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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09232019 City Council Laydown - Chamber of Commerce Report / 922- 44t ) Report to COUNCIL SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 Seward Chamber of Commerce. CVB. Cindy Clock New Chamber members this month: The Lone Chicharron Taqueria, Shearwater Cove, Artist Studio BnB, Kara Troglin Yoga Wasn't it great having the Navy here? From what I heard; we can expect the Navy to be more of a presence here in the great state of Alaska. Our chamber reception for Rear Admiral Scott Gray was small but perfect all the same. I came away with a Naval coin from the Admiral that I've been showing off shamelessly. Aisha Bouziane, our Membership Director will be our guest speaker at this week's Chamber Lunch. "Launching the new Simple View Member Portal". Thursday at the Breeze Inn, noon to 1:00 pm. Events and planning have started for AK Start-Up Week Nov 18-24 "From Ideas to Reality" on 11/24 at the Community Library is on the calendar. Successful SBA visit & presentation at the library — "Elevating Rural" last Thursday. We can look forward to more visits from SBA — who knows — Maybe they'll solve the Airport conundrum! It's all about grants :) That wraps up the membership portion of my report, next we'll transition to the Visit Seward Program portion— Media relations: We hosted the first-ever cohort of Brazilian media traveling to Alaska through Brand USA, our national destination marketing organization. The group included a mix of qualified journalists and influencers. During their day trip to Seward, they went on a wildlife and glacier cruise, and had dinner with Jen Leahy to discuss opportunities to increase visitation from the Brazilian market. Jen is providing follow-up support as the team works to develop stories from their trip. Paid media: This is the time of year when we evaluate many of our options for paid community promotion in 2020. Jen and the Visit Seward program committee are busy identifying the best opportunities to reach our target audience, including high-value visitors and marine trades customers. Destination guide: Planning is underway for the 2020 destination guide. The overall look and feel will be similar to the 2019 guide, but we plan to introduce new photos and content every year to keep the publication fresh and relevant. The 2020 guide will be available in January. If your business has extra copies of the 2019 guide, please bring them to the Chamber so we can re-distribute them. Our Anchorage-based distributor is out of our guides because they've been flying off the shelves this year. Visit Anchorage also reports that our guide is the most popular piece of outside collateral at their visitor centers. Website: We recently completed a soft-launch of the new Seward.com. Expect more original content and stronger functionality from the all-new website, slated to launch next year. In the meantime, we're hearing positive feedback about the cleaner, more intuitive design of the interim website. Feel free to contact us with feedback anytime at visitseward@aseward.com Jen & Aisha are getting ready to attend the Alaska Travel Industry Assoc fall conference in Juneau Oct 7-11. ATIA is known for bringing great speakers, informative breakout sessions and addressing the latest travel trends. And for networking — you can't beat this conference. We are working on a brand-new marketing proposal that will be submitted to PACAB for review, then to City Admin and Council soon. The proposal will be a narrative that will accompany the proposed budget. We are proud to have talented & experienced staff on board for this project. And finally — thank you to all the candidates, volunteers and interested community members for making Meet the Candidates Night a memorable one. Use your voice — Vote!