Santa Returns to Baker with Elf Walk

Santa returns to Baker Street with new surprises
A Festival of Lights and an Assembly of Elves

Nelson BC, Friday November 30^th at 5:30pm Santa returns to the 400 Block of Baker Street with some exciting new additions to make the event more festive.  To make the evening more fantastic organizers are inviting people do doth their helpers attire and join in the city’s First Annual Elf Walk.  This will also be the launch of the Festival of Lights as Santa turns on the newly decorated holiday trees of Baker Street.

For over 40 years Santa Claus has been coming to Baker Street courtesy of Nelson Fire-Department to light up the holiday trees and personally meet with the children of Nelson.  This tradition is getting some extra excitement as organizers are encouraging people to show up on 400 block of Baker Street in their best Elf attire to show Santa their spirit of the season.  This event was inspired by the flash mob movement and is your opportunity to not just attend, but to be a part of the fun.

The street will also be more vibrant as a new group have started a committee to increase Nelson’s holiday lighting presence.  Event co-organizer Maureen Crawford notes that the addition of 10,000 lights to the downtown area will bring more cheer to the holiday season.  “Our goal is to make the streets more festive for the holidays and we are working together with local groups and organizations to help make this a reality, we are off to an excellent start this year, you must come out to see,” Quotes Maureen Crawford.

This entire event is made possible by everyone in Nelson, in particular local businesses and organizations.  Without hesitation people have donated and volunteered to help make this event successful.  There will popcorn courtesy of Kal tire, apple cider from the Kootenay Coop, The Bridge is hosting a chili contest, Eddie`s Music is helping with sound, a visit from the Shaw Cable Polar Bear and don`t forget Santa.  Also the Chamber of Commerce, the Cultural Alliance, the City of Nelson and the Nelson Business Association are volunteering their time to help make this event another wonderful reason to come to town.

“Nelson is one of my favourite places to visit. I am so impressed at how well everyone gets together to make my stay so special, especially the children.  This is one of my most inspirational stops and I’m very excited about the new additions this year,” Says Santa Claus. “I really look forward to seeing everyone dressed up in their favourite elf outfit.”

Come join the fun on Friday November 30^th 400 Block of Baker Street, at 5:30pm for the First Annual Elf Walk and lighting of the trees of Baker Street.  Santa arrives at 6:30pm and will stay until he sees every child waiting in line.  For more information contact our Facebook page facebook.com/ElfWalk?fref=ts or call the Chamber of Commerce at 250.352.3433.

New Home Buyers’ Program Gets Boost from Local Developer
Nelson, B.C. – Changing taxes, shifting economy, job creation, sustainable communities, slowing of development, growth rates—all affect the future of the housing industry in British Columbia and the government has come up with a rebate incentive program to help.  The Provincial Government is offering a $10,000 rebate program for first-time new home buyers and a local Nelson developer is matching the rebate offer and extending it beyond first-time buyers.

In an attempt to stimulate the housing market and to deal with the PST / HST switch the provincial government has created a $10K rebate for purchases of new homes by first-time buyers before April 1, 2013.  The intention is to keep the new home buyers’ market growing, which in turn creates jobs, benefits local economies and creates sustainability.  The proposed legislated rebate would be a refund cheque that could be used to help people with the deposit on a new home, lower their overall debt or for RRSPs, which can be used as a tax deduction.

“The B.C. First-Time New Home Buyers' Bonus is a new temporary measure designed to provide tax relief during the transition period back to the PST for families and individuals who are purchasing their first home and will assist the residential construction industry by encouraging purchases of newly constructed homes.” www.PSTinBC.ca

In Nelson, B.C. local developers of West Creek Village are matching the $10K rebate offered by the government, which means a potential savings of $20K. In today’s economy that is a real boon to the first-time new home buyer.  But West Creek Village is going beyond the first-time buyers and is offering the $10K rebate to any qualified buyers of their last two four-room units. 

To find out more about the B.C. First-Time New Home Buyers’ Bonus check out www.PSTinBC.ca and to find out more about West Creek Village contact Pat Davis at 250.505.4820 and check out www.WestCreekVillage.ca.

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Friday March 30th – Creating A Promotion has NEW material and BONUS tools

Friday March 30th – Creating A Promotion has NEW material and BONUS tools

Learning how to promote your business just go better. This Friday March 30th Community Futures Central Kootenay will be hosting Creating A Promotion a fun learning opportunity that teaches you how to generate revenue through exciting marketing campaigns. This time there are new materials on How to Run a Promotion Online and a Bonus Planning Guide on how to make it happen. Do not miss your opportunity to learn how to have fun while making money for your business. Call Community Futures today 250.352.1933 seating is limited and going fast.

Online Promotions / Special Events using Social Media and Online Resources

Businesses are starting to discover the benefits of marketing online and with social media; one area that has been having great success is creating a promotion or special event in the online world. A virtual promotion takes into account the structure of traditional marketing and applies the new technological advantages available. This new material will showcase how you can use the online world to help promote your business in a fun and easy to implement format. Contact CFCK Nelson to take advantage of this rare opportunity 250.352.1933

Creating a Promotion - Start with the Purpose and Goals

Creating a Promotion - Start with the Purpose and Goals

A Promotion is an activity or event that generates Top of Mind Awareness for a product, service or organization. It is a creative way to get the attention of your target audience, which utilizes the benefits of your service as action items. Promotions are a call to action that provides an entertaining benefit to engaging customers.

There are as many different types of promotions as the imagination can provide. Therefore it is important to understand why you are conducting a promotion and what goals you wish to achieve. Once you understand why you are conducting a promotion, you will have the ability to focus your creative process on developing the details.

First we start with the Purpose / Goals: What is the purpose or goal of a promotion?

Although there are unlimited types of promotions, to help focus on what would work best for you, understand what your purpose / goal is. The purpose or goals can be categorized as the following:

Revenue – This is a promotion with the purpose to increase revenue, maybe you are moving stock, introducing a new service offering, or looking to increase ticket sales. A revenue generating promotion is focused on the ability to increase monies for your business.

Publicity – This is a promotion with the purpose to increase Top Of Mind awareness for your product or service. It is a way of generating interest and knowledge about your business, through a creative process. A company who wants to highlight the benefits of their products and services, or a new business grand opening, would benefit from this type of promotion.

Traffic – This type of promotion is used to increase the amount of people who visit a particular location or business. If your business requires people to physically come to your location, or you have a new product or service that you want people to see or touch, a successful traffic based promotion would bring you the audience.

These three promotional categories are not exclusive of each other. A well-run promotion will take into account all of the categories and how each one could benefit the business. When creating your own promotion, start by defining what goals you would like to see, and which category they are from.

A person who is introducing a new retail store would be very interested in all three categories of a promotion. A new retail store would benefit from the publicity by having their name introduced to the new market. They would definitely want people to visit their location, creating foot traffic, and their mission for the business would be to generate revenue.

Another person may have a service offering but no storefront, therefore they do not have need for traffic, but do want publicity and revenue.

The firststep to creating your promotion is to find out what category or combination best suits your needs. It is important to keep your focus on these categories and ask yourself throughout this creative process, is this plan going to meet the expectations of my purpose / goals?