakfast, lunch and happy hour are included in the admission.

The summit is sponsored by DCS Design and the Tysons Partnership.

Photos via Facebook

For the second time in as many weeks, someone smashed in the door of the Enterprise Rent-a-Car on Spring Hill Road in Tysons.

The incident happened over the weekend. Fairfax County Police noted in a crime report that “this time nothing was taken,” a contrast from two weeks ago when a vehicle was reported stolen.

“Detectives are following up on leads,” FCPD said. More from the crime report:

BURGLARY / DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY: 1572 block of Spring Hill Road, (Enterprise), 10-14-2018, between 12:01 – 8:10 a.m. When employees arrived to work in the morning they noticed that the front door had been smashed in. The business was broken into recently but this time nothing was taken. Detectives are following up on leads.

Photo via Google Maps

Affordable housing in Tysons is different than the rest of Fairfax County.

Affordable housing across the rest of Fairfax County, and much of the region, is grouped into apartment complexes with units set aside to cater to those at the lowest income levels. But in Tysons, affordable housing is filling the new high-rises.

Abdi Hamud from Fairfax County’s Affordable and Workforce Dwelling Units Program met with the Tysons Regional Chamber of Commerce earlier today (Friday) to explain the state of affordable housing in Tysons.

Starting in 2010, the Board of Supervisors adopted a policy that would create workforce dwelling units (WDU) in the mid- and high-rise buildings except from other local affordable housing programs.

In total, there are nearly 500 total WDU in Tysons, according to Hamud.

On the rental side, the WDU program covers area median incomes (AMI) at a broader level than other affordable housing programs. The cost of living in Tysons often exceeds the AMI. While Fairfax’s primary affordable dwelling unit (ADU) program serves those at 50 or 70 percent of the AMI, in Tysons the WDU covers incomes from 60 percent through 120 percent.

At least 20 percent of the rental units inside the new mid and high-rise apartments in Tysons must be WDU, with specific percents broken up by income brackets.

• Two percent of all units must be accessible to those at 60 percent of AMI
• Three percent of all units must be accessible to those at 70 percent of AMI
• The remaining 15 percent of  WDU units must be broken equally into 80 percent, 100 percent and 120 percent of AMI

A policy is also in place for WDU in units that are for sale, but Hamud said there haven’t been any yet and none are planned for the near future.

Hamud said one of the largest problems facing Fairfax is the demand for affordable housing far exceeding the supply. According to Hamud, other affordable housing waitlists in Fairfax and across the state are so full they are being closed. But in Tysons, with new projects constantly in development, Hamud said the waiting lists are substantially shorter and easier to access.

Even with this affordable housing program, Larry Rockwell from The Arc of Northern Virginia noted that “affordable housing” can still be too expensive for many living in the area.

The Arc helps support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, many of whom Rockwell said struggle to find affordable housing because the stigma of disabilities leaves higher paying work inaccessible to them. With the expenses many people with intellectual and developmental disabilities face, or for students getting started in the workforce with loan payments, even the affordable housing in Tysons can exceed the advised 30 percent of a salary that should go to housing.

Still, in a region with rents of $2,000 or $3,000 per month, Hamud said it’s important to have tools available to try and help the new workforce of Tysons find a place to live. The county is currently looking at what has been working with the WDU program and what hasn’t, he said.