BERLIN – Berlin officials welcomed Ivy Wells, the town’s new economic development director, to town hall this week.

Wells, who is taking over for Michael Day, said she is thrilled to join the town.

“It’s even better than I thought,” she said. “People are extremely welcoming, from business owners to town staff.”

Wells, who started Monday, said she will spend the first couple months on the job learning about the town and meeting everyone. Day will also be sharing his knowledge of the town and its economic development concerns with her in the coming weeks before he retires at the end of the year.

“I’d like to meet everyone and get a feel for the town,” Wells said.

She comes to the position after serving as the economic development director in Sykesville for six years. It was through her role there that she first met Day.

“We’d bounce ideas off each other,” she said, adding that she had often been envious of Day, as Berlin officials always proved to be particularly supportive of his ideas on how to bring business to town.

During her time in Sykesville, where she had been a volunteer for years before she was hired to head the town’s economic development efforts, Wells was instrumental in building the town’s repertoire of annual events. She started a ghost tour, a fine art and wine festival, the town’s First Friday program and numerous other events. She is looking forward to working with the officials in Berlin, who already know the importance of events.

“Berlin and I have the same mentality,” she said. “Events drive economic development.”

Joining town staff just as Berlin’s Victorian Christmas celebration is set to begin, Wells is excited about seeing Berlin at its busiest.

“It’s the perfect time,” she said. “I get to see what’s going on during the holidays. This is the key time. Everyone builds up all year for this moment.”

Once settled in, one of Wells’ first goals as Berlin’s economic development director is to make sure the town has a strong Internet presence. In what she considers an “eyes down society,” where people are constantly using their smartphones to find information about places, Wells wants to make sure Berlin comes up in search engines and through social media.

“You can’t rely on traffic coming down Route 50,” she said.

In the meantime, as she prepares to move into her new home in downtown Berlin next week, Wells is simply eager to live and work in a community she enjoys.

“There’s nothing better than to work for something you actually care about,” she said.