A great idea, nice presentations and now come the questions.
Estevan Showcase had to be deemed a solid success on several fronts this past weekend. There was a well-organized collaboration with the Cultural Collage that definitely added to the positive atmosphere.
What we found somewhat puzzling though was the fact that only 20 per cent of the Showcase exhibitors were local businesses.
On the surface, that appears to be a sad commentary on local participation, especially for the Chamber of Commerce that loves to tout the "buy locally" theme.
But should a low turnout of Estevan businesses on the show floor translate into a negative response from this corner or from the public sector?
After all, isn't Showcase also designed for others to come to the Energy City to strut their stuff and display their goods? Perhaps if their experience was a profitable one on the weekend, they'll look seriously at setting up a permanent business here rather than just paying us a visit for a few hours and walking away with a few thousand dollars.
Visiting businesses that are repeaters have obviously seen something in the Energy City that local businesses might be missing. Maybe things have been too easy for the local entrepreneurs, who have enough business and don't need Showcase because they already have six months of backorders to fill and can't expand because they can't get enough people to fill the bill. In fact, that was a good reason for one former Estevan Showcase participant to back away these past two years. They couldn't find people to staff the Showcase exhibit booth for the continuous hours that were required. And at an event like Showcase, you don't want to staff your booth with inexperienced, uneducated personnel either. You need your best.
So is the Chamber of Commerce wrong in their pursuit of outside enterprises to fill the Showcase spaces?
We say, probably not.
It is a first-come, first-serve situation, and if the local businesses are snoozing at the switch, they lose because the spaces fill up quickly, with a high percentage of those signing on being repeat exhibitors who appreciate the opportunity to sell stuff in Estevan.
Now, with additional space being available, there is no reason why Showcase can't expand in the future, especially if there is a surge in interest from the local business front. That might solve the perceived problem of not having enough Estevan-based exhibitors.
We can't lay the blame for low local participation on the shoulders of the Chamber of Commerce. We expect they swamped the local business community with news and information about Showcase. If local businesses didn't know about the 2013 Showcase opportunity, then shame on them. If you didn't know about it, then you shouldn't be in business.
So the C of C did their part. The rest was up to our business community, and if they chose not to get involved in this particular event, there must be good reasons, such as the aforementioned personnel issue.
When all is said and done, we salute those locals who did take the time and made the effort to put their best foot forward at Showcase, and we certainly welcomed those from outside the city, who found the experience exciting and rewarding and might be willing to return next year.
