Redvers – The 2018 Redvers Oil Showcase is coming up May 30-31 at the Redvers exhibition grounds and Redvers Recreation Centre.
The bi-annual event takes place every two years since 2008. The first show was in 2007.
As of April 20, there were 84 of 97 indoor booths and all 37 outdoor booths sold, according to Matt Axten, president of the show committee.
“I see us being full. Usually by the second week in May, we’re full.”
“There’s a few new, and a few non-oilfield types we displaced,” Axten said of the exhibitors.
“The big focus this year is on reinvention,” Axten said, adding there’s a new committee and new ideas.
“We’ve really focused on distributing cash in the community. This time, we want to promote the brand.”
The last showcase was held in the spring 2016, when the price of oil had just come off plumbing the depths of sub-US$30 per barrel for WTI, layoffs were everywhere and optimism was hard to find. “It wasn’t good for anybody. The sentiment at the show wasn’t rosy,” Axten said. On top of that, it snowed and rained, which he said fit the sentiment.
This year, as of April 22, oil was back to US$68, a price not seen since November, 2014, when the oil downturn really took hold. Things are picking up a bit, and there’s more optimism in the air.
The banquet speaker on May 30 is Pipeline News editor Brian Zinchuk.
Axten said, “We twisted Brian’s arm into doing it and he took us up on the offer. It will be a good fit, compared to the last speaker we had. He was good, but maybe didn’t fit the venue as well as we had hoped.”
“We’ve had support from Pipeline News from Day 1. He’s very well informed about what’s going on, and he knows a lot about the new normal. There’s a lot of people in the industry who need to hear about the new normal,” Axten said.
Zinchuk’s speech will also coincide with the 10th anniversary of Pipeline News in its current form. The speech is entitled, “I didn’t see their horses.”
Axten said the site saw a lot of gravel work last year. Pushing the show back several weeks should also help with the weather.
“This show and this community should be on the map. We have to change the show and continue to go on, to get bigger and better.”
Attendance in 2016 came in at 1,500, and they are working for that level again.
The committee is working on bringing in several daytime presenters as well, hoping to see presentations from the Ministry of Economy. MNP will be doing presentations on taxation changes for business owners and marijuana in the workplace.
In the past, presentations on Enbridge’s Bakken Expansion pipeline and the Ministry of Economy (now Ministry of Energy and Resources) speaking on PNG 17 were quite successful.
More information, including the schedule, can be found at www.redversoilshow.com.
