According to Deputy City Manager Jake Rudolph, preliminary information on the Abbotsford Economic Summit indicates that, though it missed its target in terms of delegates its costs were covered.
Target – 300 delegates
Actual – 265Total Expenses – $72,510
Total Revenue – $73,379
*Final figures have not yet been released but we hope to have an update from the City later this month.
Justin P. Goodrich, Senior Partner, Giesbrecht Goodrich & Co., who organized the summit for the City, says, the event did exactly what it was supposed to do: it provided timely, relevant information with tangible take-aways for business owners. Gooderich says he has already had hugely positive feedback about the quality of speakers and the information they provided.
“The feedback we have already received is that business owners were craving an event that spoke directly to them. Too often an event of this caliber happens west of us and the content isn’t specifically relevant to the Fraser Valley. We need to be doing exactly these kind of events to support economic development in Abbotsford and throughout the valley,” says Goodrich.
Looking back on the conference Goodrich says, “First and foremost, we demonstrated our seriousness of purpose with respect to genuine regional collaboration and that’s something I think we can be very proud of. We showed that Abbotsford believes in working with its neighbours because we know that it will have all sorts of positive economic spin-offs.”
“By extension, we demonstrated that Abbotsford is business-friendly and cares deeply about small business owners who are at the heart of a strong and vibrant local economy,” he adds.
Asked if he thinks the idea of an economic summit is worth doing again, Goodrich says, “I think it’s worth doing again because this event was focused exclusively on this region, and it’s my belief that an event like this is an investment in the future of this region’s success. We need to be talking about this region, especially given it’s rate of growth.”