Maybe Cambridge Can! again.

Bruised and battered by the early 1990 recession, blue collar Cambridge set up trade shows in empty factories to help companies build local contacts and get people back to work.

The Cambridge Can! networking events drew praise from business leaders and politicians.

Now Cambridge Coun. Karl Kiefer wants the city to try again, as the city struggles through another economic storm.

"I know how valuable these trade shows can be . . . it's an economic gem if you can get it."

He raised the idea at a city-sponsored economic roundtable a year ago.

"Everybody that I've spoken to, who has attended or knew of it, knew it was fantastic. Everybody got to show their wares . . . There were situations in the city where companies looking for services in the city didn't know the services and produces were available right in Cambridge."

In 1992, 90 companies rented 120 booths inside the vacant Croydon factory at Dundas Street and Hespeler Road for the two-day event.

The next year, 144 booths were booked at the recently shuttered NI Wheel Factory on High Ridge court. In 1995, the show took over Duncan McIntosh Arena.

Over the next few months, city economic development officers plan to visit more than 80 city manufacturers, as part of a renewed business retention effort.

Department director Bo Densmore will ask all of them if they'd be interested in participating in a rejuvenated Cambridge Can! in 2011.

"There has to be interest. It has to be what businesses want," Densmore said.

In the 1990s, the city had free use of empty factories or the city arena. Rental costs for tables covered expenses to open the doors, including marketing the events, Densmore said.

AUTHOR: Record Staff

January 26th, 2010

SOURCE: The Record