The Northern Ontario Mining Showcase (NOMS) makes its 11th straight appearance at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) mining convention in Toronto next week.
The convention’s largest regional pavilion sets up shop at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre from March 2 to 5.
This year, NOMS features 112 northern businesses in 13,200 square feet of the PDAC convention’s space. It also includes its own speaker’s series and several interactive displays, including a virtual reality booth from NORCAT, a Sudbury technology innovation centre.
The pavilion has been a fixture at PDAC since 2015, jointly funded by the City of Temiskaming Shores and FedNor (Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario) It’s been touted as a major economic driver for Northern Ontario mining businesses, generating over $100 million in new sales, and creating over 900 jobs.
What’s attributed to the NOMS pavilion’s incredible year-over-year success at PDAC is the exposure that it's provided to mining-related northern companies to showcase their products and services to a wider international market.
PDAC, which is known as the annual international “Super Bowl” of mining and mineral exploration, draws more than 27,000 attendees from 135 countries, and serving as one of the world’s premier venues for networking, sales, hiring, and education for mining industry businesses.
FedNor is providing $1,324,500 for the Northern Ontario pavilion at PDAC and to fund its next appearance in Montreal to attend the the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) convention from May 4 to 7.
Last September, FedNor earmarked $344,000 for the showcase to make an appearance with in funding with 30 exhibitors at the MINExpo International in Las Vegas.
“Thanks to FedNor’s ongoing support, the NOMS has grown in size and scope, positioning itself as a must-see for convention goers seeking new business, clients, and contacts,” said Jeff Laferriere, mayor of Temiskaming Shores, in a FedNor press release.
“As a city, we’re happy to be a part of the program, and we’re happy to work with FedNor to make this growth happen across Northern Ontario,” said James Franks, economic development officer for Temiskaming Shores, in an interview with Northern Ontario Business.
Franks has played a pivotal role in the snowballing success of NOMS since its inception.
“It feels good, like what we’re doing makes a difference.”
The idea for the showcase hailed from humble beginnings back in 2010, when Temiskaming Shores partnered with the town of Elk Lake to create funding for one small booth that featured Northern Ontario mining history information. Their exhibit was located on the fringes of the PDAC convention’s Ontario Pavilion.
“We found that we were waving the flag for Northern Ontario, but it wasn’t necessarily generating sales,” said Franks, “We thought maybe we should try to get northern businesses to come to the event.”
That first round of FedNor funding in 2012 enabled Temiskaming Shores to send six businesses from Northern Ontario to attend a single day of the convention.
The growth, said Franks, has mostly been the result of word of mouth.
“We did our best to reach out to mining supply activities across the North,” said Franks. “We talked to the vendors at the Timmins mining show, and at the central Ontario event in Thunder Bay. And we used economic development departments across the North to spread the word to the communities.”
Shortly after NOMS began to grow, Temiskaming partnered with MineConnect, Ontario’s mine supply and service association. MineConnect’s executive director, Marla Tremblay, has been planning and booking the showcase since the beginning.
An unforeseen side effect of the showcase has been networking opportunities created within Northern Ontario that increase the regional economy. Companies that were unaware of potential markets close to home have found local business opportunities in addition to international opportunities at NOMS.
The funding from FedNor helps pay for convention space and the booths, which typically run between $8,000 and $10,000, and come along with the logistics headache of setting up and organizing the booth, and accommodating staff — something that isn’t possible for many smaller Northern Ontario businesses.
Each six-foot “pod” in the NOMS exhibit is set up and ready and waiting with company posters for when businesses arrive.
“All they need to do is show up with business cards and a brochure,” said Franks. “They can send just one or two people down, and do their thing over the four days of the show.”
All pods are allotted exactly the same amount of pavilion space because NOMS wanted to allow small mom-and-pop companies to look as impressive as multi-million-dollar companies.
The result, said Franks, is that many small companies make sales they never would have imagined possible.
About 90 per cent of participants are returning exhibitors from previous years.
“Many of the companies are now producing significant sales from the event and could justify going outside of [the NOMS] space, booking their own booths,” said Franks. “That’s what we thought would happen, but in actual fact, the companies don’t want to leave the space. People now come looking for the NOMS showcase. They’re coming to that space to find suppliers.”
Cloud 9 Productions builds the pods and creates the look and feel of the exhibit to be on point with the NOMS brand, including a coffee station, a seating lounge, and its own separate speaker’s stage for panels and individual speakers.
Temiskaming Shores also hosts this coming Monday evening’s incredibly popular Northern Ontario Night. Steam Whistle Brewery, across the street from the Metro Toronto Centre, hosts 1,500 guests invited by the sponsors of NOMS, who are given a limited number of highly sought-after tickets to distribute to staff and guests.
“It’s become a very significant event at PDAC,” said Franks. “It’s a networking party. The intent is for businesses to be able to meet with their counterparts outside of a work environment.”
The night features two bands from Northern Ontario, one from Temiskaming Shores called Radio Days and another from Sudbury called the Shaft Bottom Boys. The Shaft Bottom Boys are a group of miners who perform in their hardhats and coveralls.
“We try to bring as much Northern Ontario to the event as possible,” said Franks. “It’s a really fun event.”
The evening’s meal includes cheese from Fromagerie Kapuskoise, and meats from Northern Ontario farmers prepared by caterers at the brewery. They also serve vodka and whisky from Rheault Distillery in Hearst.
