INNISFAIL – The return of the annual Innisfail & District Chamber of Commerce Business Awards will have to wait a little longer.
The planned event for Friday, Oct. 14 at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #104 in Innisfail has been postponed.
“It’s a lack of ticket sales,” confirmed Blaine Staples, president of the chamber today, Oct. 13. He added that a new date for the postponed event has not yet been decided.
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.
This year’s event was planned as a three-hour $40-a-ticket casual gala in a more relaxed atmosphere designed to encourage attendees to mingle, reconnect and network.
The chamber wanted 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.
Coun. Janice Wing, town council’s representative on the chamber board, said there was an “amazing response” for award nominations and the chamber wanted to celebrate them “within the context of Small Business Week” but ticket sales “were not at the level they needed to be at.
“The board is being completely managed by the volunteer board of directors, and so giving us a bit of an extension; we're not going to postpone for very long, the date will be announced in the coming days,” said Wing, adding the board will be discussing the new date “right away” with the hope of having the event held by the middle of November.
“We want this to be an event that's worthy of the businesses that have been nominated. We want people to have time to buy tickets and come and have fun.”
Wing said the idea of a more casual event is still on the table.
“It's not a sit-down dinner. You don't have to buy a table. You don't have to find seven other people to come and sit with you through a big thing,” said Wing. “We want to have some fun. We want to re-energize people and get people re-engaged with the chamber.”
