Christina Lake, BC – June 21, 2018 – Today, the Christina Gateway Community Development Association launched the free Christina Lake Insider mobile app, which rewards users for exploring Christina Lake, BC. Once people use the app to collect points at various destinations, they can redeem those points for rewards at area businesses. The app was created using the 468 Insider platform provided by the British Columbia Economic Development Association (BCEDA) and 468 Communications.

“Christina Lake as a community offers countless assets, and we need to encourage engagement with those assets,” said Donna Wilchynski, Economic Development Officer of the Christina Gateway Community Development Association. “The Christina Lake Insider app will not only show people where to go, it will reward them for going there.  This is good for visitors and local businesses and helps us achieve our mission of strengthening the community.”

Christina Lake Insider is both a wayfinding tool and a gamified way to reward people for shopping locally. The app’s Explore button takes users to the map of Christina Lake, which has pins indicating the location of the area’s unique points of interest, from cultural sites to places for outdoor recreation.  Locations are assigned a point value. Pushing the “Collect Points” button while physically visiting a location will add the location’s points to a user’s point total.

Points accumulated with the Christina Lake Insider app can be redeemed for goods or services at any of the Rewards locations listed in the app. At launch, Rewards locations include: Lisa’s Lakeside Bistro, Kool Treat and the Christina Lake Stewardship Society. Local businesses interested in offering a reward to increase traffic to their place of business should contact Donna Wilchynski at donna@christinagateway.ca.  Christina Lake Insider is available now as a free download on the iTunes App Store and Google Play.

About Christina Lake
Christina Lake is located half way across the southern edge of British Columbia, just north of the Washington State border. Clear mountain-fed streams, clean lakes and hectares of wilderness create plentiful opportunities for recreation. Plenty of sunshine, four full seasons, and mild temperatures make Christina Lake an ideal environment for those who love the outdoors.  It is the warmest tree lined lake in Canada due to hot springs deep in the lake. Years of volunteer work by local residents have created a community which is enlightened on environmental and social concerns, and yet maintains an intrinsically small-town quality which is cherished by locals and visitors alike. For more information, visit http://www.christinagateway.ca.

About BCEDA
The British Columbia Economic Development Association of (BCEDA) is the leading professional association of economic development practitioners in the Province of BC. The BCEDA currently has over 360 members from communities throughout the Province. The BCEDA provides services that helps member communities grow and expand new and existing businesses, attract new business investments, and work towards strategic infrastructure investment, land use planning, and community enhancement.  BCEDA has been a leader in Canada in providing tools and resources for communities, including business retention, disaster recovery, networking opportunities and more.

About 468 Insider
Available from BCEDA and 468 Communications, 468 Insider is a customizable mobile app that drives visitor engagement and commerce for communities by rewarding users for visiting places. Communities can easily customize the look and feel, locations and content in their own, branded apps. An online control panel provides valuable data including the popularity of individual destinations, periods of peak activity, and what part of the world visitors are from. For more information visit www.468insider.com.