Home, Garden and Leisure show returning to city in 2024
By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on November 2, 2023.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com The Building Industry and Land Development (BILD) Association in partnership with Meibel Consulting this week announced the re-launch of a beloved trade show after a year’s hiatus.The Home and Garden show is being relaunched in March as the Southern Alberta Home, Garden and Leisure Show after it was cancelled for 2023.
BILD executive officer Bridget Mearns spoke to reporters recently and said their partnership with Meibel Consulting has been incredible and they are very excited about the new and improved trade show.
Mearns said there are two major differences in their show as part of the re-launch. One of them is the addition of a leisure component.
 “We know based on the $351 million in home renovation and repair in Lethbridge in 2022 that residents of Lethbridge and southern Alberta take care of their homes and they want a place to go where they can see people all in one place, and the southern Alberta home and garden show has been that for decades and will continue to be that, but we’re broadening it because we also know that southern Albertans are active people and we want to also bring them what they can do in the spring and summer,” said Mearns.
She said they are basically combining spring and summer under one roof to provide southern Albertans with opportunities to explore not only vendors who could help them with their home projects, but also vendors who could provide them with various resources to stay active.
“The second biggest change is our partnership with Meibel Consulting. They are major event managers and planners, and we are super excited that they’ve come on board with this show, with us, and they have a number of exciting things planned,” said Mearns.
She said that after having to make the difficult decision of cancelling the 2023 Home and Garden show, which was not made lightly, they are very excited to bring a bigger and better show to the vendors who rely financially on the annual trade show.
“We know that businesses in southern Alberta rely on that show to showcase their businesses, their products and their services, and we know there are businesses that booked entire year worth of business from that show, so we didn’t cancel it lightly.
“But we did want to make sure that we came back with a strong show, a different show, a new show, a better show, a real show, emphasizing that word show because we want to give an experience not just for the people coming to the show, but also for our vendors.”
Mearns said they are expecting 300 vendors to take part next year with many coming from out of town, which will have a positive impact in the local economy while they stay in hotels, eat at restaurants, fill up their vehicles with fuel and create business opportunities with local vendors.
Vice-president of Meibel Consulting Marc Belisle said they were honoured to be trusted with the planning and relaunch of a homegrown show that has been taking place in the city for over 20 years.
He said they came up with multiple ideas on how to make the show even better and elevate it to the next level. One of those ideas was to include a charity.
“In any event that we do it, Meibel Consulting there is no reason for us not to be able to contribute ticket money, sponsored opportunities, 50/50 draws, anything we can do to support a charity that involves themselves with our show,” said Belisle.
 He said Halo is the charity that will be benefiting through the event next spring, with one of the ways to raise funds for them being done through a lottery.
 “By launching the Home, Garden and Leisure show lottery, something you never had before, essentially what we’re doing is providing a free prize pool for anyone that buys a ticket to the show,” said Belisle.
 He said people purchasing a ticket for $12.50 will get a chance to win a $15,000 solar panel installation, garage custom rebuilds, and potentially a hot tub among other prizes they are still working on.
 “Any ticket purchase to the show that’s one entry, and when you get to the show you can go visit Halo and every single ticket purchased after that to the lottery, all that money goes to them,” said Belisle.
He said the second thing they are bringing to the show is a stage where half will be a kitchen and the other half a living room. It’s a place where celebrity guests will appear.
Belisle said they are looking to bring three celebrities to the show with famous baker Anna Olson being the first to be announced.
“She will be doing cooking demos throughout the week, book signings and obviously panels about what she does in the community, so we’re really excited to have that as an additional thing to the show,” said Belisle.
He said early bird tickets are now on sale and many more announcements are yet to come.
The Home, Garden and Leisure show will be taking place Mar. 14 to Mar. 16, 2024 at the Agri-food Hub and Trade Centre. Follow @APulidoHerald on Twitter 4
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