Southampton’s BIA Chair Sara Porter to sit on the provincial OBIAA Advocacy and Education, Membership and Annual Conference Committees. The move comes as Rachel Brathiwaite takes over as OBIAA’s Executive Director from retiring Kay Matthews.
OBIAA is the network that represents unique and vibrant main streets and BIAs across Ontario. OBIAA raises the profile and builds the capacity of main streets across the province, working to build economic prosperity and social cohesiveness, making Ontario stronger by ensuring main streets are desirable and viable places to invest and live.
Porter has been an OBIAA Director for two years and as part of the Advocacy and Communications Committees, she’ll be taking part in the creation of a cohesive communications strategy for OBIAA with trickle down programmes for BIA’s such as the “Shop Local/Support Main Street Canada” programme that rolled out in response to tariff talks.
Porter brings her own entrepreneurial experience with insights into the needs of a smaller town, and looks forward to developing strategies to empower advocacy for economic and social well-being, equipping BIAs with the tools, resources, and data needed to amplify their impact on local economies and community development, and to building member capacity through knowledge, facilitating collaboration, best practices. She’ll also be involved in OBIAA’s advocacy efforts with the Provincial and Federal governments.
“It’s a real pleasure to be working with such an accomplished and varied group of people and it’s been a real benefit for me personally, and to the Southampton BIA, as the knowledge and support that OBIAA offers through their initiatives has been a boon with regard to how we operate the SBIA Board. The annual OBIAA Conference has consistently been a source of inspiration – it’s great getting to know other similarly sized BIAs and learning what’s been successful for them and also seeing what the large urban BIAs are doing and how we can apply some of their learning and programs to us”, Porter says.
The Southampton BIA has spearheaded the High Street Revitalization plan and aims to continue rolling out their 2024 Strategic Plan with regard to streetscape enhancements, original, public art, and events and promotions including the Wine and Cheese Fest this past April, the summer Shindig street party, Ladies at the Lake in October and Christmas at the Shores in November and December. All of these initiatives are in support of the Southampton Business Improvement Members (commercial property owners and their tenants), in creating an environment where it is a pleasure to conduct business and for people to shop, dine and enjoy Southampton. Event details may be found on the Southampton BIA website events page.
