Council were given the opportunity to learn about how they can develop the Crowsnest Pass more effectively in a council meeting last week.

Marie Everts, the Marketing, Events and Economic Development Officer for the town of Pincher Creek, gave a short presentation on what she is currently involved with in the town and how the Crowsnest Pass could follow suit.

Everts was able to provide insightful information on how the Crowsnest Pass could better their development and make progress in marketing themselves.

Everts says that consistency is key when trying to market a town.

“One of the things I do is making sure we have a consistent message and branding for our community. It’s really important to have that overall branding so that when we look at something for Pincher Creek it all looks the same.”

Another big portion of what she does involves event coordinating and planning which includes being one of the first points of contact for people in the town.

“Events are another huge portion of my job. If anyone has any questions about hosting events they can come to me.”

Everts adds that there are always new ideas for events and she is able to help bring them into motion while also working to combine efforts of residents for these events.

The town also makes yearly calendars that are free to residents and allow them to see all upcoming events the town is putting on.

Council was also able to hear about how Everts is involved with the business community in Pincher Creek as well.

“I started with kind of a three-phase idea looking at what we were doing currently for businesses in our community. Out of that we needed to work on some retention strategies and tools and making sure that we were looking after them and that they want to stay in the community and not leave.”

Everts says that it’s important for the businesses to know that she can be their first point of contact for all businesses in Pincher Creek.

After hearing the presentation by Everts, Councilor Dave Filipuzzi said that he believes the Crowsnest Pass needs to make many changes and needs to catch up to what other areas are doing in regards to economic development.

“I don't think we understand what economic development is. I think we are missing it in our community and I think we are still trying to do things the old way. I think it's a big gap that we have and for me personally it's been a big concern because it's something that we are totally lacking. We try, but it just isn't successful.”

Councilor Filipuzzi added that he is looking forward to implementing some of what Everts presented in the future.

Council will continue to look at ways to improve in this area and will look at ways to grow the Crowsnest Pass using some of the tools that were shown to them.

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