By Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

New three-year strategic partnership struck between Exhibition Park and Lethbridge Lodging Association

Jan 16, 2019 | 11:13 AM

LETHBRIDGE – Exhibition Park has announced the signing of a new strategic partnership agreement with the Lethbridge Lodging Association (LLA) that both parties believe will help make Lethbridge a destination for events moving forward.

The partnership will develop the base for promoting Exhibition Park as a major meeting and conference facility, the LLA member hotel properties and Southern Alberta.

Manager of Marketing Doug Kryzanowski says this allows Exhibition Park to promote their current facilities and potentially a new facility in the future.

“With the potential for a new facility down the road, we have to be in line with some of these meeting planners across Canada, and not just meeting planners, but event planners, and sports planners,” Kryzanowski continued. “We’re trying to be a bit of a conduit for all of these groups in town through the LLA, forming partnerships to give us unification as a voice of Lethbridge.”

It’s not that conferences, events and sports aren’t coming to Lethbridge, but Kryzanowski believes we could always use more.

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“Especially in the time of economy, the time to start is now so when we do hit a peak, then we’ll have an opportunity for people to come here. The competition for meeting and conference business is highly competitive. In partnering with LLA, we can market to event planners across Canada and message that Lethbridge is a viable and affordable city to host their event, meeting or conference.”
 
LLA is an association of Lethbridge accommodation properties working together to increase overnight stays for member properties.
 
Those properties include the Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Best Western Plus Inn and Suites, Coast Lethbridge Hotel and Conference Center, University of Lethbridge LUX Hotel, and Lethbridge College Summer Housing.
 
The association’s website – VisitLethbridge.com – allows visitors to purchase their rooms online, see a list of activities and events to attend, and get information about Lethbridge as a destination.
 
Project Manager Shilpa Stocker says the LLA values Exhibition Park as an integral community asset and considers it a key component in its destination marketing strategy.
 
“Our main mandate is to market Lethbridge as a destination and the Exhibition is a fantastic partner because we align in terms of wanting to bring leisure as well as corporate visitors to town. The Lethbridge Lodging Association and its member properties have been sponsoring events at Exhibition Park for at least a decade, and over the last six months we just thought it would be good to formalize that strategic partnership.”
 
Kryzanowski in a speech to those assembled on Wednesday, Jan. 16, mentioned how it can take anywhere from three to five years to attract conventions and conferences to Lethbridge, but with the new partnership, Stocker believes they have a lot working in their favour.
 
“In terms of the airport, potentially new facilities here in the future at Exhibition Park, so in that vein we thought it might be good to have a formalized three-year strategic partnership where we can collaborate and start to plan a little bit to make sure that we do bring what aligns with what Lethbridge has to offer,” Stocker said.
 
The three-year partnership will allow officials from Exhibition Park and the LLA to go to more conferences across the country, which Kryzanowski says is a key because they have to be on the map due to how competitive it is in Canada.
 
“A lot of the conferences and meetings, for meeting planners it’s a convention, but it’s also like speed dating where you get appointments and you have 10 minutes to throw your spiel out there and away you go. In the past meeting planners would want something to take home like a book, but now it’s the time of digital so we’ll just be giving them some USBs to take with them. We’re ready, but this is going to a process it’s not going to be an overnight honeymoon here. The two major cities in Canada for association offices are Ottawa and Edmonton, so we know what direction we’re going and now we can get into conferences in those cities,” Kryzanowski said.
 
Stocker believes it’s crucial not only to get on the map but to continue to think about the potential for new facilities in the future because they’re already getting a lot of requests for groups wanting to come to Lethbridge.
 
“New facilities would absolutely help us land the kind of groups that we do want to come here. Right now, I think we have great assets in terms of the regional market and Western Canada, so that’s what we’re going to focus on for the time being. But we’d like to build that out as much as possible, and it’ll be great for not only the hotel properties but local restaurants and retailers.”