Event

Franchise Focus Investor Event


Submitted ByFMWBEDT

Franchise Focus Investor Event

Attracting new brands by unlocking local investment

Adding value to what we offer

Exhibiting at biannual ICSC events is an important piece of Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo Economic Development & Tourism’s business and investment attraction plan. A well-designed booth, attractive and informative marketing collateral, and years of relationship-building has grown our success at the event.

To build on this success we created a pre-ICSC local event to add to our value proposition. It leveraged local business expertise, grew capacity among potential entrepreneurs, and identified investor interest in new franchise developments.

By creating a unique Franchise Focus event we can help developers and brands successfully match with local franchisees. This can help to accelerate new developments in our community and grow the value that our organization provides.

A win for developers, investors, and our team

Our first Franchise Focus event saw 60 registrants, more than doubling our goal of 25 registrations. In addition to contact information, each registrant also provided investment readiness, target sector, and business experience information.

Feedback was overwhelmingly positive. A franchise lawyer provided detailed answers to participant questions. The commercial leasing expert outlined timelines, costs, and startup expectations. And a panel of local franchisees offered firsthand experiences of challenges – and solutions to help others avoid these barriers.

The investor list was a valuable conversation starter at ICSC Whistler. It complemented the detailed data we provide on the local economy and helped to add weight to our meetings. Developers see the immediate value it the list provides – and recognize our team’s ability to act as connectors to investors.

The event was a social media boost for the organization as well. Posts were popular and exceeded our average performance metrics. This was a new type of content for our channels, and through shares we were able to identify and invite new followers to our accounts.

Finally, this event helped with capacity building in our community. Even for entrepreneurs not quite ready to take the plunge, it provided specific answers to their questions that will help prepare them for eventual business ownership.

Finding opportunities in challenges

We created this event as a pilot with the goal of improving on successive workshops. The greatest challenge to in-person events in Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo is that the region is larger than some of Canada’s provinces. While most of our population is based in the Fort McMurray urban area, providing access to rural and Indigenous communities across FMWB is a priority. At a subsequent event we recorded the session. Streaming can be difficult without reliable internet so a recording provides the best experience. We’ll continue to innovate and find ways to serve our entire region.

Connecting with our target audience

To meet our goal of adding value to our ICSC value proposition, we wanted to connect with business-ready entrepreneurs who are financially prepared to make an investment within three years. We created an organic social media campaign across our corporate channels and conducted a targeted paid campaign with geographic and psychographic filters.

A sustainable model

Franchise Focus is a successful model for future events. By developing a small in-house event we have created a model that is easy to replicate across all business units. It brings new foot traffic into our business incubator, highlights staff expertise, leverages our existing marketing channels, provides high-quality lead generation, and grows entrepreneurial capacity in our community.

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