INNISFAIL – A new date has been chosen for the return of the annual Innisfail & District Chamber of Commerce Business Awards.
Blaine Staples, president of the local chamber, said the new date is Wednesday, Nov. 23.
He said the business awards will be held at the Innisfail Royal Canadian Legion Branch #104 and will follow the chamber board’s annual general meeting.
“We're going to be holding our annual general meeting at 3:30 at the legion and then at 5:30 we'll have the business awards from 5:30 to 8:30, or 9:30ish type of thing,” said Staples. “We thought we'd piggyback that on with that at the same time. It was a nice fit to work them together.
“And it's getting harder. We are getting closer to Christmas, so there's no Friday or Saturday.”
The original date for the 2022 business awards was for Friday, Oct. 14 at the legion but was postponed due to lack of ticket sales.
Like most other major civic events the annual business awards were a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic. The last annual business awards were held in 2019.
The chamber still intends to hand out five awards, including the longstanding ones for Business of the Year, Customer Service of the Year and Farm Family of the Year. There are two new awards, including the Community Impact Award and the Non-profit of the Year Award.
This year’s event has been planned as a three-hour $40-a-ticket casual gala in a more relaxed atmosphere designed to encourage attendees to mingle, reconnect and network.
“We've got appetizers and drinks and some casual entertainment,” said Staples. “It will be a very networking-type of evening with people; giving them adequate time to visit and get to know each other, and with the awards interspersed throughout."
