George Grover Scholarship Winners:  the Rotary Club of Edmonton West was mentioned as a main contributor in a caption under a picture of this year's winners published on the front page of the current issue of Real Estate Weekly.

 

Finemaster:  Jim Johnston raised funds basically from those that did not watch the Grey Cup or if they cheered for the wrong team.

 

50/50:  Doug Sollows and Darryll White did not match cards, $40 carried over.

 

Guest Speaker:  Bill Buckham introduced cancer survivor Richard Skermer.  They met when they were both on the board of the Edmonton Aviation Museum.  Richard has 24 years experience as a professional organization change leader with a back ground in aviation. He runs ConnectEdmonton.ca and came to talk about the Edmonton Airshow from his position of executive director and producer.

 

Part of the reason to produce the Edmonton Airshow was to get the aviation industry active in Edmonton after the closing of Blatchford Field.  The goal of the air show is to provide first class entertainment while driving economic development, tourism and fostering new aviation related businesses in the Edmonton region.  A main component is education.  For example, take the B25 aircraft: 3 generations were talking about what that aircraft had done for them. 

 

The 2016 show produced 14,000 likes on Facebook (the highest in Canada) with 3.6 million media impressions (people from Poland flew to Edmonton to see the show based on Facebook).  25,000 attended the show; the aim is 50,000 in 2017.  The show offers a premium buffet and even the photographers were buying the premium tickets.  Edmonton Airports wants a deeper involvement next year after they recognized the superior airshow production from the 2016 show.  Challenges for 2017 include economic opportunity, inclusion of Edmonton Proper versus Edmonton Metro; rebuild bridges in the Edmonton aviation sector; increase ticketed and vendor revenue.  There will be an Aviation Trade Show in 2017 which will include Boeing and Lockheed.  The corporate area and the charities area will be expanded.  There will be more downtown activities with military appreciation events and a pilot party.  Ultimately the aim is for a week long airshow like the Farnsborough show in the United Kingdom. 

 

Richard`s superior software tracking system showed that 50% of 2016 tickets were purchased by Calgarians and that the kids definitely liked the hands on performance of the paratroopers from 408 Tactical Helicopter Squadron.  2017 will include displays from the Aviation Museum out at the air show.  Villeneuve Airport is the key to increased aviation development in the Edmonton region.  For instance, it is the closest airport to the northern part of Canada. 

 

2017 air show dates are August 18 to 20 with the 18th being a practice day that will be open to viewers.  The B25, B29, Corsair and Mustang aircraft will be there along with civilian aircraft like the DC3.

 

Richard was thanked by Joe Lizotte.