07-26-25 EDC Agenda Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION – JUNE 25, 2025 6 B. Business Event Updates Senior Planner Fransen summarized the history regarding the business event planning. She said Staff asked about October 22. That is an EDC meeting date. Staff wanted to know if this would be a good date for the event. The commission should discuss what food may be offered, agenda items and identifying costs/funding sources. Chair Murchie kicked off the conversation. He summarized the conversation where the EDC was asking if an event is the way to gather some of that information we’re looking for. It may be helpful to cross some items off the work plan like business out reach, building relationships and informing business owners about resources they may be interested in. There was a lot of work put into the survey and we didn’t really get the results we wanted. Initial conversations were had and this event will be a way to double down on those first contacts and learn more. Based on some of the responses, some businesses are interested in hearing from the City, the EDC or another forum like this to build better relationships. The important thing to remember about planning the event is it is up the EDC to figure out. He thinks we start by breaking the event down into different components so each commissioner can work on one part of the event. Adding a couple meetings, as Senior Planner Fransen suggested would allow an opportunity to share the workload. He asked the commission if the event is still what we want to work towards. Commissioners all agreed. Chair Murchie said he talked to Flaherty’s. They have an event space downstairs. In order to host our event there, we would have to block a date. He likes the idea of holding the event during the October 22 EDC meeting time slot. That’s a Wednesday morning. Commissioner Sorenson asked if that would leave enough time to compile the information from the event and have it ready for the fee schedule discussion in November. Chair Murchie said that is a component we’ll have to figure out. Commissioner Bonine asked what was proposed for October. Chair Murchie said to hold the business owner’s event that day. It would be around 8-9:30. Commissioner Bonine said there was a mention of how to pay for the event. He wondered if they should be thinking about potential sponsors to make sure that date works for them. Chair Murchie said that is just one of the functions we need to figure out to get to the event. We need to confirm what date and time works. We have the general idea of direction for the event. We need to figure out the location and sponsors. Commissioner Brausen has offered to sponsor and underwrite some of the event. Flaherty’s are open to working with us to secure the space. It can just be coffee and donuts/Danishes. Once we figure out location and sponsors there is the agenda. How can we use this event to talk about some of the things that we want to know about to plan our work load as a commission? We can have a survey on the tables with additional questions. We need to plan invites and attendees. With those different components, we can have commissioners take responsibility for a component. We can have a meeting in July and update the commission on progress. Over the next month we need to confirm the direction. Who can confirm the date and time? Who will focus on location and sponsors? What food will we serve? There was a draft