Preserving the history of Saskatchewan small towns is this tech company's specialty

memoryKPR Founder and CEO Jessica McNaughton (Left) and Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association CEO Jean-Marc Nadeau. (David Prisciak/CTV News)

The image of a sleepy Saskatchewan small town with ‘not a lot going on’ is a well-known anecdote. However, one Saskatchewan company is hoping to change that – and allow communities both on and off the beaten path to share their stories and advertise what they have to offer.

memoryKPR is a Saskatchewan-based technology company with a focus on storytelling.

“We have a storytelling platform that allows you to craft really nice stories digitally, to share with people and or to allow people to share their stories back with you,” founder Jessica McNaughton told CTV News.

Recognizing that its easy to get lost in today’s social media scene, McNaughton presents her business’s solution as a one-stop digital storytelling platform for communities to essentially advertise themselves.

The tech firm has conducted a pilot program with the goal to gather 48 communities from across the province and provide them with the know-how and tools to preserve their collective history while attracting visitors and tourists with their stories and attractions.

“[It] also allows you to take all the content you have from all the different places, keep them in one place, keep them safe, organized and future proofed,” McNaughton added.

The pilot project, made possible through Innovation Saskatchewan’s Made in Sask technology program, has provided communities access to speakers and experts in the fields of marketing and economic development.

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The firm has partnered with the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) to make the program a reality and help communities across the province adopt the approach.

SUMA CEO Jean-Marc Nadeau said he believes the project will assist in a field that Saskatchewan is perhaps not the best at.

“We don't do a very good job in telling our story and the history and the traditions that really form the community,” he explained.

“So, this partnership with memoryKPR just helps their communities to use a tool that's available to them to promote their story and to share where they've come and where they're going in the future.”

Examples come from places like Ogema – where decades old footage of some well-known community members has a renewed purpose in another community heritage project.

In Coronach, residents are using memoryKPR to showcase several murals in the community and the meaning behind them.

In Moose Jaw, the city has focused on highlighting its ample supply of heritage sites and buildings.

“They're not just going to be telling the stories of heritage buildings. They're actually going to be putting a call out to the community to say, ‘This is our story, about The Joyners Building. What's your story?’” McNaughton explained.

City councillor Crystal Froese advises the Moose Jaw Heritage Commission. She said memoryKPR is providing a separate space and a more engaging method to tell stories associated with heritage sites across the province’s “most notorious city.”

Speaking with CTV News in front of the King Edward Elementary School stone archway in Crescent Park, Froese spoke to the importance of the initiative.

“memoryKPR will allow us to expand exponentially on that history, on that story, and of course, allow other people to weigh in and to also add to the history,” she explained.

“There's so many historical sites, all that have links to some fantastic stories. And of course, there's lots of history within our downtown, the natatorium … the stories are endless.”

While Froese sees the city’s past efforts in tourism as a success – she says memoryKPR will allow a place for many of Moose Jaw’s unique tales to live.

One in particular is the city’s Fourth Avenue Bridge. According to Froese, the bridge and a similar design located near Saskatchewan’s legislature contain style elements from the Egyptians.

"memoryKPR will allow us to expand on that, to add video, to link both of those bridges and really tell the history and how that's all connected to the Egyptians, which is 10,000 years old,” she added.

“There's so much more to offer people, as far as the education component, but also the really cool stories that are completely unique to our city.”

SUMA, representing 440 urban municipalities across the province, sees the partnership as vital.

“[It gives] a chance to our municipalities to tell their stories and show Saskatchewanians the value these economic hubs have,” Nadeau said.

“If you're looking for a library, you're going to the urban centre. [If] you're looking for the rink, you're going to the urban center. So, to promote this partnership, [its] really important for SUMA and for its members.”

McNaughton noted that the pilot project’s success will be hard to measure. However, the priority remains shining a light on some of the overlooked gems the province has to offer.

“Speaking to these communities and spending time with them is really that their stories are unearthed and heard … Good stories have an impact and connect people and that's what we're going for,” she said.

“I think our youth always think like you have to go somewhere else to have these incredible experiences. The things I'm learning, even through this program of the towns and the cities and the villages that we're working with, there's a lot of really incredible, really smart, really driven, really caring people in this province, and their stories – they'll just knit us all together.”