Selected work

Drawn mainly from several years with the organization responsible for one of Canada's best-known historic districts, first building its marketing and communications function and later leading it as Executive Director. All of it was the work of a team, a board, partners, and a city; what follows is what the organization delivered and the part Victoria led. The setting is civic, but the discipline, turning a strategy into something people can use, is the same in any organization.

District Leadership & Stakeholder Relations

Leading the organization behind one of Canada's busiest historic districts, and the relationships it runs on

Victoria Williston with Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe at Ottawa City Hall — With Mayor Mark Sutcliffe at Ottawa City Hall, January 2026. Photo: City of Ottawa

The context: One of Canada's best-known historic districts: roughly 25 million visits in 2025, more than 500 businesses, hundreds of vendors, residents, institutions, and a city hall sharing a few blocks. Everything the organization does is public, most of it is debated, and nearly everything depends on other people agreeing: City departments, councillors, police, transit, social agencies, and property owners.
Victoria's role: Joined the ByWard Market District Authority at its founding to build its marketing and communications function, and led the organization as Executive Director from January to August 2026. Throughout, the organization's lead relationship-holder with City staff, elected officials, and operational partners, and its public voice on contested questions.
What the team did: Built the machinery a new organization needs: governance documents, staff priorities, operating policies, and the reporting a board and a city require. Cleared permitting, safety, and operational review for the work, and kept partners at the table between projects. Presented to Ottawa City Council on the organization's behalf.
Her contribution: Stewarded the strategy and the relationships, wrote much of the documentation, set the direction the team delivered against, and left an organization city hall and businesses could both pick up the phone to.

Policy, Process & Organizational Capacity

The documents that let a small team run a complicated place

Victoria Williston presenting the district organization's annual meeting report to Ottawa City Council — Presenting the annual report to Ottawa City Council, June 2026. City of Ottawa broadcast.

The context: New organizations inherit a mandate before they have systems. What is not written down lives in someone's head, and the work slows to the speed of whoever remembers.
Victoria's role: Wrote the organization's marketing strategy and communications guidebook, contributed to its events policy, and produced the governance and operating documents the board and staff worked from.
What the team did: Turned improvisation into process: clear roles, repeatable approaches, and documents a new hire could be handed on day one.
Her contribution: A pattern repeated at every stop in her career, including moving a newsroom from paper records to digital and writing its traffic reporter's handbook.

Funding & Partnerships

Making the case, in the language funders and city staff expect

A ByWard Winter Market sign thanking Ottawa Tourism's Destination Development Fund, with market stalls behind — The Winter Market, supported through Ottawa Tourism's Destination Development Fund. Photo: Victoria Williston

The context: Ambitious public programming costs more than an organization's own revenue can carry. The rest comes from grants and partners, who need a case, a plan, and reporting afterward.
Victoria's role: Co-authored the application that grew a single event grant into a multi-year events funding partnership, and helped build the organization's relationship with Ottawa Tourism.
What the team did: Delivered against the commitments the funding carried, and reported back on them.
Her contribution: $2.25 million in events funding secured through the application she co-authored, and the partnership groundwork that followed.

Public Realm & Placemaking

Changing how people experience a historic district's streets and squares

Carré ByWard Square on a festival afternoon: a performer on the small stage and a crowd seated across the painted square — Carré ByWard Square during the Latin Sparks Festival, July 2026. Photos: Victoria Williston

The context: Public space in a heritage district serves residents, businesses, and visitors at once, including after dark, when perception shapes whether people come at all.
Victoria's role: Led the organization's positioning and communications for public-realm work, and as Executive Director oversaw its delivery alongside City and community partners.
What the team did: Delivered a new public square with the City of Ottawa and relaunched a night-time ambassador program to improve how the district felt after dark.
Her contribution: Kept partners aligned, made the public case for change where change is contested, and saw the work through approvals to opening.

Events & Programming

A year-round public programme in a district everyone is watching

A crowd in falling snow at night facing the lit Barbegazi snowmobile ramp on a ByWard Market street during Winterlude — Barbegazi freestyle snowmobile show in the ByWard Market, Winterlude 2026. Photo: Victoria Williston

The context: Programming had to draw people across seasons and audiences, within busy streets, licensed venues, permitting, and city services.
Victoria's role: Shaped the programme and its communications from the organization's launch, and led its delivery as Executive Director.
What the team did: Planned and promoted public events from concept and permitting through run-of-show and on-the-day coordination, including a 200th anniversary programme and Winterlude activations.
Her contribution: Sustained coverage across CBC, CTV, the Ottawa Citizen, and OBJ, and traditions that now return each year.

Brand & Destination Positioning

A credible story about what a district is and who it is for, told every week

The district brand at street level: banners and wayfinding. Art direction: Victoria Williston. Graphic design: Sage Mosurinjohn. Photos: Victoria Williston

The context: A recognizable place with no organizational voice: no brand, no marketing plan, and no media relationships.
Victoria's role: Built the marketing and communications function from nothing as the organization's first Manager of Marketing and Communications.
What the team did: Developed a district brand for the Market's 200th anniversary with graphic designer Sage Mosurinjohn, a graphics package that let a small team publish quickly and consistently, and a weekly and monthly "what's on" series that other Ottawa BIAs have since adopted.
Her contribution: Wrote the five-year marketing plan; the district's Instagram following grew by more than 140% from January 2024 under her leadership.

Working on something similar?

Victoria takes on a small number of event, communications and project engagements with corporations, professional firms, nonprofits, municipalities, and community organizations.

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