This year's annual Business Breakfast, hosted by St. Albert Business & Tourism Development was a sold out success! The event, held at Hole's Enjoy Centre featured presentations from Mayor Nolan Crouse, Guy Boston- General Manager of Planning and Engineering, Joan Barber - Interim Director of Business & Tourism Development,  as well as a brief overview by Nick Wilson about using analytics in business at the Upcoming Conference "Analytics - Big Data and the Cloud" in Edmonton April 23-25.

Mayor Nolan Crouse spoke about key economic development priorities for 2012, such as decisions needed to allocate industrial land, working with landowners and the development industry, and creating a corporate economic development division. Mayor Crouse also discussed his 20 Point Support Plan for Economic Development which included road, water and sewer infrastructure, corporate staff support, business attraction and retention strategies, marketing, planning for beyond 2040 and many others.

Guy Boston, General Manager of Planning and Engineering spoke about the Municipal Development Plan, Transportation & Utility Master Plans, and future land use of several areas. Planning and Engineering supports development and is interested in working with developers to make the process easier. A Growth Initiative Team has been created to focus exclusively on growth related development issues.

Joan Barber, Interim Director of Business & Tourism (B&TD) provided an update on our activities. A new business website www.cultivatebusiness.ca has been created with enhanced tools, including a very intuitive business directory with location mapping, a commercial listings page, featuring properties and land for sale or lease in St. Albert. This tool will be a one stop shop for potential developers or buyers to view what is available in St. Albert and put them in direct contact with the listing agent.

B&TD is planning to host quarterly workshops for our local business community, and is also focusing on continued branding and promotional efforts. The Business Beautification cost-sharing program, which was introduced to support the "botanical brand" is now available for both winter and summer, and soon to all businesses in St. Albert. This year the city will be launching a new initiative - "Cultivating Front Yards." Stay tuned for details this spring!

Building the Future
2012 will be an exciting year for our department with the base building blocks coming together.  These include broader zoning in Campbell North, Anthony Henday access and connections, City Council making a decision on Industrial land, a new Growth Team to assist development and last but not least a new General Manager of Economic Development.

Also included in the morning was a presentation from Nick Wilson on the topic of analytics and the upcoming "Analytics- Big Data and the Cloud" conference on April 23 - 25th in Edmonton. Check out this conference and learn about analytics tools and techniques for increasing productivity, network with others and identify barriers to success.

All Presentations for the breakfast now available for download: www.cultivatebusiness.ca