Seventy vendors from the Sylvan Lake area were in attendance at the Town’s first ever home and lifestyle show, May 11.
Special Events Coordinator Kaelon Glowatski says the event went really well and brought together many local groups, organizations and businesses that residents may not know are in town.
“I know we have Prop Busters Flying Field, which is like a RC flying field, and they are only five minutes outside of town, and no one even knows that they are there,” Glowatski said.
The purpose of the show, according to Glowatski, was to show what Sylvan Lake has to offer for residents.
“I think we all went into this wanting to show our residents that Sylvan Lake has a lot, and that they don’t have to leave to get what they want.”
Denise Williams, executive director of the Sylvan Lake Chamber of Commerce, which co-hosted the event, said the event went about as well as they expected, given that it was the first year for the trade show.
She said there was a “respectable number of vendors” at Sylvan Lake’s first home show.
“It takes time to build a reputation - so I expect that the number of vendors and attendees will only grow year over year as the word gets out,” Williams said in an email.
Glowatski says a goal for next year’s Home and Lifestyle Show is to make it bigger with more vendors.
This year, the cut-off date had many interested vendors left out, which she hopes to change for the coming years.
“We had the cut-off date, but even after I still had a lot of interested vendors coming to me,” Glowatski said. “Next year, I’d like to make it bigger.”
Williams said the Town did a great job of marketing and promoting the event in its first year.
A trade show like this has been requested on numerous occasions. Glowatski says many of the residents who took part in the show expressed their happiness at having a home show in Sylvan Lake.
“[The Chamber] gets requests every year from people asking if Sylvan has a business trade show, so it’s great that we can now say that we do,” said Williams.
Both Williams and Glowatski said it was great to see the businesses and organizations interacting directly with potential customers.
“There was a respectable number of vendors at the show who used the opportunity to connect with the community…” said Williams.
“Many residents went away with a lot of new information and some new purchases,” Glowatski said.
Admission to the event on May 11 was free, though donations to the food bank were accepted at the door.
Glowatski said many of those who attended gave a donation, of either non-perishable foods or money.
“It was great to see we were able to raise a lot for the food bank,” Glowatski said, adding she doesn’t know the exact amount raised as of publication.