Discover Downtown

Discover Downtown is a chamber foot-traffic initiative that gives residents and visitors a fun reason to stroll through downtown Armstrong, notice local storefronts, and visit participating businesses.

The program can be adapted around major community moments, seasonal themes, local history, festivals, or special events. Businesses take part with simple displays, activities, specials, or interactive elements that encourage people to explore downtown on foot.

How it works

Each Discover Downtown edition gives participating businesses a shared theme and a simple activity for the public to follow.

Depending on the edition, businesses may be invited to:

• Create a themed window display
• Hide a numbered item or clue supplied by the chamber
• Offer a small in-store activity, giveaway, special, or photo opportunity
• Encourage visitors to vote for a favourite display
• Be included in chamber promotion, maps, social media, and event communications

The goal is to make participation simple, creative, and low cost while giving downtown businesses another reason to be discovered.

IPE Edition: Capture 125

The most recent Discover Downtown example is the IPE Edition: Capture 125, created to celebrate the Interior Provincial Exhibition’s 125 Years and Counting theme, with photography as the featured division.

For this edition, businesses are invited to create window displays inspired by photography, IPE history, or their own IPE memories. The chamber supplies a numbered vintage camera cutout for each display. Visitors search for the cameras, vote for favourite displays, and enter to win.

Display ideas may include family or historic photos, IPE ribbons and posters, grain sacks, barn wood, farm tools, vintage cameras, picture frames, black-and-white enlargements, or a small selfie spot.

Recognition categories for this edition include Best Storytelling, Best IPE Spirit, Judges’ Favourite, and People’s Choice.

Why it supports business growth

Discover Downtown helps businesses benefit from the visitor traffic already coming into Armstrong for major events, while also encouraging local residents to rediscover shops, services, restaurants, and community spaces.

• It brings more people onto downtown streets
• It gives participating businesses a shared promotional moment
• It connects storefront visibility with local events and seasonal themes
• It encourages visitors to slow down, explore, and enter local businesses
• It strengthens the sense of downtown Armstrong as a walkable shopping and gathering district

For businesses

Participation details, deadlines, themes, registration forms, and challenge dates are shared by the chamber when a Discover Downtown edition is open.

For questions about participating in Discover Downtown, contact the chamber office.

Phone (250) 546-8155 or email manager@aschamber.com.