03-27-24 EDC Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION – MARCH 27, 2024 4 Commissioner Gronquist said yes, it could be for residents and businesses to go to for what is happening. She noted the current City newsletter generally was about one business and is once a month. She said it would be nice to have a dynamic webpage that people are directed to. Community Development Director Jagoe stated she would like to get the group’s direction as a whole. She noted she didn’t want staff pivoting to working on the website, and then come back and do a brochure and so on. She said the goal of the work plan was for the EDC to identify the communication strategies it wanted, for example a newsletter, website page, and survey, and then to give prioritization to those items. She indicated the Commissioners could sub-assign certain tasks to themselves and then staff could identify what they need to achieve the items. She reiterated the goal here was to determine the framework of where the EDC wants to go. Commissioner Murchie said a lot of the activities are largely dependent on the platform or distribution channel and he wanted to hear from the business leaders what the biggest gap is. He asked Commissioner Brausen what he meant by getting to it. Commissioner Brausen said he wants to get to communicating with the other businesses and suggested inviting businesses to an EDC meeting to let them say what they want. He noted everyone’s vision is different and personally he’s been in the city too long so he’s seen the good and the bad. He thinks the best thing is to invite people to a meeting and see what they say. He thinks the website can be improved and is a great tool. He suggested a few more emails to all businesses. He didn’t know if sending out a survey would work. Commissioner Subramanian stated that from a student perspective and someone who spends most of their time online, having a webpage should be one of the biggest priorities because if you create a website and then are able to market it really well, everyone will use it. She discussed her ideas for what the information could include. Commissioner Bonine said a beautiful website can be built but if traffic is not being driven to it and you’re not understanding who your audience is, then it’s an ego thing. He said they do it in his business just to say they have it, but they do not drive traffic to it. He wanted to know what the ask was, why are we sending people to the website and how are we going to do that. He suggested the group have a conversation about what tools the City already has for social media. He said they should know what the City was already using to promote existing information, who would be managing the information, and what is the process to get something approved or promoted. He suggested a top priority could be a website but noted this would need a solid plan on how to promote it. He said once this is accomplished this could then be brought back to staff with priorities. Commissioner Gronquist stated she agrees but would like a separate survey for all businesses. Senior Planner Fransen stated there was recently an at-will survey of the recipients of the City’s newsletter about what social media platforms they use, do they read the newsletter and so forth. She said the group could possibly draw on that data as well. A discussion ensued about a survey, other options for baseline items that should be offered to businesses and what currently is available on the City’s website.