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Early September typically means the end of summer and cooler weather, but we had a gorgeous day at the CRA Ontario Golf Tournament at the Hawkridge Golf Club in Orillia. This was the first year that the Hawkridge Golf Club held the event, and they did an incredible job hosting the CRA. As with previous year's tournaments, it was a shotgun 'bestball' tournament with members and suppliers teeing off from every hole on the course at 11:00am.

Bill Winslade and I represented National Event Supply at this year’s event as Dennis was in Alberta visiting customers after exhibiting in the Alberta Foodservice Expo. This year the National Event Supply team played with Brian from Texada Software, another rental industry supplier. Texada Software provides rental companies with a full software solution that can be hosted internally or licensed as Software as a Service. Since we played as a threesome we had the luxury of having an “extra” shot to share between the three of us. However, Brian is such a good golfer that we found we only used the extra shot about 50% of the time. Unlike last year (and thanks in most part to Brian) our score was a very competitive 8 under par. Among the many highlights during the day was Bill almost sinking a 50ft putt, and Brian getting lucky by having his ball pop out of the sand trap and onto the green.

We would like to thank the CRA Ontario Members that worked hard to organize this great event. We hope to see you all out on the course for next year’s event!

The Alberta Foodservice Expo kicked off at 11am on Sunday and there was a steady flow of visitors to our booth along with the many cooking activities on the main culinary stage.

Shortly after the show opening, Richard Toll, the Owner/Executive Chef of ASNA Cooks, stopped by to introduce himself. Richard is actively involved in the Edmonton and Alberta Culinary scene, and on Sunday was one of the judges for the culinary competitions taking place centre stage, right in front of our booth. Richard was also the winner of the Edmonton Iron Chef Competition back in April 2012. We gave him a quick preview of our porcelain products including our very popular Quadrato Dinnerware, our heavy-duty Hotelier Dinnerware, and our extensive range of porcelain platters and bowls. He was also quite interested in some of our 18/10 stainless steel cutlery lines. Richard was excited to discover the possibilities National Event Supply provides to dramatically reduce his porcelain and cutlery purchasing costs. We saw Richard later on when he modelled some new chef uniforms in the fashion show that was sponsored by Canadian Linen & Uniform Service.

Not long after Richard left our booth, we had DJ Parkin, the General Manager of Fandango’s Live Entertainment Saloon, stop by to check out our newest porcelain products along with our best sellers. They’ve been working hard doing renovations at 12912 – 50th Street NW in Edmonton for a little more than 5 months as you can see from their Facebook page, and it looks like they are really close to opening up their new live entertainment saloon. They did have enough time to come and checkout the 2012 Alberta Foodservice Expo though. Congratulations to DJ & Leigh, you guys are so close to your opening after many months of hard work I am sure you can almost taste the beer beginning to flow!

The Apprentice Level Competition took place from 11:15am to 12:15pm on Sunday, while the Team Competition took place later in the afternoon from 2:45pm to 4:45pm. We were honoured to be able to help sponsor the event by providing our most popular selling line of flatware, our Maria line of 18/10 stainless steel cutlery. This line was used by the judges to perform their sample tastings of each of the competitors dishes. In the picture are Judges (from left to right) Chef Doreen Prei (Zinc Restaurant), Chef Richard Toll (ASNA Cooks) and Chef Allana (CCFCC Edmonton).

As we moved into the afternoon, it became apparent to the event organizers they would be needing additional chairs to seat some extra judges that were needed for the Team Competition, so we were pleased to be able to provide Donna Dooher, the Chair of the CRFA, and Adam Saunders, Alberta Membership Sales, with a Silver and a Black Resin Chiavari Chair to help pull off the ‘Event nature’ of the competition. We also provided some of our new wine glasses from our Eclisse line of Stemware to help with the presentation of some very fancy desserts the competitors were making.

Donna Dooher is not only the current Chair of the CRFA but is also a very accomplished Chef and business owner. Here’s a write up and a picture that does Donna much more justice than my quick snapshot prior to the culinary competition at the Alberta Foodservice show. She is also one of the featured Chefs in the ‘I am Restaurant’ video on the front page of the CRFA website.

At the conclusion of the show, attendees, competing chefs and exhibitors were invited to a cocktail and awards presentation party hosted by Chuck Nervick, Senior VP of MediaEdge Communications and Garth Whyte, President & CEO of the CRFA. Prior to the awards presentation, Garth Whyte gave a brief presentation on the significance of the Restaurant sector in Canada. Some of the interesting facts he talked about were: 1.1 million Canadians work in restaurants across Canada with another 260,000 in spinoff jobs, 1 in 4 Canadian will work in the Hospitality Foodservice sector at some point in their life, restaurants contribute 4% to the Canadian GDP and probably the most significant, 18 million Canadians go to a restaurant every day.

All in all it was a very good first day for National Event Supply at the 2012 Alberta Foodservice show.

The NES Trade Show team was off to Edmonton Saturday, where they linked up with Dale, Will, and Kevin of our Alberta-based sales team to set up for the 2012 Alberta Foodservice Expo. Once we got everything onto the show floor, we managed to get the booth set up in about four hours and make sure that everything would be ready to go for the Sunday Morning start. After finishing up the set-up, I headed out into Edmonton to explore and to get a bite to eat.

While I was walking down 118th Avenue, I came across the Kaleido Family Arts Festival. This weekend-long festival features music, dance, theatre, film, literary and visual arts all in a four block stretch of 118th Avenue between 90th and 94th Streets. There were musicians playing, and numerous street vendors showing and selling their hand-made sculptures, paintings, and other unique pieces. Lots of families with young children were having a good time and there was just a great vibe in the air. It certainly didn’t hurt that the evening weather was also fantastic.

I continued along 118th Avenue to the corner of 95th Street and decided to have dinner at Habesha Ethiopian & Eritrean Cuisine for some authentic Ethiopian and Eritrean food. This was the first time I had ever had Ethiopian or Eritrean cuisine and it was quite the adventure. Not really knowing what to order, I decided to ask the waiter what he would recommend. He brought me a sampling of menu items which consisted of a variety of meats (some spicy, some not), specially seasoned potatoes, and a mixed vegetable/salad on a large platter that was covered with pita-like flatbread called Injera. The meats and potatoes were in small fruit nappy bowls (each about 5 ½ ounces) while the mixed vegetable salad was piled onto the middle of the Injera. The waiter then said dig in. It didn’t take me to long to figure out that this meant I was to eat everything with my hands and use the Injera to scoop up the food. After watching my neighbour at the next table, I quickly dumped all my bowls of meat and potatoes onto the Injera bread and salad and began to dig in.

I found my dinner experience most enjoyable and would highly recommend anyone who has a little adventure in their spirit to go for what I found to be one of my most unique and enjoyable dinners of the past summer. I would also agree with the 4 ½ out of 5 rating that Trip Advisor gives this restaurant. I should add that if you have trouble with smoke, you may find it difficult to stay in the restaurant. During my time many of the patrons were smoking from Hookah’s and many other patrons were waiting for a Hookah to come available.

Rental Management Magazine recently featured an article about Party Reflections based in Charlotte and Raleigh/Durham, NC. They used their creativity to not only help employee morale by fostering a friendly in-house tabletop contest, but also help refresh their showroom and gain web traffic. Originally, Party Reflections let outside clients judge the anonymous tables based on creativity, use of budget, and function. This year, they expanded the judging pool and created a way for this contest to generate more web traffic. Douglas Crowe, CERP, Party Reflections director of sales states:

“In a day and age where the most face-time you get with certain clients is on their Facebook page, the tabletop competition has given us a unique opportunity to draw clients into our store and reiterate the strength of the organization’s staff members and products.”

With today’s market becoming a buyer’s market, event rental companies must think outside the box to attract attention and generate demand. In fact, according to Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch, up to 95% of qualified prospects on your website are there to research and are not yet ready to talk with a sales rep, but as many as 70% of them will eventually buy a product from you – or your competitors.

So how did Party Reflections go about getting the attention of their website visitors utilizing this in-house contest? Photos of the contest were posted online and those who receive the company e-newsletter were invited to vote for their favourite via an online poll. It seems to be working for them also – with over 341 votes online and an uptick in website traffic. Another great way to promote the contest would be through social media like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, or Pinterest. Asking people for their opinions is a great way to start a conversation.

This contest has major business benefits associated with it including increased employee morale, the ability to showcase new and notable products like folding cocktail tables, chivari chairs, or wing bowls, both in your showroom and on your website to better entice new and existing clientele, foster participation and retention of existing clientele, as well as creating an uptick in website traffic. Who doesn’t like those benefits?!

Do you have an offline contest like this you could bring online? If not, why not consider creating a contest similar to Party Reflections?

To get started on a contest of your own, you’ll need some solid and reliable tables such as the 6-ft NES Reliable Rectangular Plastic Folding Table with Adjustable Table Legs. These tables would allow your employees to think outside of the box with their ability to adjust from regular table height to a bar table height. You might be pleasantly surprised with the designs they come up with. If you would like additional information about the table, or if you would like to receive a quote on any of our other products, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The National Event Supply Tradeshow Team is getting ready for a trip out west to the beautiful City of Edmonton for the 2012 Alberta Foodservice Expo. We were at last year's Expo in Calgary, and knew that we couldn't miss this year's show. The 2012 Alberta Foodservice Expo is being held at the Edmonton Expo Centre on September 9 & 10. National Event Supply will be in booth 434 and would love to see you!

Five reasons to stop by our booth!

We'll have our new Crystal and Glassware on display

We've had our Serenity Crystal Wine Glasses for a couple of months now, and they have been flying off the shelves. From a 12 oz White Wine Crystal glass to a 22 oz Red Wine Crystal glass, we have a wide assortment of crystal wine glasses to meet your needs. We also just received our Eclisse line of glassware this week, and the Alberta Foodservice Expo will be the first trade show where we'll have it available for viewing and for order. We know that if you take a look at our Crystal and Glassware, you'll love the design and the price.

We'll also have our new porcelain bowls in our booth

We showed these bowls off in a previous blog entry, but there is nothing like seeing them in person. Available in three different sizes, we have slanted bowls and wing bowls that can add a flair to your table. In addition to our new porcelain bowls, we'll have a wide selection of our porcelain dinnerware, platters, and bowls for you to examine and get a feel for.

You'll get a chance to examine the cutlery being used in the Culinary Stage Competitions

National Event Supply is providing the cutlery to the judges for the Culinary Stage Competitions. Our Maria Line of 18/10 Stainless Steel Cutlery is our most popular line of cutlery and designed for the rigours of a busy restaurant. With its clean lines and well-balanced heft, Maria Cutlery would make a fine addition to any restaurant's table.

You're thinking about purchasing Chiavari Chairs

National Event Supply has NES Resin Chiavari Chairs available in five colours (black, white, silver, gold, and mahogany) in addition to the gorgeous NES Crystal Chiavari Chair. We also have fabric and vinyl cushions as well as plywood-base cushions. If you visit our booth, you can see how strong these chairs really are, how great they look around a table, and how comfortable they really are.

You'll get a chance to talk to Dennis about your needs and find our why National Event Supply is right for you!

Dennis will be representing National Event Supply and he always loves talking to customers and visitors to our booth. So stop on by and have a chat with Dennis. He can help meet your needs and show you solutions that you might not have thought of.