Trade shows are invariably rife with opportunities to network. There are the lunches, innumerable coffee breaks and proverbial keynote addresses to navigate, not to mention the endless array of booths showcasing the latest in industry wares. Circuit veterans are doubtless wise to the best meet-and-greet tactics, but there are times, too, when chance run-ins prove as valuable as orchestrated encounters.

“I meet the best contacts sometimes in the elevator on the way to my room,” laughs John Jurcik.

For Canadian supply chain firms looking to get in on Alberta’s oil patch, few events offer a better point of connection than Edmonton’s National Buyer/Seller Forum (NBSF). As president of Venshore Mechanical of Thunder Bay, Ont., and chair of the Thunder Bay Oil Sands Consortium (TBOSC), Jurcik speaks for 22 companies from the northern Ontario industrial hub. He’s direct about the NBSF’s role in connecting project owners with would-be service suppliers.

“It’s extremely important,” he reports. “And I think even last year when everybody was hit with the slowdown, we thought it was very important for us to be there, to show we’re there to support the western provinces.”

Hosted jointly by Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters and the Alberta government, the NBSF has long been a mainstay on the trade show circuit for oil sands players. This year is the forum’s 10th anniversary, and it marks the fourth year that out-of-province businesses have taken part. For organizers, the anniversary is an auspicious milestone in challenging times.

Indeed, the 2010 theme, The Maturing of the Oil Sands, is a far cry from even 2007, when the NBSF website implored companies interested in the bitumen belt to “Get your piece of the action.”

Today, it’s no surprise that economic imperatives have changed. Forecasts were turned on their head following the price collapse of 2008. For supply chain companies – the steel fabricators, welding outfits, and value-added engineering, procurement and construction firms that regularly attend the NBSF – the fallout was characterized by a drastic scaling down of operations, says Grant Hammond of the Hammond Group. In some cases, he notes, it meant bankruptcy.

“It was a tough, pivotal year for suppliers,” the consultant says, with a touch of understatement.

Yet 2010 could be a turnaround year. Hammond, the organizational head behind the NBSF’s speaker series and thematic planning since its inception, says the 2010 outlook reflects a new reality in oil sands activity: incremental growth in smaller stages. For supply side firms, that means an emphasis on maintenance, repair and operations (MRO), a market opportunity with a potentially large payoff. “I know a couple of plants that have $10 and $12 billion MRO budgets, and people don’t see that instantly,” Hammond notes. “Some do, but the masses don’t. It’s becoming a bigger factor.”

The 2010 presenter lineup includes representatives from ConocoPhillips, Cenovus Energy, Suncor and Imperial Oil. Calgary-based FT Services will also be on hand, along with supply chain innovator Exel.

A shift from years past lies in the increased presence of so-called green firms, among whose ranks will be Enhance Energy Inc. The Calgary-based company is engineering the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line (ACTL), the province’s first tangible foray into enhanced oil recovery and large-scale carbon storage. “We support the forum,” declares Susan Cole, the green outfit’s president. “[The trunk line] will play a part in supporting the ongoing development of the oil sands … and will be utilizing many of the same companies that work on oil sands projects.”

Companies like Enhance were scarcely on the NBSF radar back in 2000.

The NBSF began as a joint venture between CME and Alberta Economic Development (now Alberta Finance and Enterprise.) At the outset, the conference attracted roughly 200-250 people and rotated between Edmonton and Calgary. But as the oil sands garnered national – and increasingly international – attention as a resource play, Hammond says smaller, supply chain firms (the homegrown fabricators, welders, etc.) couldn’t cope with the startling rate of growth that came with increased exposure.

“Nobody in the world at that time had developed projects of this size,” he points out, noting that project owners, too, were caught flat-footed as investment in the oil patch ramped up. “They thought they had the project management experience, but in fact it proved somewhat tenuous. If you have 4,000 electricians and 5,000 boilermakers on a site at the same time, it doesn’t really work. And they had to live through that experience to find that out.”

Cue the NBSF. In its earliest incarnation, the conference was something of an industrial matchmaker. The idea was to get supply firms and project owners working collaboratively. As the oil sands expanded, so too did the scope of the forum.

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