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Canada North Resources Expo: the place to be

Visitors to the upcoming Canada North Resources Expo, being held in Prince George, B.C. May 29 -30, will enjoy an extensive range of displays, an excavator rodeo, sawmill and wood processing equipment demos—and perhaps even a grapple skidder show.

By Jim Stirling

A forestry flashback is on the menu for the Canada North Resources Expo 2015 (CNRE) in Prince George, British Columbia May 29-30.

“The demo zone is one of the CNRE’s big features,” explains Mark Cusack, national show manager for the event’s presenter, Master Promotions Ltd. “There are at least 25 per cent more outdoor exhibitors, each occupying more space than during the last CNRE here in 2013. We’ve got four acres out there including the CN Centre and we’re more than half-way through filling the outdoor space,” he says. “This harkens back to the forestry shows here in the 1980s.”

Overall, he adds, the show was closing in on 90 per cent sold in mid-March although both inside and outside exhibitor space remained available. Apart from the extensive range of outdoor static equipment displays, visitors to the CNRE can enjoy an excavator rodeo, sawmill and wood processing equipment demos and hopefully a grapple skidder show, continues Cusack. Also included among the attractions are demonstrations of crushing and screening machines.

Despite the slump in oil prices and production activity and declining demand and prices for most metals, Cusack reports the interest in the showcase offered by the CNRE from those sectors has not waned. “We haven’t had any cutback or downsizing,” says Cusack.

The increase in interest and outdoor exhibitors for the 2015 show compared with 2013 has not altogether surprised Cusack and Matt Mitchell, Master Promotions’ show manager. “We did receive a great response to that 2013 show,” he says.”And when exhibitors returned our re-booking forms, many of them were asking for more exhibitor space for 2015.”

The biennial CNRE is the big jobs show. It was launched in its present form in 2013 when it attracted more than 8,000 visitors. The show evolved from Prince George’s famed Forest Expo and its earlier incarnations.

The CNRE’s focus this year is on forestry, heavy construction and project infrastructure. On the forestry front, that includes the harvesting sector, woodlands operations, community forests, silviculture, pulp and chips. That leads into the wood biomass industries, including wood pellets, power generation and biofuels.

The CNRE also attracts an across the board representation of natural resource industry professionals: the decision makers assembled in one place at one time.

The transportation sectors—key to any natural resource extraction and export industry—are also well represented at the CNRE. Suppliers and service providers supporting the CNRE are the glue to hold together all the diverse components of natural resource development. Training and employment services are an increasingly important challenge for all the natural resource industries and that definitely includes forestry. Those services will be well represented at the CNRE, from representatives of career planners to training schools and post secondary institutions. A form of recruitment fair is part of Resources Expo. Companies and exhibitors identified by yellow flags during the show are actively seeking new personnel, notes Cusack.

Visitors touring the exhibits in the CN Centre and other site buildings will notice clusters of similarly themed services, points out Moira Pellerine, Manager of Marketing & Operations for Master Promotions.

A returnee from the 2013 show is the Health, Wellness and Safety Zone. The zone features linked and often interactive demonstrations—Pellerine recalls that in 2013, visitors could even get a massage. Organizations like the BC Forest Safety Council, WorkSafe BC, the regional heath authority and organizations like the Canadian Mental Health Association participate.

A first at this year’s CNRE is a Northern B.C. Safety Conference to be held in conjunction with the show, on Saturday May 30. The agenda was not available at press time.

Master Promotions is based in New Brunswick and has been producing trade, consumer shows and conferences in Canada since 1973. The company produces about 30 shows a year, coast to coast. Master Promotions staff works closely with a Prince George-based organizing committee and with show presenter Logging and Sawmilling Journal to create the Canada Northern Resources Expo.

For more information and bookings, contact www.cnre.ca