THUNDER BAY – Roughly 1,000 new connections were made at the Opportunities Northwest Job Fair held on Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Valhalla Hotel and Conference Centre.
“We had close to 800 people registered and people are just walking in and registering. So, it’s been a phenomenal success and just speaking with employers so far, they are so delighted with the amount of people coming through and the quality of the candidates,” said Nancy Milani, event consultant.
“As we talked about the other day, there are so many employers that have such a shortage of employees. So, this is an opportunity for everybody to get together and find out and there are a lot of opportunities in Thunder Bay.”
The event was organized by Dougall Media and featured booths from more than 50 businesses from the region in a variety of different sectors who enjoyed the chance to once again meet face-to-face with potential employees.
“Face to face is everything for this type of thing when you’re doing a trade show or job search or whatever,” said Milani.
“It’s just not quite the same over Zoom. We love the technology and we’ve had to use it for a couple of years and it’s been great in the interim, but I think it’s so important to get back here and really talk to people.”
Many of the attending businesses were thrilled with the turnout and say that more events such as this would be something they’d love to see.
“I think that would definitely be beneficial. A few times a year would be nice because you don’t just hire new people once or twice, and I think it’s a great way for people to get out,” said Katie Maki, Nordman representative.
“People are looking for jobs at different times and different levels, and I definitely think it would be beneficial to do more things like this and give people more opportunities to get out and find out what’s out there.”
