The St. Albert Chamber of Commerce is calling its spring expo a success.
The trade show took place at Servus Credit Union Place this past weekend. Though the chamber hasn’t yet compiled attendance figures, observation suggests that more people chose to attend this year, said chair Joe Becigneul.
“I would say it was up a bit from last year, just based on the foot traffic I saw,” he said. “It was sold out two weeks ahead of time so all in all it was just more successful than we’ve had in the recent past.”
Brad Ward, owner of Cardiff-based Shadow Boxer Creative Custom Framing, said it was a nice-sized show.
“My sales were a little bit low but my interest was high for custom work so over the course of the next weeks we’ll see how the phone rings,” he said.
Ward’s only critique was that the show layout was a maze-like circuit that routed patrons consecutively through all four halls, without allowing shortcuts back and forth.
“If you try to control people too much it just doesn’t work. It needs to be more of a free-for-all,” Ward said.
That complaint isn’t rare, Becigneul said, but allowing people free range also brings complaints.
“If we don’t route them through then they don’t go into [halls] C and D,” he said. “You’re never going to win.”
Maria Walters, owner of Edmonton-based Krazy Cookies By Design, liked the show but also felt people needed more options for navigating the site.
Her booth was in the third hall and people were arriving frazzled.
“Once people got to our area they were like rats in a maze,” she said. “They’re looking for an exit and not really paying attention to what they’re looking at.”
“Overall, I thought it was really well attended and it was really well put together,” she added.
Terry Buchkowsky, co-owner of Stork Avenue Boutique, said her first showing failed to live up to expectations.
“We didn’t make a lot of sales like we thought we would but on the other hand we may still get new clientele from it. That remains to be seen,” she said.
“I think it is a good way for St. Albert people to get to know what’s available in St. Albert because the businesses, like in any city, are spread out. It’s hard to know what’s out there.”
Photographer Jill Shantz felt the show was the best in the three years she’s had a booth.
“Considering it was really nice weather outside it was great to have people coming by still,” she said.
“I thought there was some quiet moments but overall I had quite a bit more interaction with people than in the past years.”
