Every business person in Winnipeg did not attend Centrallia events last week.

And some of those who weren't there probably wished they were for all sorts of different reasons.

One reason would be that just about everyone they spoke to who did attend probably told them how great an event it actually was.

-- Tom Tessier had to have his arm twisted before he agreed to attend. But the founder and president of Winnipeg's Solara Remote Data Delivery, a niche satellite communication device manufacturer, said he probably made a sale worth tens of thousands of dollars to an Algerian air ambulance firm.

-- Harvey Chorney, the vice-president of Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute in Portage la Prairie, said he was blown away.

The non-profit organization can't survive without fee-for-service development work and Chorney said he's got plenty of leads, including some in the U.S. and Europe, in the meetings he had.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/it-really-does-pay-to-attend-centrallia-174721131.html

THE battle for chicken supremacy in Manitoba is going to heat up.

Mary Brown's Famous Chicken & Taters, a Toronto-based chain with more than 90 locations in Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, is on the hunt for franchisees in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Nigel Beattie, president of Mary Brown, said his goal is to open 50 stores throughout Manitoba. The company hosted an information session for potential franchisees at the Winnipeg Free Press News Café on Wednesday evening.

"We made the jump from Ontario to Alberta and now we think it's time to fill in the two central provinces," he said.

What makes Mary Brown's a rarity in the quick-service restaurant segment, Beattie said, is it buys whole chickens and cuts them up in-store. Its signature menu items include its Big Mary sandwich and "taters" or potato wedges.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/mary-browns-chicken-chain-eyes-manitoba-saskatchewan-174721551.html

The Winnipeg Football Club, the provincial government and Mayor Sam Katz's office are putting a brave face on Ottawa's decision to spend $69.3 million on a new stadium for the privately owned Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

In a deal announced Friday, the federal government, the Province of Ontario and the City of Hamilton agreed to cover 100 per cent of the $145.7-million price tag for a new 24,000-seat Canadian Football League facility that will rise on the existing site of Ivor Wynne Stadium, the longtime home of the Tiger-Cats.

Ottawa is covering 48 per cent of the tab to complete a new Hamilton stadium in time for the 2015 Pan Am Games. The new stadium will be dubbed the Pan Am Soccer Stadium for the duration of the month-long event, slated for both Hamilton and Toronto.

But the long-term tenant will be the CFL's Tiger-Cats, whose owner, Bob Young, told Hamilton media the new stadium will generate additional revenue.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/locals-gracious-over-hamiltons-new-stadium-174718821.html

Complete: OTTAWA - Travel to Canada increased 1.9 per cent to 2.1 million trips in August as higher numbers of American visitors offset decreased travel from overseas.

U.S. residents made 1.7 million trips to Canada in August, up 2.3 per cent from July, despite a small decline in same-day car travel.

Travel to Canada from overseas countries to Canada decreased 0.2 per cent in August to 375,000 trips.

In the opposite direction, Canadians took 5.4 million trips abroad, a 0.3 per cent decline from July, as they made fewer trips to the U.S.

Canadians made 2.7 million same-day car trips to the U.S. in August, down 0.6 per cent from July, while overnight travel slipped 0.2 per cent.

Canadians also made 791,000 trips to overseas countries in August, up 0.2 per cent from July.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/travel-to-canada-rose-19-per-cent-in-august-as-american-trips-increased-174760761.html

Complete: CHARLESTON, S.C. - Last year, readers of Conde Nast Traveler magazine voted Charleston the top tourist town in the United States.

This year, they went one better.

The magazine announced its readers have now voted Charleston the top tourist destination in the world. The designation is based on a poll of about 47,000 readers of the magazine who judge cities on a five-point scale.

They voted Cape Town, South Africa and Florence, Italy, as the number two and three choices.

Again this year, Charleston was also voted the top tourism destination in the United States.

Charleston welcomes more than 4 million visitors a year.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/travel/conde-nast-readers-vote-charleston-the-worlds-top-tourism-town-174628861.html

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Social media will be a big component of a new program announced by Disney Wednesday in which the company's parks in California and Florida will feature weekly surprise themes and events.

The "Limited Time Magic" program will include impromptu concerts, dance parties, colored lighting, character meet-and-greets, new menu and merchandise items and other events at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., and Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., near Orlando.

Disney will use Twitter, blogs, websites and other online activity to let park visitors know what's happening. Guests might also be asked to vote on which characters they'd like to see or be sent on scavenger hunts with hints to figure out what's new or different.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/travel/disney-announced-themed-weekly-park-surprises-for-2013-in-program-called-limited-time-magic-174550881.html

(A complete article published originally in the WFP, Oct. '54)

Mighty Niagara Falls remains Canada's No. 1 attraction.  That was the opinion of two Colombo plan officials who Monday began a tour of western Canada.

The pair, Hon. C. C. Tan, of Singapore, and Clement Pann, of the Cambodia ministry of foreign affairs, were the only two of the group still up when their train reached Winnipeg at 11 p.m. Sunday.

Along with Hon. James Sinclair, minister of fisheries, who is conducting the tour, the two chatted with reporters during the train's brief stopover here.

It was evident both were impressed with the Falls.  Mr. Tan found their size "staggering."  One of the 16 generators at the Ontario hydroelectric power site there could supply the 1,200,000 people in Singapore, he said.

"My dream came true when I saw Niagara," added Mr. Pann.

The party reached Regina Monday morning.  In Saskatchewan they will see a prairie model farm and inspect grain elevators.  Hon. M. D. H. Jayawardine, minister of finance for Ceylon, is particularly interested in grain storage systems as his country now has a surplus of rice.

In Alberta, the group will tour the oil fields and refineries.  They will then go on to British Columbia where they will visit logging camps, mines, saw mills and fish canneries.