To outsiders, it’s a rodeo: a 10-day party with cowboy hats, country music, and pancakes galore.
But the Calgary Stampede, which kicks off Friday with its first in-person parade since 2019, is also a powerhouse networking event, as well as an excuse for boozy customer appreciation luncheons.
For negotiators, the Stampede is a major trade event and an economic barometer for a city and a province. That’s why the six-fold increase in year-over-year sales at cowboy shoemaker Alberta Boot Company in 2022 speaks volumes about the current mood in Calgary businesses.
Chief Executive Officer Eytan Broder declined to reveal his name, but admitted in an interview that some of the city’s largest merchants and merchants have visited the Alberta Boot retail store in recent weeks to gear up for the festivities this year.
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“We have several CEOs and high-profile people who have ordered custom alligator boots,” Broder said. “They are in the range of $2,500 to $3,000; of course our boots are in the $400 to $500 range.”
Corporate types have also been requesting reservations for his company’s newly opened event space, so they can host clients throughout the 10 days of Stampede and take advantage of features like a boot-shine station and bourbon bar, Broder said.
“We’re looking at everyone from blue-chip law firms to large construction companies to smaller private companies. They are booking events everywhere from 10 to 120 people,” he said.
Calgary Stampede attendance has fluctuated over the years, from an all-time high reached during the event’s 100th anniversary in 2012 to a rainy, recession-plagued 2016 when visitor numbers hit an all-time low in 22 years.
In 2020, the Calgary Stampede was canceled entirely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the event took place in 2021, there were a number of modifications and the festival saw only around half of its normal attendance.
However, this year, with the removal of pandemic restrictions, it is moving full speed ahead. Calgary Stampede spokeswoman Kristen Anderson said organizers expect more than a million people to walk through the gates over the next 10 days. (The 2019 Stampede before the pandemic drew nearly 1.3 million visitors, the second-best attendance on record.)
Business participation is also back. Anderson said this year’s Stampede surpassed 2019 corporate sponsorship levels and that corporate lodging packages, such as a $4,750 option that includes 10 reserved rodeo seats, lunch reservations and drink coupons, are nearly sold out.
“It tells us that corporate Calgary is back and really looking to celebrate here at the Calgary Stampede,” said Anderson. “And we’re happy to welcome them back, because it’s been a rough couple of years.”
Dave Lamberton, business development manager for 360 Energy Liability Management, said the company will once again host a Stampede cookout and family pancake breakfast for its employees this week, as well as a special “key customer” event in the evening. . cart races.
“It’s a very social and party atmosphere, but it’s a very important aspect of business, networking and customer relations,” Lamberton said.
“The oil industry is doing really well, commodity prices are up; the atmosphere this year is going to be really positive. There is a lot of excitement in the city.”
No one would call this year’s Stampede a throwback to 2014, when Alberta’s economy was firing on all cylinders. While the energy sector is flush with cash again, Calgary’s business community still bears the scars of two years of pandemic restrictions, as well as eight years of depressed oil prices, layoffs and consolidation that have reduced some of the arrogance of the city.
“Coming to Calgary from Toronto, I was surprised there weren’t restaurants here with these huge bottle lists, where you see $500, $600, $700 wines regularly on the menus,” said restaurateur Adam Ryan, who moved to Calgary. Ontario in 2019.
“The feedback I get from my colleagues is ‘it used to be that way, there used to be budgets, income and expense accounts to back that up.'”
Still, Ryan, who will open his new restaurant, Fire & Flora, in Calgary’s Beltline neighborhood during Stampede week, said there’s a buzz in the air in Calgary this summer that can’t be denied. In addition to the surprising turnaround in oil prices and the record amount of energy royalties collected by the provincial government in the last fiscal year, the city’s tech sector is taking off and Alberta once again leads the country in interprovincial migration.
“You need reservations again to get into the popular restaurants, and it’s hard to find staff. So I know there are people with disposable income to spend; I can see it with my own eyes when I walk out,” Ryan said.
Ryan said he hopes this week’s opening will give his restaurant a bit of a boost, adding that when he moved from Toronto, he was surprised to see how important Stampede is and how its energy permeates the entire city.
“You can hear the noise and excitement from anywhere in the city center for 10 days straight,” he said.
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