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A new committee is taking on the rebranding goals of Okotoks and its downtown.

A new committee is taking on the rebranding goals of Okotoks and its downtown.

Following on the heels of visits by tourism guru Roger Brooks and extensive public engagement through surveys and open houses, Town council has agreed to form a Brand Leadership Team to spearhead and guide branding measures.

The leadership team will pick up where the now defunct Downtown Steering Committee and the boot-camp team, which both led the charge with Brooks last year, left off. Former members of both committees will be invited to become the core membership of the Brand Leadership Team, which will be a sub-committee of the existing Economic Development Committee.

He said it’s imperative those who were involved in the process of identifying rebranding initiatives for the Town play a role in implementing their recommendations.

The leadership team will likely begin as a small entity, he said.

“Then we could allow the group to grow more organically, so to speak,” said Michael MacIntyre, Okotoks development services director. “They could have, theoretically, as many members in total on the Brand Leadership Team as they felt they could take on.”

There are 60 recommendations and action items included in the plan. It’s expected the goals will take five to 10 years to complete, he said.

MacIntyre said membership on the committee is intended to be fluid, because some of the goals and projects identified in branding exercises could take a few years, such as building a community plaza and implementing year-round programming. Over time, some people may lose their enthusiasm, he said, or others may decide they’re interested in joining the charge.

“You do end up with a core of individuals that will take on championing Okotoks and who we are from a branding perspective,” said MacIntyre.

The Brand Leadership Team would report regularly to council through the Economic Development Committee, he said, but otherwise will have the ability to make decisions on day-to-day activities like promoting Okotoks and achieving goals identified in the branding development and marketing action plan.

“The freedom to be creative and innovate and so on, is one of the fundamental ideas behind the plan in terms of not fettering the enthusiasm or passion of individuals to do creative things in the interest of a branding and marketing for the community,” MacIntyre.

Some of the first tasks of the leadership team will include developing design guidelines for downtown and a website, he said. Those projects will be undertaken in conjunction with Town administration, he said.

Coun. Carrie Fischer, who has been involved with the Downtown Steering Committee and played a large role in the rebranding process, said she was pleased to see the Town moving forward with its plans to form a committee and began acting on its findings from one year ago.

She said there has been some angst among former committee members and the business community as they’ve waited to see the branding development and marketing action plan move ahead.

“Making the plan and going through that entire process created a lot of energy and enthusiasm in the community, and the fear is that it has waned and been deprioritized by council and administration and will not actually occur,” said Fischer. “So I’m looking forward to getting this going and engaging again with our community to implement and go forward.”

The Town will be determining terms of reference for the Brand Leadership Team within the next month. In the meantime, members will be invited to join the Brand Leadership Team, which will begin its work as of March 1.

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