CORE
VALUE
CORNER
Teams overcome obstacles in Town of Windsor
Matt Ashby , an urban planner in Ayres ’ Cheyenne , Wyoming office , looks back at the last year and marvels at the challenges presented to clients and consultants alike . Quarantining and social distancing made business as usual an impossibility .
But where there were challenges , there were also creative solutions to overcome them .
Ashby has been part of many adaptive efforts in 2020 and 2021 , including numerous virtual public meetings and several unique outreach methods with local and regional businesses .
Ashby , who also serves as executive director of the Windsor Downtown Development Authority , set up a virtual shopping event in downtown Windsor in early May 2020 using 3D virtual tour imagery . The idea came about during a Zoom-based brainstorming session on innovative ideas among his Planning staff peers .
“ One of the core values of Ayres is to approach our clients with innovative , problem-solving solutions to be able to address their unique needs , and I hope that that skill and that talent is something that we continue to hone and refine over the coming years to become even more creative with the solutions that we roll out in the future .”
Matt Ashby
Ayres Urban Planner
“ Like any good idea , taking technology and tools that are out there and repurposing them and finding new ways to adapt them to current conditions is what innovation is all about ,” Ashby said . “ We ’ d seen this technology used in both real estate applications and saw another downtown that hosted a similar event , and we said ‘ Hey , we can do this , and it would add value to our businesses in Windsor .’ ”
They launched it just before Mother ’ s Day to accommodate shoppers wanting to patronize the downtown businesses while their doors were mandatorily closed . Since people couldn ’ t yet get out and shop , this allowed them to virtually visit the shops , browse their merchandise , and make a purchase .
“ I think with COVID , it was just a continuing series of problem-solving activities ,” Ashby said . “ This wasn ’ t anything that any of us had experienced before , and so we were constantly on the fly responding to either new programs that were offered by the federal government or new challenges that many of our clients needed to respond to . We really just need to be super creative in identifying ways that we could address the new challenges as they came up .”
One of the lessons learned during this difficult time , he said , was the importance of creative thinking .
– Jennifer Schmidt
22 | TRENDS Ingenuity , Integrity , and Intelligence .