City lands provincial fire chiefs conference

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on August 31, 2024.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Tourism Lethbridge has announced that Lethbridge will be hosting the Alberta Fire Chiefs Conference in 2028, as a result of their efforts spearheaded by their Business Events Advisory Committee.

Dominika Wojcik, senior director of communications for Tourism Lethbridge, told the Herald during a phone interview Friday that the committee is made up of community partners and organizations who work within businesses events and conventions.

“We have put together a plan and a strategy to go out and get new types of conferences to our city, so this strategy started about a year ago when I went out to Toronto to an event called Communities and Events Expo and that’s where the initial contact was made with the event organizers,” said Wojcik.

 She aid after that, in June this year they invited the organizers to Lethbridge for a familiarization tour to show them what the city had to offer.

 “We took them around the city, to our venue, the attractions and really just showcase how great Lethbridge is and after that they were so impressed with our city that they were very excited to sing their contract to bring their event to Lethbridge in 2028,” said Wojcik.

One of the many benefits of hosting the Alberta Fire Chiefs Conference here in 2028 is the ability for multiple Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services to attend.

Greg Adair, Chief of Lethbridge Fire and EMS, told the Herald during a phone interview on Friday that this conference provides them with an opportunity to learn about various subjects related to their work.

“This wonderful conference offers talks about leading trends, it talks about challenges, it talks about solutions and provides training and opportunity to look at different equipment,” said Adair.

He added that with more members being able to attend, they will all be able to reap the benefits.

“The Alberta Fire Chiefs Conference rotates throughout the province and we haven’t been able to host it here in over a decade, so we are very excited for it be coming back to our community,” said Adair.

Wojcik said other benefits of hosting the conference in Lethbridge include the fact that it highlights the city’s reputation to be a premier destination for events of that magnitude, as well as for the economic impact that it would have on the city.

“With around 300 people coming into our city for this three-day event, it will bring around $300,000 of economic impact to our city, which is huge,” said Wojcik.

She said that this type of events make it easy to track the data and therefore they are able to analyze the economic impact that it had on the city afterward.

“We can see how events like this can boost our local economy, which includes hotels, restaurants, businesses and other amenities, since we know that those in attendance would be staying here, they would need to eat, they may go shopping, putting gas in their vehicles, etcetera,” said Wojcik.

She explained the event will not be coming to Lethbridge until 2028, because the event organizers have already booked other locations prior to that year, but there is another big event coming a bit sooner that Tourism Lethbridge was able to secure as well.

“We did also secure another conference which is coming next year and that one is Government Finance Officers Association conference for 2025, which is estimated to bring close to $500,000 in economic impact to the city,” said Wojcik.