Miami Lakes EDC weighs combined ad for boot camp and "Best of Miami Lakes"; approves $200 for swag bags

The Miami Lakes Economic Development Committee on Tuesday reviewed promotion plans for its 2026 boot camp and debated running a combined advertising package in the Miami Laker to promote both the boot camp and the town's Best of Miami Lakes nominations.

Presenter (S2), who outlined the event program, said the boot camp will be "AI heavy" this year and named several speakers planned for the July event, including a small-business speaker from Vida Custom Print and a University of Miami professor focused on AI strategies for small business. S2 asked members for one additional inspirational speaker and said the committee needed to lock the five-speaker lineup by May 1.

A central point of debate was whether to buy repeated ad insertions in the Miami Laker and what size to purchase. S2 described proposed options ranging from a third-of-page to full-page color ads and said the EDC's marketing miscellaneous budget had roughly $5,900 available to cover the buy. Several members pressed for smaller, more frequent insertions. S3 urged aligning ad timing with the nomination and voting calendar, and S7 recommended including a QR code and social sharing prompts in the ad copy to increase resident participation.

S3 shared partial advertising metrics from an April campaign to underline the outreach potential: "The boosting campaign delivered strong early results generating 28,500 post engagement at a very effective 0.1 cost for interaction, supported by over 68,000 impressions and 40,000 reach," and said an event-response campaign returned 297 responses at about $0.69 per result.

Committee members also debated how the Best of Miami Lakes nominations are collected and processed. S2 explained the town uses an open online nomination form; staff create a word cloud from submissions to identify frequent entries, then verify nominees have the required business tax registration (BTR) before selecting the top five finalists in each category. Some members cautioned that an open nomination process can produce long lists that discourage voters; others said broader outreach via paid advertising would increase fairness and community participation.

On motions, the committee postponed a decision on the Miami Laker ad until the main June meeting after members asked staff to confirm advertising deadlines and whether the newspaper allows ad copy changes between insertions. The group did, however, approve one budget allocation: S2 moved and members approved a $200 expenditure from the marketing miscellaneous line to buy EDC-branded swag bags from Vida Custom Print for the boot camp.

Procedural items included approval of the March 24 meeting minutes and an announcement that town committees must present proposed 2026——6-2027 budgets to the town council at a special-call meeting on June 4.

The EDC will revisit the Miami Laker advertising proposal at its next meeting after staff confirm insertion deadlines, ad-change policies and design capacity; members were asked to provide ad content and speaker suggestions in advance.