Town of Redcliff looks to community engagement in trade show, Redcliff Days

Posted on April 6, 2023 by Ryan Dahlman

By Anna Smith

Commentator/Courier

Entering the season to start planning for what the summer might hold, the Town of Redcliff’s March 27 meeting seemed to have community engagement on the mind.

A report received was from Brian Stehr, development officer, in regards to the findings of the town’s participation in the Home and Leisure Trade Show.

With support from Council, said Stehr, administration set out to prepare a booth for the 2023 southeastern Alberta Home and Leisure Trade Show which was held on March 3–5. 

“With limited experience in trade show design, our booth at the trade show showed all our visitors exactly what the town has to offer. But more importantly, it did allow us to gather some data,” said Stehr. 

According to the Chamber of Commerce, 8,500 people attended the trade show, and by the team’s own calculations, 562 people meaningfully interacted with them over the course of the show, representing about seven per cent of visitors; this, Stehr notes, is in line with how much of the area’s population lives in Redcliff.

“On top of making people aware of what the town has to offer we also had a couple of interactive boards. The intent of these boards were for a couple of different reasons. One was to get people to stop and actually talk to us and interact with us to start to gather data about the town and what’s important to our citizens,” said Stehr.

These boards revealed where people worked, lived, and played in Redcliff, and what recreational facilities they were using as well as what they felt was the most fitting slogan for the community, which was ultimately determined to be “Worth the Drive” at 42 per cent with the classic “Greenhouse Capital of the Prairies” was next with 21 per cent.

Overall, administration considered the booth a success.

Council also made the motion to give the go-ahead for Gordon Memorial United Church’s Blessing of the Bikes event.

Perhaps the largest point of discussion was in the road closures for this year’s Redcliff Days. While the proposed expansion has yet to have fire or police approval, it does feature the closure of Broadway Avenue from 2 Street NE to 4 Street NE, new for this year.

It was noted that this was in hopes of promoting the local businesses along the road there, in addition to the food trucks and other businesses that will be setting up shop for the weekend.

Some concerns of parking or congestion of normal traffic were raised, but ultimately, the closures were passed, pending approval from emergency services.