The most comprehensive business community event held in Summerside for years is just around the corner on the first Saturday in May. Choose Summerside is a family-friendly celebration of the business community, featuring numerous organizations.
Presented by the Greater Summerside Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Summerside and Explore Summerside, Choose Summerside is all about why businesses and residents live, or shop or recreate in Summerside.
The event is the culmination of many months of strategic planning. Following the Chamber’s conferences The Way Forward, Choose Summerside heralds a new perspective of the community, which organizers hope to spread throughout the community. Summerside, which is full of hidden gems, is getting ready to show-off.
Dan Kutcher, Greater Summerside Chamber of Commerce President asserts, “Choose Summerside is about our great Summerside stories and how we live here in Summerside. We are extremely pleased to present this business community event for the whole community; we have taken a business show and made it a family destination.”
In addition to many well-known organizations such as Prestige Home Decor, Slemon Park, Callbecks Home Hardware and Red Shores, new businesses such as Sandbox Arcade (a virtual reality experience) will also be part of the event. Other organizations such as Spotlight School of Arts will be featuring new programs or merchandise. Several businesses will be operating ‘pop-up retail’.
Choose Summerside will also provide entertainment and learning seminars throughout the day, with performances by Logan Maddix, the College of Piping and featured children’s entertainer, Mike Pendergast. National Bank is offering a seminar on credit and how to make it work and Explore Summerside will feature its Experience Specialist program.
Kutcher points out that being a family-friendly business event means catering to families. He notes, “We have the longest bouncy castle on the Island, as well as exhibitors who have family-focused services. Our goal is to show that Summerside is truly a family-friendly community and our growth depends upon families.” He added that the event is also senior-friendly and fully accessible, with representation from the Summerside Age Friendly Committee. Credit Union Place hosts the event on May 6.