The city of Swift Current recently gained some national recognition from their website focused on economic development.

On Monday morning the Economic Developers Association of Canada announced some of their 2020 Marketing Canada Award winners and Swift Current was included.

The city's 'Open Skies Take Us Further' website was named the Economic Development Website winner for in the under $200,000 category.

"It's very good news," Swift Current's General Manager of Planning and Growth Development Marty Salberg said. "We're really happy with how the website turned out... It's been a lot of work but it's just a fantastic website and we're very happy to get the award."

The city is hopeful they'll be able to turn the award and recognition into some economic result, citing several communities across the country are members of the Economic Developers Association of Canada.

"We sure hope the award gives us more traction," he said. "One of the things we really want is more people to see the website because it is so good.

"All those cities now know that again Swift Current is on the map in terms of our marketing initiatives and the quality of the project."

In 2019 the website was launched after about two years was spent gathering information from stakeholders including local non-profits, the provincial and federal governments, the Swift Current & District Chamber of Commerce, and local businesses.

One of the driving forces behind the website and video creation according to Salberg was Michael Boutilier the city's communications and stakeholder relations coordinator.

"One of the key elements, when we started this process a few years ago, was we were looking to be innovative and be on the cutting edge and not necessarily build a site and materials you'd tend to see elsewhere," Boutilier said. "A big part of the process was really taking a good global view of quote-unquote economic sites are available. While we found somethings that we like, we really wanted something new and different and really eye-catching. It's quite heavy on the graphic elements and photos, it is something quite different from what you'd typically see."

Last year the website also garnered some provincial recognition from the Saskatchewan Economic Development Association, as they won for the best marketing initiative for the site.

The site can be found at www.growwithswiftcurrent.ca