Weyburn's next edition of the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show, and Weyburn as a community, both received heavy interest by the delegation to the 2008 Global Petroleum Show in Calgary, held on June 10-12.

The six-person delegation included Mayor Debra Button, MLA Dustin Duncan, Dylan Clarke of SEREDA, and from the Oil Show board, Show chair Marlene Nedelcov, finance chair Stan Runne and show coordinator Ron Jeffery.

"You can't buy that kind of publicity," said Mayor Debra Button of the activity-filled three days. "All in all, it was best money we've spent in a long time."

This was Mayor Button's first visit to Calgary's oil show, which is held every other year opposite to Weyburn's oil show, and she said their booth was extremely busy for the entire show.

"Myself and MLA Dustin Duncan went around with brochures about the upcoming oil show, and there was a lot of interest shown. I think the quality of the past shows that we've put on spoke volumes. The next show will be tremendous, and I was very proud to be the mayor of Weyburn at this show," said the mayor.

She noted she talked to some companies which expressed an interest in possibly locating in Weyburn, noting one in particular had first thought of Estevan before they talked to her and got the information on what Weyburn has to offer.

Asked if the interest was more in Weyburn's oil show or in the community and southeast area, and she said the interest was maybe split 50-50. Noting that the projection for the Bakken play was announced as 500 billion barrels of oil at the Calgary show, she said, "This isn't going away anytime soon. Weyburn needs to keep growing in order for us to be able to meet their needs."

The combination of having the MLA and mayor at the show also impressed some of the exhibitors there, she added, showing Weyburn showed its commitment.

For Ron Jeffery of the Oil Show board, he said this was his sixth time to the Calgary show, and agreed their booth had a lot of interest shown by the visitors.

"The Weyburn name is like a magnet to these people. There were about 60,000 visitors and 2,000 exhibitors. Visitors were either interested in the Bakken play or in EnCana's CO2 project, and a lot of people were also former Saskatchewan residents," said Jeffery.

"The three days went by very quickly, and (show chair) Marlene came back with a stack of cards from people who are interested in our oil show," he added.