The annual Wellness Fair hosted by the City of Elliot Lake has taken place once a year since 2015.
It's been a showcase for services and businesses in Elliot Lake and area to share what they do with the community.
In previous years the Wellness Fair typically was a day-long event with booths to browse. This time city staff is recommending that it go virtual via the internet.
It is a chance for wellness services and businesses to engage with people. In the past there has been a fee to have a booth in the fair, however, it has been a free event for those who attended.
In a written presentation coming to City Council's next virtual meeting on Monday night, Elliot Lake's Community Development Officer Amanda Roy wrote, "This year, due to COVID-19, an in-person wellness fair is not an option."
"After some research on virtual events and wanting to change things up a bit more, on-demand videos related to wellness services and businesses that serve the Elliot Lake area seemed like it may go a bit further.
Her pitch is that the City should provide a forum for on-demand videos; that is 5 to 10-minute video recordings featuring wellness businesses and the services that they would provide.
The videos would describe what service or product is being offered, answer frequently asked questions, and provide contact information.
Roy continued, "Videos on demand means people can access them at any time. Videos can be updated as information changes. There are two options for how the videos could be presented on the City’s website."
"Option A - Having a ‘Wellness Services/Businesses in Elliot Lake’ page with layout similar to the Available Land page linked to the City's own YouTube channel. There will be no ads. There are no added costs.
"Option B - Would involve additional costs to increase bandwidth on the city website needed to host additional storage space. Along with that, people watching from a personal device may not have the appropriate video player installed. This option would also have a layout similar to the Available Land page.
The cost to increase the city's website hosting for additional storage space and bandwidth required to display the videos, based on 45 videos, would be an extra $150 per month or $1,800 per year.
Continuing, Roy wrote, "It is recommended that Council approve Option A for a ‘Health and Wellness Services and Businesses’ page on the City of Elliot Lake website."
"For those who do not have access to internet but still want this information, a mail-out of some sort is an option."
Roy concluded, "As an Age-Friendly community this information should be easily available, and having it accessible on the City’s website means it would be available in one location so community members and people outside the community can view the information videos at any time."
The virtual Wellness Fair proposal is up consideration at next Monday night's regular virtual City Council meeting at 7 p.m.
It will be streamed live on the city's webpage.