Much like any good team, the Estevan and District Board of Tourism, Trade and Commerce has been talking strategy lately.
The TTC is in the process of developing a new strategic plan which would cover from 2012 to 2014. The organization's last plan was created in 2008 and Michel Cyrenne of the TTC said with so much happening in Estevan and area, the development of a new one is critical.
"We know that is a critical time for our community so our board took it upon themselves to bring in an outside consultant to lead the planning session and we identified a number of priorities we have both within our organization and in the community."
With respect to the priorities Cyrenne speaks of, the TTC has come up with five key result areas - lobbying, community improvement, roles, City/RM relationship and community plan.
Cyrenne noted lobbying was included in the list because the TTC has gotten away from that role with so many other areas to focus on. He said their goal is not to be confrontational but to make sure the concerns of the business community are well represented.
"We need to ensure their voice is heard at City Hall and the RM council. We want to get back to doing a little more of that. Again, it's not a confrontational thing but we do want to be working on both sides of the coin to ensure that both sides are achieving success."
Cyrenne added the community improvement component partly involves making sure local events are properly advertised to the public.
"Our tourism industry revolves largely around local events and getting local people to those events. What we want to focus on is getting information to the public and ensuring that everybody knows what is going on in Estevan, be they from Estevan or coming from outside.
"We want to ensure that every event is well attended. We have a lot of energy in this community and we need to make sure it is all brought together and that people know what is going on. We've started with the hospitality levies on the hotels and there is a ton of potential there. We know that is going to be generating a very large amount of revenue and we want to come up with a good plan as far as how we are going to focus that money."
The community plan is another interesting facet of the TTC's effort. Cyrenne said a number of groups throughout Estevan, including themselves and the City for example, have plans for their particular organizations. The TTC's goal is to get all those groups at the same table and ensure they are working together.
"We want to get all those plans and all those people thinking in the same direction," said Cyrenne. "Getting an overall vision of our community as it is now and what we would like to achieve in the three to five years and what we see our community being five, 10, 15, 20 years down the road and having that common goal for everybody in the city."
