St. Charles Business Alliance celebrates completed merger

Aiming to create a more efficient and better tourism and downtown St. Charles marketing organization, two St. Charles organizations - the Downtown St. Charles Partnership and the Greater St. Charles Convention and Visitors Bureau - have merged into the St. Charles Business Alliance.

Both organizations' representatives and the City of St. Charles have been working together to merge the two organizations, which was finalized in July.

They wanted to keep the success of the organizations going, while creating efficiencies by eliminating overlapping functions the organizations had.

The mission of the Alliance is to drive economic growth to make the St. Charles community a destination where people, businesses and tourism thrive.

The main goal is to market St. Charles under one brand to draw visitors and locals alike to St. Charles, while engaging with and supporting St. Charles hotels, downtown businesses and businesses that drive tourism. The Alliance will continue to organize large scale events in downtown St. Charles that drive visitors to the community and get hotels and other businesses involved.

St. Charles Business Alliance Executive Director Jenna Sawicki said the Alliance is looking forward to what comes next.

"Every day is a new opportunity for us to serve St. Charles and make it a favorite destination for locals and visitors," Sawicki said. "We are already meeting with hotels and working with their staff to make sure they are familiarized with St. Charles, so they feel comfortable and confident in making recommendations to guests. We want to capitalize on the individuals staying in St. Charles and making sure they also eat, shop and play in St. Charles. This is just one of the many ways we are driving our new mission."

The STC Alliance will have an eight-person staff that will be assisted by their volunteer committees. The volunteer committees are business development & sales, marketing & promotions, organization and events. The events committees include the parade committees, the Fine Art Show committee & the Scarecrow Festival committee.

The Alliance welcomes volunteers to serve on any of the committees. Any interested individuals may contact info@stcalliance.org for more information.

For more information on the Alliance, individuals may follow them on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Their new website is in progress and will be finished soon.