Frontenac County to celebrate business community with campfire retreat, awards ceremony

Jeff Green | Oct 05, 2022

After two hard years of conversations being broken up by dodgy Internet, virtual meetings on Zoom and other platforms, and emails, emails and more emails, the Frontenac County Economic Development Department in ready to pull Frontenac Brand ambassadors and the general business community together.

Debbi Miller, the Community Development Officer with Frontenac County, said that the idea behind the retreat and ceremony came about as part of a “conversation about needing to staring to doing things in person. We decided to create the awards as a thank you for the hard work that local businesses have invested into their operations.”

Through the Engage Frontenac website (engagefrontenac.ca/business-awards) nominations in 5 categories are being accepted until October 12, and 12noon.

The categories reflect some of the targets for the Frontenac Brand Ambassador Program.

The first category is Ambassador of the Year, which is described on the Engage Frontenac website as the “business that best embodies the spirit of the Frontenac Ambassador Network, through collaboration with other businesses supporting the promotion of Frontenac County”.

The second category is the New Business Award, for the business that is between 1 and 3 years old that had made the greatest impact on the local community.

The third category is the Partnership and Collaboration award, to “celebrate businesses who demonstrate success by working together to create new products or experiences in Frontenac” according to the site.

The 4th award is the Sustainability Award for the business that best demonstrates a commitment to preserving the natural environment in the region.

The 5th award goes to the most dynamic Women led business in Frontenac, the one that most “distinguishes themselves by fostering growth, innovation, marketing and customer excellence.”

“We made sure that it only takes a couple of minutes to fill out the nomination form, and that the form is easy to access,” said Debbi Miller, “because we know how busy businesses are with their day-to-day work,”

Th form has 6 questions, 5 of which require only a one-or-two word answer. The remaining question is a short description of how the nominee satisfies the criteria in each award.

The awards will be given out at a dinner to be held at RKY Camp on Eagle Lake, at the newly constructed Dining Facility at the camp.

The ceremony and dinner (which costs $30) is the wind up event, starting at 5:30 on Thursday, October 20 after a free set of workshops will be presented at the Camp as part of the County Campfire Business Retreat, a free event starting at noon,

“We designed the retreat to be informative, but also to allow for plenty of opportunity for networking,” said Miler.

Workshops include “Developing Memorable Tourism Experiences” from 1pm -1:40pm; “Digital Wayfinding” from 2pm -2:45pm, and Navigating Uncertain Financial Times from 3pm – 3:45pm. The rest of the afternoon is dedicated to networking and visiting.

Registration information for the daylong retreat (free) and the buffet dinner ($30) can be found at the business awards page on the engagefrontenac site.

This is the first annual Frontenac County Business Awards event, so remember the nomination deadline, October 12. Your business can be the inaugural winner of one the 5 awards.