Representatives of Chatham-Kent businesses and organizations gathered Wednesday evening at the Sons of Kent Brewing Company in Chatham for an Information Night for IPM 2018 Sponsors.
They had been invited by local organizers of the 2018 International Plowing Match and Rural Expo (IPM 2018) and the Ontario Plowmen’s Association (OPA) to learn about potential sponsorship opportunities.
The massive public event will be held in Pain Court Sept. 18-22 and will showcase Chatham-Kent’s important agriculture, business and tourism sectors.
“We shared with potential sponsors the wide variety of exciting opportunities IPM 2018 offers to local companies and organizations to make their names known to people from across Ontario and beyond,” Jamie McGrail, co-chair of the IPM 2018 Chatham-Kent Sponsorship Committee, said in a media release. “Many companies are sitting down with us to work out the details about how they can best promote their brands and serve our community all at the same time.”
A highlight of the evening was an announcement by Union Gas that it will contribute $25,000 to the event as a Gold-level sponsor.
“An investment in IPM 2018 is an investment in the success of the event,” IPM 2018 Co-chair Darrin Canniff said. “That, in turn, is an investment in our community. We will be attracting a great many visitors to Chatham-Kent over five days and that’s good for local service providers and for business people to show their products and make new contacts.
“A conservative estimate puts the expected attendance at 80,000 people, but some past matches have attracted many, many more people than that. I’m very optimistic!”
“Every match generates a substantial legacy fund that is reinvested in the host community,” added Co-chair Leon Leclair. “The size of the fund depends on the success of the match, but we are talking about possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars. That’s great for Chatham-Kent!”
The IPM 2018 Sponsorship Committee invites anyone interested in being a sponsor to contact McGrail by e-mail at jmcgrail@mcgrails.com or telephone 519-352-9480, or RSVP to Deb Hawkins by e-mail at debhawkins@sympatico.ca or telephone 519-401-4077.
