Cen Can Expo Continues to Grow!
by Scott A. Sumner
I asked Glenn Dredhart, President of CT-EX some questions on the recent very successful CEN CAN event.
How long have you been doing these type of events?
“I've been doing them since I was 18 and am 63 years old now so that would be 45 years. I've been on my own since 1994, after working for my mother before that. We're also are publishers of a quarterly mining journal for mines in Northern Ontario and Northwestern Quebec. We put together their mining reports which is the basis to our publication. We also have an online presence as well.”
When did you do your first show in Thunder Bay?
“Our first one was the year after Covid when everything opened back up. We were supposed to do our first event six years ago but we had to put it on hold, so we did a digital event for our exhibitors and kept them in touch with the buyers that are out there from the different mines. The year after when Covid opened up things, we were able to produce our first show here at the CLE. The only problem we had was they only had two buildings and it wasn't enough to house all those exhibits, so we had to put up tents and were at the mercy of weather. We got hammered with rain so the next year moved it to the Fort William Gardens. This year was the fifth year at the Gardens.”
How is the show growing since the start here in Thunder Bay?
“ The first show, I believe it was 110 indoor displays and maybe 15 outdoor displays. This year we've grown to over 200 indoor displays and 35 outdoor displays so it just keeps growing. We had about 235 displays and they would invite their suppliers,the manufacturers of the products they sell so there were about 265 companies and 300 displayed in total. We basically maxed out the facility for sure, there's no more room indoors so now we have to work on our outdoor areas. It was unfortunate because we could've sold more outdoor space this year. We had literally 25 to 30 companies that were on hold that couldn't get a booth.”
“ There's a detour happening right now around the Gardens and that whole area is shut off so we couldn't use a portion of the street. We wanted to expand this year even further but are hoping for next year. I think that has to do with the their road construction.”
How was the attendance this year?
“ The first day we had well over 4500 guests and that didn't include the 1500 people who are exhibitors. The following day was slower, but the quality was even greater because a lot of them come back after making decisions and talking to those exhibitors, to wrap up those deals.”
So at the end of the day people get actual business out of this show?
“ I had one client tell me that they get more business in two days here than they had done in the last two years. When you get a gathering of all the industry under one roof, at one given time it creates a motivation, strong activity, like positive activity in the air- sort of like a synergy. If I went somewhere and I was interested in an Adidas shoe for example, the guys that know the shoes, the guys that make the shoes, that designed the shoes- you'd like to talk to those guys. When the owner operators of mines are there and they are getting the benefits of the products as it compares to another product you get the benefits. It's an extremely technical show.”
You also had some ancillary events during the show?
“We had an opening evening event at the Superior Inn to provide awards to industry members and recognition of their achievements. There were 500 people sitting in that room. We couldn't get another table in that room if we tried. Everyone enjoyed their evening. It was a nice light evening of just awards and presentations.”
“ We had more of a social event at the at the Da Vinci on Wednesday night, the first evening of the show. The next day we did something at the Elks Lodge with panel speakers, and the Ontario Minister of Mines was there as well so that was a good educational component. They talked about where their projects are going to be in the next year and what their requirements will be from the audience to help them to get there. So if you were a supplier, a manufacturer or a service company, you would wanna be there because you would pick up on all that information.”
Thunder Bay had a big impact from CEN CAN in terms of hotel rooms, etc. We were told you couldn't get a room here that week. Apparently some people stayed in Dryden?
“ Yes all hotel rooms here were sold out for the show. This show opens peoples eyes to a greater economic opportunity for the community, that means I may wanna open up business here, and I see that as a potential- that's the long-term economic gain.The Timmins event we do which is similar, I've been doing for 30 years. I've seen companies open up on the strip, on the west east of Timmins, as a direct impact from the show itself, because they can more easily supply their products that way. They wouldn't know that unless they were there at the show to see what kind of support there is from the industry. In other words you could envision more businesses opening in Thunder Bay.”
What's your impression of Thunder Bay?
“ It is really like at the epicentre of a lot of mining activity and there is potential here for development. The roads to the Ring of Fire will open up a whole new region of mining that was not previously available. It's like you will be discovering a whole new Sudbury. Thunder Bay is really at the epicentre of a lot of mining activity. It's that big so we could see some potential growth in the city of Thunder Bay.”
“ Mines are always on the outskirts of a major centre, that is how 90% of the mining operations are today. People will potentially live in Thunder Bay.”
You get a lot of support doing the CEN CAN show here?
“ I wanted to mention the Impala Canada Group, which every year in Thunder Bay has shipped up three huge rocks at no charge to the show. It is just to get people to try out diamond drilling with the competition. Otherwise we wouldn't have that component of the drilling competition, so you know I really wanna extend a very big thank you as an organizer for them helping us with the competitions.”
Producing an event like CEN CAN must be quite a challenge for you?
“ My staff doesn't even know how we do it because there's so many components, like the Minister had a roundtable discussion with all the mines on the side. We had the gala dinner. We have the VIP night, the projects in the pipeline conference, the grand opening ceremony. There is the jack drilling competitions, so there's so many things moving. I always say there's many events within the main event and that's what keeps people coming back. When you add something special every year you continue to attract that crowd so it's great!”
