New business targets local need
Event rental service to debut at this weekend's trade show
Walter Strong
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, May 7, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
This weekend's Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce Spring Trade Show will host the debut of a new Yellowknife business. Life-long Yellowknifers Cory Vanthuyne and Allison Kincaid will be presenting Special Event Rentals at the trade show.
Allison Kincaid and Cory Vanthuyne are bringing a new business to Yellowknife. Special Events Rentals is a strategic partnership between the two Yellowknifers and an Edmonton-based company to provide event planning resources not available in the NWT. - Walter Strong/NNSL photo |
Kincaid and Vanthuyne, a Yellowknife city councillor, saw a glaring need for a business offering a centralized service that could take the headaches out of co-ordinating and supplying special events.
Vanthuyne knows first-hand how difficult it can be in Yellowknife to make arrangements for a large event after having served on the board of the Long John Jamboree since it was founded three years ago. He recently resigned from the board.
"I was the director responsible for site logistics," said Vanthuyne.
"That's when I saw that we needed a one-stop depot for equipment rental and co-ordinating services for events like the Longjohn Jamboree.
"Every year for the last three years I've had to go to a handful of different sources to co-ordinate tents, tables, chairs, garbage cans, barricades, generators, heaters, lighting ... The list is endless. Logistics for an event is an event in itself."
The problem Vanthuyne saw in town was that selection is both limited and unreliable.
"In Yellowknife, you take what you can get, when you can get it," he said.
For the Longjohn Jamboree, Vanthuyne would have to source tents from the city of Yellowknife, resource exploration outfitters, the military, and as far away as Inuvik.
It's not a challenge facing only the organizers of the Longjohn Jamboree, but anyone who wants hold a special event in town.
"That's the genesis of this idea," Vanthuyne said.
"It stems from reducing number of sources a person has to approach to pull off a successful event."
By partnering with Edmonton's Special Event Rentals, Kincaid and Vanthuyne see their company being able to handle any event, from large scale events like Folk on the Rocks, to smaller events like weddings or corporate parties.
"We've already talked to a person who wants to get married at their cabin near Prelude Lake," Kincaid said.
"Her cabin isn't big enough to host 60 to 100 people, so she wants to rent a tent to accommodate them."
Special Event Rentals can provide frame tents from 10 feet by 10 feet to as large as 30 feet by 60 feet.
The company will also be able to provide much larger clear-span tents of up to 60 by 300 feet, meaning the company could potentially provide a single venue with room to host more people than any other space in town.
They'll also provide everything from tables and chairs to possibly even dishes and linens with full set-up and take-down services.
"Our client has the opportunity to come to us, and we'll deal with everything from there," Vanthuyne said.
Kincaid and Vanthuyne plan to work with local suppliers in their quest to provide one-stop shopping for event production.
"There are some local businesses that we don't intend to compete with," Vanthuyne said.
"Excellent audio-visual services are already available, so that's not something we want to compete with. We'll tie in local suppliers of industrial equipment, like generators or heaters. We don't plan on stocking equipment like that."
"We'll be stocking go-to items, like tents, tables, chairs, staging and flooring," Kincaid said.
"But we'll be able to handle and any size event through our Edmonton partner," she added.
"If an event is going to require more than what we have in inventory, then we'll have a partner to bring in whatever is needed."
Kincaid and Vanthuyne are still working out the details of their partnership with Special Event Rentals Edmonton after a recent visit with company owners at their flagship Edmonton location, but they're already working on a few requests for estimates.
