Fall e-News Update

Still doing what we do best – Working hard to bring the best events to Brandon

It’s no surprise that 2020 has been a difficult year for the events industry. March to August was full of cancellations and postponements in every area from meetings and conferences to the Manitoba Winter and Summer Fairs, Food Truck Wars, Ag Ex and more. Throughout this difficult time Brandon First has been keeping our fingers on the pulse of the events and tourism industry by attending all available and relevant webinars and virtual conferences locally, provincially, nationally and internationally. We’ve worked to expand our social media reach, using the slowdown due to the pandemic as an opportunity to build our presence and content. Our campaigns have included introduction to our staff, board members and stakeholders, as well as highlighting interesting businesses and locations around Brandon. One of our most popular campaigns has been sharing fun and interesting tidbits about Brandon in our #FunFactFriday.

In addition to all the learning and social media, we have been talking to some great groups about events that will be available for bid in the next few months and are excited to look at all the possibilities for a post Covid event world.

In September, Brandon First sponsored the first in a new Speaker Series put on by the Brandon Chamber of Commerce; Jenn and Sara had the honour of talking about Brandon’s event history and current hosting landscape and then were able to be in attendance while Chamber President Spencer Day discussed current events with our city’s Mayor, the Honourable Rick Chrest. If you’d like to watch a video of the event you can see it here or watch below!

Getting to Know Our Own City Better

During the summer, Jenn and Sara visited multiple tourist locations and event venues to both familiarize ourselves with the great spaces this city has to offer, and to take fun photos for our “Where Are We Wednesday” campaign; in this we took close up macro photos of interesting items and had our social media followers guess where we were! We hit every corner of the city, visiting the Green Spot and Crows General Store at the East End Experience, the Riverbank Discovery Centre and Alberts on the North Hill, TBirds at the south end and more! We also did a museum circuit, stopping at the Brandon Museum and General Archives, the Daly House Museum and the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum and a Downtown walking tour! Scroll through the pics below or check out our full photo album here, and plan to visit some of these great stops yourself in the next few months.