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Trade fair off for this year |
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Wednesday, 07 May 2008 |
By Garrett Simmons
Taber Times
There will be no trade fair here in Taber on the May 24 weekend.
The cancellation came after the announcement by the Taber Pro Rodeo committee that the pro rodeo had been called off.
Gloria Ilczynski, chairperson for the trade fair committee, said the decision was made to call off the event for 2008 for a variety of reasons.
"We were just getting to the point we had to make a decision to be fair to our exhibitors," she said.
With the on-again, off-again status of the pro rodeo, trade fair organizers had about 55 booths ready to go.
However, according to Ilczynski, the committee could not wait any longer before making a decision on its event.
She added the committee was about two or three weeks behind on its advertising, compared to last year, and decided it simply could not do the best job possible on the event for its exhibitors, as a result.
"We did a lot of ads at this time last year... We were just running out of time."
Ilczynski said a lot of businesses involved in the trade fair were very dedicated to the event while for others, it came down to a decision based on staff availability.
"It's tough because they have to find extra staff. You can't put a brand-new person in the store or at the trade fair."
With staffing concerns, and the expenses involved in getting involved in the trade fair, Ilczynski said the cancellation of the pro rodeo put a bit of a crimp in plans for the trade fair.
"In fair for them (the exhibitors), to put in all that work and all that money and not get the crowd... That's why we wanted to do it during the rodeo, and get a few couple thousand more people come through."
The rodeo itself was a big drawing card for many exhibitors, said Ilczynski.
"We had a lot of exhibitors come in because of that - a lot."
Faced with a difficult task of calling all the exhibitors and asking if they were still in for the trade fair, after the rodeo was called off, and some tight timelines for either promoting the event or calling it off, a decision one way or another had to be made, according to Ilczynski.
"It's just a call the trade fair committee had to make. We'll make it bigger and better next year." |
