If Fort McMurray’s town slogan is “We have the energy”, Slave Lake’s might be “We have the Alternative Energy!”
At least it did during the wildly successful March 1 and 2 tradeshow dates at the Northern Lakes College.
Nearly 900 people showed up to check out the various new technologies in building and energy conservation, generation and lifestyle choices.
People came from as far away as B.C. and Saskatchewan including over 34 different communities, making it the biggest show of its type in Northern Alberta, well, ever!
The Arxx workshops gave instruction on their Styrofoam reinforced form technology to 52 people over the two days while 70 different speakers, exhibitors and volunteers showed off their wares and their homes.
The Leader spoke with an overwhelmed Ken Caissie between tours of “The home that Ken and Deb built”. So popular was the tour that a convoy followed them out for the first round, and created a lineup out the door.
The Nowochin’s hospitality was equally well received for tours of their straw bale home, and the seminars enjoyed packed rooms for the most part too.
Overall, say the organizers, it was a great success.
Edith MacKenzie could be called the mastermind behind the event, though she would probably shirk the title.
MacKenzie is the Senior Coordinator of Workforce Development at Northern Lakes College and she brought over 20 years of event coordination to the project.
Still, the work load was huge. All told, it took MacKenzie and the rest of the committee nearly a year of preparation. The Leader attended the “debriefing”, a follow-up session to determine what organizers thought worked and what didn’t. Despite the success, it sounded like everyone was ready for a rest.
The 70 or so exhibitors, it turns out, were only a handful of the hundreds that were contacted and invited, proving that there is a lot going on behind the scenes to pull together something of this magnitude.
It turns out that the event, while greatly received, was a bit of a sinker financially.
Not that it wasn’t worth it, say the organizers, but the effort and lucre involved with jumping right back on the wagon is just a bit much to consider at this juncture.
Some other parts of the event could have been more polished, also, such as scheduling issues with the seminars.
Evidently, there was no window of time between one seminar and the next.
Once the zealous speakers started chatting, they had a hard time constraining their talks; squeezing them into an hour long time slot left not a lot of time for questions or discourse to follow.
Already, e-mail requests for more information, calls for another show and other inquiries are pouring in, forcing the organizers to stand back and regroup.
The issue of an encore or an annual event remains to be seen.
Organizer Karina Pillay-Kinnee says “Once a year might be too much. People might feel as though its not as important to attend, since it will be back next year.” Two years, she suggested, would give people something to look forward to. It would also give the committee time to find ways of making it more economically feasable, as well as spread the work load around a bit.
At the end of the day, Slave Lake hosted a world class event. Exhibitors and attendees are praising the event, proving that Slave Lake’s got the energy!

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