The 34th annual Public Works Trade Show is long gone, but it had a major economic spinoff on the local community before it left.
According to Glenn Harding, the roads supervisor with the Municipality of Chatham-Kent, last week's show was the largest event held at the John D. Bradley Centre with over 100 vendors set up outside.
"It drew in probably close to 2,000 people over the two days to the community," said Harding "The show itself, with the number of people coming into the community, is a huge generator from Chatham-Kent on an economic standpoint."
Restaurants saw an increase in customers and some hotels were fully-booked. Harding said the average revenue from an event of this scale is $600,000 to $800,000, but there is no official estimate yet on how much money was injected into Chatham-Kent's local economy.
"It's a huge deal for us and a big honour as well," said Harding. "I do know that there are several contractors who bought a lot of heavy equipment at this show specifically... it's just good for them and it's good for the entire industry as a whole."
The next chance Chatham-Kent will have to host another public works trade show event will be in about eight to 15 years, said Harding.
The next two stops will be in Barrie for the 2020 show and Strathroy in 2021.
