After over a year and a half as executive director of the Alberta Energy Corridor, Jodie Pruden has a new post with Athabasca County.
Taking up a position as economic development and tourism coordinator last Monday, Pruden said it was a good opportunity to get back into the tourism game while maintaining a role similar to the one she had with AEC.
“It’s continuity at a lot of levels,” she said. “Economic development allows me to keep a lot of my clients relevant and may still afford an opportunity to work with AEC.”
Pruden made it clear that she was happy with work at AEC, the jointly funded municipal government and industry partnership aimed at attracting business to the area. She said the move to the county is closer to home and will let her spend more time with family.
“It was tough to leave,” she said. “There are a lot of people that I’ve really come to appreciate because of the investment they have made into AEC.”
She said she looked forward to getting back into tourism, having already spent time heading up the now-defunct Athabasca Country Tourism.
Moving forward with the new position, she said much of her early time will be spent establishing the direction of her efforts in a work plan.
“A lot of it will be understanding what the evolution of the position is going to be,” she said, adding that there is a lot of overlap between economic development and tourism, specifically pointing to the county’s rural livability, with its lakes and campgrounds, as both a driver for tourism and attracting new workers and business.
“There are certain things this department I’m working for can address outside of the AEC mandate,” she explained. “Overall there’s a recognition that what’s good for one part of the county has residual benefits to the rest of the county.”
Even though she formally started working for the county last Monday, Pruden said she will be maintaining a part-time role with AEC until they can find her replacement. She added that she will help the new executive director make the personal connections that are so crucial in that position.
Looking back at her 19 months with AEC, she believes they have succeeded in setting the foundation for its future efforts.
“I think that in the end we met the deliverables, the things we initially set out to do,” she said, specifically pointing to the infrastructure of brand creation, advertising and creating positive working relationships with both with industry and government.
Moving forward without a full-time executive director, chair of AEC’s board, Mike Voisin, said it will be business as usual for the organization.
“We are still very operational,” he said.
He added that the search for Pruden’s replacement is well underway, and they hope to have a new executive director in place in the next four to six weeks.
“Jodie’s done a great job for us,” he said. “This just creates another chapter in our organization’s existence.”
He said AEC has made great in-roads in establishing a foundation of brand awareness and network building, and the next step is to ramp up their marketing efforts.
