Conference centre seeks corporate gigs.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: Elk Lake Eco Resource Centre

With a new team in place and a fresh coat of paint, the operators of the Elk Lake Eco Resource Centre are eager to attract some big corporate fish to their wilderness conference centre.

After being mothballed for a year, the six-year-old centre re-opened in late 2005, with a fresh influx of start-up cash from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund and an army of volunteers to restructure and renovate the facility.

There have been some hard lessons learned by previous management after some money-eating building deficiencies and a decline in the region's forest industry sapped their efforts to showcase the secluded meeting venue situated about a half-hour's drive west of Highway 11.

New General Manager Pamela Hamel of the registered non-profit organization says they're planning a marketing blitz across northeastern Ontario and into southern Ontario to promote corporate team building excursions and "experienced-based" eco-tourism opportunities.

In January, Hamel was in the process of adding to their staff of 10 with a recently-hired resident chef as well as working on a possible partnership with Muskoka's Deer-hurst Resort for catering and corporate retreats.

The centre, which opened in 2000 and operated for three-and-half years before briefly closing, relied too heavily on the forest industry for corporate bookings as a meeting and training venue when it should have taken a "multi-pronged approach," says Hamel.

As well there were numerous building structural problems.

"It was like a boat with holes in it. General managers were running around trying to fix plumbing and heating problems."

Those problems ate into revenues that otherwise would have gone into marketing and programming.

Now the centre is back on track with $241,719 in government funding and new six-member board in place with a cross-section of forestry, financial and public sector reps.

"When a centre of this magnitude is closed for a year there's quite a bit upkeep that needed to be taken care of," says Hamel, that included landscaping work and many minor repairs.

The idea of even establishing a major $5 million conference centre in a remote part of Northern Ontario with no existing client base to build upon was a major undertaking.

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