The Estevan Chamber of Commerce has announced they will no longer be a part of Estevan鈥檚 Showcase Business Expo after this year.
Chamber executive director Jackie Wall said there were a number of deciding factors in its decision to pull out of the event.
鈥淏asically the chamber has been analyzing all of our events and initiatives. We鈥檝e also gone out to our membership and done some surveys just to see what they think is the most important for the chamber to focus on,鈥� said Wall.
鈥淚n 2018 we鈥檝e had a reduction in the amount of staffing hours in the chamber and that was a part of it, taking a look at how many staffing hours we had and exactly what our membership wanted us to focus on. Showcase kind of came up as one of those events that perhaps we needed to take a look at and step out of in order to move into other initiatives.鈥�
The other two organizations involved with the event, the Estevan Lions Club and the Rotary Club of Estevan will continue to be involved in the event as in prior years and will still have the Chamber involved in this year鈥檚 Showcase, which is in its 25th year.
鈥淔or the chamber to back out does not necessarily mean the showcase will end, the other two organizations are talking about continuing it. I don鈥檛 know if that decision has been made yet, but the chamber has provided and will provide support until the showcase in September is over,鈥� said Wall.
The future of Showcase beyond this year is uncertain as the chamber played a large part in the organization and planning of the event.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a doable scenario (to continue the event). It was a lot of hours for the chamber and a lot of responsibility that the chamber had. We were in charge of all the advertising; we also took care of the registrations as far as contacting former and current registrants.
鈥淲e took care of the social media for it as well as the site map. There was a lot the chamber was responsible for, and that was a huge decision. Losing eight hours a week out of the year, there has to be some sort of an analysis within the organization on exactly where your time is best spent and exactly what your membership wants to focus on.鈥�
Both Rotary and the Lions have been provided lists of items that the chamber was responsible for, including how much time it took to do tasks, which months they needed to be done in, and all necessary mailing lists, according to Wall.
Preparations for this years Showcase began in December 2017 and the announcement of the chamber鈥檚 withdrawal was first made in a meeting held in June of this year
鈥淲e let them know in the June meeting. We wanted to give them a lot of time in order to decide if they wanted to continue or not or put the people in place that were going to be taking over 鈥� they鈥檝e had ample time to prepare,鈥� said Wall.
The chamber also has plans for a new event later this year.
鈥淲e鈥檙e actually planning a business summit and the first one is going to happen in October of this year. It鈥檚 very much geared towards any industry sector within our city. We鈥檝e had such tremendous support for businesses wanting to get involved in this summit.
鈥淭he event is going to feature different panel discussions and industry topics. We have most of it formalized but we鈥檒l be launching the actual event in the next month or so. I just have a couple of speakers I have to confirm. We really thought initially it was going to be a half day event; we were just going to dip our foot in the water, but we had such a tremendous response that it鈥檚 turned into a full day event,鈥� said Wall.
听
