Eve O'Leary is excited for 2020 at Portage Regional Economic Development.

She got the position last year, and she's been acclimating to Portage and getting settled into her role.

"It's been an amazing adventure so far. I've been settling into my new role as Executive Director for PRED. I've met some astounding organizations and individuals that are very passionate about the future of Portage la Prairie, which makes my job very easy in terms of economic development."

Here's what they have in store for 2020.

"We're going to focus on a lot of the projects continuing from 2019, such as investment attraction, business expansion and retention, and tourism also," says O'Leary. "One of the key components is to continue our communication with the public on what's happening with economic development, and how PRED is moving forward."

They plan on doing a lot of strategic planning this year to focus on what they want to see happen for the next 2-3 years. She outlines why it matters.

"I think it's very important for any organization to have a strategic plan because it identifies opportunities, and it identifies the priorities on what the board and the organization should work on."

She says when they make the strategic plan, they will be discussing ways to better inform the public.