BY CRAIG GILBERT
Sudbury?s Women?s Fair, bursting at the seams, may lose the only venue in the city large enough to hold it after this year?s event in April.
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REYNOLDS |
Ward 6 Councillor Lynne Reynolds and her daughter, Leslie, have put on two of the consumer shows on the site of the top floor of the former Eaton?s store in the Rainbow Value Centre.
Mall management have leased the 60,000 sq. ft. space to a business, so it won?t be available for April 2005.
Reynolds said the mall site is the only indoor venue large enough to house the show.
The city?s exhibition centre isn?t big enough, she said, nor are any of the arenas.
The arenas, further, aren?t ?cosmetically appealing,? and Reynolds said she doesn?t know many women who would stand on ice, covered with plywood for almost three days.
?We?re a little panicked,? Leslie said. ?We?re quite a large show and there?s basically no other venue in the city that can accommodate our growth.?
Even if the mall site was available, she said, the show is expanding so fast it wouldn?t fit there anyway.
The mother-daughter team put on the first fair with 80 exhibitors in September 2002. It was such a success, they were asked to stage another in April 2003. That fair attracted 130 exhibitors, bringing the largest consumer show for women north of Toronto, close to capacity.
Reynolds said the ordeal highlights the need for a multi-use convention centre. Large conferences, concerts and trade shows are passing the city simply for lack of venues.
The previous city council passed on an opportunity to partner with the owners of the Ramada Inn on a private/public trade show centre development.
