Be it for conventions, fairs, or any other assortment of public or private events, the Saskatoon Prairieland Park Corporation has their community’s back when it comes to execution and quality. Prairieland has been around since 1886 and has worked within the province of Saskatchewan since then to represent the diversity, quality, and skills of the province through their events. Prairieland has been making events and fairs happen in Saskatoon before the city was officially established in 1906, making Prairieland a constant for their community.
Attention to the details
Their persistence in improving, and efforts in creating, great memories for their clients has led Prairieland to undergo a rebrand, with the intention of keeping their work fresh and current. Toting 136 acres of land on their park grounds, Prairieland produces and hosts over 400 events a year while still maintaining their own in-house audio-visual, food and beverage, set up and take down, show, and client maintenance departments. The intention of them owning all their own departments and not simply renting them out assures that Prairieland can control the quality of everything for their events, from the chairs guests sit on all the way to the audio quality. This ceaseless attention to detail and insistence on always putting their best foot forward is what keeps Prairieland in Saskatoon’s DNA.
Wanting the best
“We try to be in control of our own destiny, and we feel that we can control our quality a little bit better that way,” says Dan Kemppainen, CEO of Prairieland, when asked about why they have all their own departments as opposed to renting and contracts with external providers. Kemppainen also states that by having their own resources and not outsourcing their equipment and staff they can assure the best quality of everything. In doing this, Prairieland employs about 90 full-time employees and roughly 1000 part-time employees annually. This creates job opportunities for their community members during the busier events in their yearly calendar and allows Prairieland to further give back to their community, not only through their work efforts but in the employment opportunities they create.
From the ground up
Kemppainen has been the CEO of Prairieland Park Corporation for a year come November, but has worked with Prairieland for 35 years–since 1988. He has worked almost every position in their corporation, from beginning in janitorial and slowly moving all the way up to his current position as CEO, so he understands that every cog in the machine matters. With the rebrand of Prairieland, Kemppainen says, “a lot of people get set in their ways, but me, I just love change. Change of management and not change for the sake of it but change to make things better. I love to challenge the status quo and ask, ‘What can we do better than we did before?’”
When talking about how they do things, he also states that Prairieland is trying to do things more uniquely so they can appeal to not only long-time patrons, but to bring in new communities and diverse clients. By hiring new people and getting fresh perspectives on their work, it is enlightening for long-time employees when it comes to solidifying their vision for Prairieland. With a new rebrand helping with creating a cohesive umbrella of ideas for Prairieland, Kemppainen hopes that this change in their operations and vision helps their community at large in understanding how devoted Prairieland is to serving the best quality products and events to their patrons.
When asked about what event Prairieland hosts that he looks the most forward to, Kemppainen states that he loves the Saskatoon Ex, their flagship event that gets held annually in August, the most because not only is it their longest running event–having begun in 1886–but it also exemplifies their devotion to their community that Prairieland has had for almost 140 years. Their goal in 2024 is to make the fair even more magical and more of an event every year, because Prairieland truly does strive to bring the best for all communities to experience.
Learn more at prairielandpark.com
Saskatoon Prairieland Park Corporation
503 Ruth Street West, Saskatoon, SK , S7K 4E4
306 931 7149 888 931 9333 06 931 7886 (fax)
contactus@prairielandpark.com
