From a summer student to the Marketing Specialist, Hayley Gibson has been with Community Futures Chinook since 2016 when she started her journey with the organization between her first and second year of New Media studies at the University of Lethbridge.

Being born and raised in Taber, Alberta, she has a connection to the community that inspires her to pursue her work with the organization every day, through social media, web design, web management, graphic design, general digital content creation, and working with businesses and organizations on collaborative projects.

“To have an impact on the business community that I’ve lived in my entire life is something that’s really cool about this job. Being able to dabble in so many different areas of media and always picking up new skills along the way is exciting,” says Gibson.

She’s recently worked on a project with the Town of Taber and Taber & District Chamber of Commerce, where a Virtual Reality (VR) experience will take students through the process of a very prominent industry in the town and surrounding areas — agriculture. The story of irrigation is the focus, and the interactive VR experience takes students through the entire timeline, starting in the mountains to going into the field as a farmer.

While Gibson contributes to this project, she’s also involved in the ‘Shop Local in Taber’ campaign, where feature videos are created to promote and support local businesses in Taber and region.

“The videos had such an amazing impact when we released them, especially on Facebook and Instagram, accumulating over 100,000 views. There were so many heart reactions, shares, and support in the comments for our local business owners – their service, quality and just how great they are to have in the community,” says Gibson.

In total, there are 22 shop local business videos, and a separate video featuring Taber Pheasant Festival. They have 10 more focused on agricultural organizations in the MD coming this fall.

“I really enjoyed coordinating this project – collaborating with our partners at the Town, Chamber and Lethbridge Link, and all our business participants – and creating the marketing campaigns. It was great to find that bridge between my CF business work and my Visit Taber tourism work.”

Gibson also helps coordinate educational and training events that share knowledge on how to grow, sustain, and stay informed while owning a business in these modern times.

“Community Futures Chinook is a huge force behind so much success in the business community. I’m big on the Disney pixie dust inspiration, and I love the quote, ‘if you can dream it, you can do it.’ And I believe Community Futures Chinook, with the whole team’s knowledge, assists people in making their dreams come true.”