The Greater Olean Area Chamber of Commerce is rethinking its annual event schedule, and one change has been made already.
The Greater Olean Area Sports, Recreation and Fitness Expo that had been planned for Sept. 25-26 has been canceled, and it will not be held as a standalone event next year.
Meme Yanetsko, chief operating officer of the Chamber, says her office will present combining the sports show with the annual home-themed show in April 2022 to both the events committee and the home show committee.
“We ran the sports show as we ran the popular and very successful Home and Garden Show,” Yanetsko says. “I believe we have loads of potential customers that would attend this show — hunters, bicyclists, fisherman, athletes, etc. — but the vendors, which drive any show, did not see Olean as a big enough market for them to come to.”
She notes that in recent years attendance at the home show has been decreasing as well, while vendors see the event as crucial for their first two quarters of business in any given year.
“Adding sports and fitness to the home show, changing up the name and adding many auxiliary events — dog retrieval contest, fly fishing demos, scuba diving demos (in the city pool at the Rec Center) — we would in turn boost the attendance of customers and give the vendors more bang for their buck,” Yanetsko says.
She says the event committee met this month and will present to the board, in September, two additional events for 2022, as well as a winter holiday celebration this coming December.
Erica Dreher, GOACC member services manager, says the Chamber sought input from the community in April regarding suggested events.
Of the more than 50 suggestions, events ranged from street dances, a bicycle race, wine tasting, American Idol-like music challenge, to a dice run, to more theater/arts events. From a meeting in August and after reviewing the suggestions, here are the Chamber’s new additions:
• In December, a Dickens-like celebration the weekends leading up to the holidays.
• In February, host a “freeze fest” with activities outside (hope for snow) and inside.
• In May, a possible river regatta and outdoor-related activities.
“Although the cancelation of the Sports Expo was not related to COVID-19 at all, we just want the community to know that the safety and wellbeing for our event attendees, vendors, volunteers and staff is top priority for our events,” Yanetsko says. “As such, if we feel that we are unable to present a safe event, those events will be scaled back or postponed.
The sports show debuted in September 2009 using the William O. Smith Recreation Center — its swimming pool, lawn area and basketball courts. It then moved to January to the Daniel Carter Events Center, moved again to Good Times of Olean and back to Daniel Carter through 2019. The event committee decided to move it back to Good Times as well as to a new time frame for May 2020. Holding it in May would have enabled GOACC to utilize Forness Pond and the fields around Good Times, and to place vendors outside (pending good weather).
COVID-19 pushed the event from May to September — and then to not being held.
For more information on Chamber events, call (716) 372-4433 or email meme@oleanny.com.
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