The way a trade show was handled by its organizer before it fell off the rails is baffling, says the president of the Red Deer Chamber of Commerce.

Last week’s Rig Expo, which drew only 22 people in Red Deer’s hot oil and gas economy, raised several red flags with Graham Heron.

Heron had never heard of the show until he saw several full-page Red Deer Advocate ads just prior to the trade show taking place.

He thought the ads were “interesting.”

They included 700 names of business operators who trade show organizer Paul Pearson of Kamloops, B.C., hoped would attend and network with more than 60 exhibitors.

Pearson said no one named in the newspaper ads was approached to gauge their interest in attending.

“I believe that list came from the Chamber of Commerce. . . . All those companies do some sort of business (with the oil and gas industry),” Pearson said.

That list included the Calgary Flames, the World Professional Chuckwagon Association and Habitat for Humanity, Red Deer region.

Heron said no such list would have been provided by the Chamber.

“We generally don’t give out our lists, for any reason,” Heron said.

“We tend not to want to inundate our members with unsolicited information. The Chamber wasn’t involved in any shape or form in the promotion or establishment of this event.”

Heron wondered why the list of businesses and individuals was even used.

This was an industry-specific show and not one the Canadian Cancer Society would have wanted to attend, Heron said.

The Cancer Society was also named in the ads.

“I think he was aiming at the wrong market,” Heron said.

“The guys that are out in the field, you might get them out at a trade show. But you better spend a lot of time generating that interest.”

Pearson said he promoted the event for a year, sending out “hundreds and hundreds of e-mails” to drilling companies and contractors.

Exhibitors each spent at least $2,000 for booth space.

Red Deer city RCMP are investigating to see if any crime was committed.

Heron questioned why the Rig Expo was even held in Red Deer. He said there is a similar exhibition in Houston, Tex., plus the Global Petroleum Show in Calgary in June.

Both shows are likely successful because that’s where a number of oil and gas companies are based, Heron said.

“If you are going to exhibit new products and technologies and wares, you’d probably want to attract as many of the head office decision-makers as you could.”

Heron said his initial reaction that the Red Deer show was a flop was, “Oh no.”

“It’s unfortunate that Red Deer is tied to the lack of success of this event,” Heron said. “Because you have this one inadvertent and possibly poorly organized event, which casts doubt on the economic vitality of the region.”

Pearson, 58, said on Friday that he is broke as a result of the event.

“We made $130,000 in gross sales,” Pearson said. “We had five people working for the company for 11 and a half months. We have office expenses, . . . monies that came in went to support our company through the period.”

Contact Laura Tester at ltester@reddeeradvocate.com