Yellowknife (May 14/03) - It was a business blowout at the Yellowknife Community Arena.

Up to 10,000 people flocked to the Spring Trade Show over the weekend, a record for the two-day event.

Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce executive director Dale Thomson: printed 30,000 free draw ballots for prizes. - Norm Poole/NNSL photo

"It was the best show we have ever had, hands down," said a delighted Dale Thomson, executive director of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, sponsor of the annual Mother's Day weekend tradition.

"We drew 8,000 people last year and were happy with that," said Thomson.

"This year we had close to 10,000 people. I haven't talked with a single exhibitor who wasn't very happy with the way the weekend went. In fact, we didn't have a single complaint from anybody."

Feature attractions were three Edmonton Eskimo football players -- Jed Roberts, Singor Mobley, and Ed Hervey -- who signed autographs throughout the weekend and visited two city schools on Friday.

"They signed more than 2,500 posters and we also gave away 2,000 team stickers," said the Eskimo's Laura Burdego.

The team made the trip as part of its 'Stay in School' program and as a way to say thanks to local fans, she said.

"We have a lot of fans in Yellowknife, including season ticketholders," said Burdego.

"We had 238 people fly down for one game last year."

In the Sunday prize draw, the Eskimos, First Air and the Edmonton House hotel offered up a free trip for six to the Eskimo-Stampeders annual Labour Day classic.

The winner was Fran Hurcomb, of Yellowknife.

"We had thousands of entries for the draw," said Burdego. "It was unbelievable -- people were lined up filling them out almost all weekend."

Another attention grabbing prize was seven days to Disneyland (not including airfare) for four, offered by Mack Travel.

The winner was Marta Jorge of Yellowknife.

Thomson said the chamber distributed 27,000 ballot tickets for exhibitor prize draws, three times more than last year.

"We initially printed 14,000 and they were all gone on Saturday.

"We quickly ran off another 15,000 for Sunday and by the end of the day we only had about 2,000 left. Last year we gave out 9,000 all weekend."

The show featured 86 exhibitors in 117 booths. Many were turned away due to lack of space. The chamber charged $600 per booth for non-members and $300 for members.

"Space was offered to members first and it goes fairly quickly -- about 90 per cent of the exhibitors are chamber members," said Thomson.

"We kept a standby list if anybody cancelled but unfortunately there were quite a number of companies that couldn't get into the show."

That won't happen next year if the Chamber can move the show into the Multiplex.

Thomson said that isn't possible until the YK Correctional Centre next door is demolished to create parking space.

"We are hoping to get into the new building but that decision will be based on the availability of parking," said Thomson. "No one knows for sure yet what the timetable is with the correctional centre."

Next year another bonanza?

The Chamber is making tentative plans anyway to utilize both the Multiplex and the Yellowknife Community Arena for a two building show -- including boats and cars -- with a shuttle service running between venues.

"If that happens we estimate that the show would attract 250 exhibitors," said Thomson.

"It would be three times bigger than this year."