A guide directs travellers to airport pubs.

Victoria International Airport, Victoria, B.C. At White Spot, you will find two Granville Island beers – Nat Bailey Pale Ale and Nat Bailey Lager. The Airside Café serves Lighthouse Lager, Beacon India Pale Ale, Race Rocks Amber Ale and Keepers Stout, from the Lighthouse Brewing Company, in Victoria.

Edmonton International Airport, Edmonton, Alta. Roughneck Driller’s Ale from the Roughneck Brewery in Calmar, Central Alberta, is available in the Mountain Lodge Bar & Grill and Molson’s Pub.

Toronto Pearson Airport, Toronto, Ont. Alexander Keith’s (the India Pale Ale and the Amber Ale) are the specialty domestic brews at Casey’s Grill Bar. Although they’re not brewed in Toronto, they are Canadian (brewed in Nova Scotia). Rickard’s Red is served at the Exchange Café.

For the full guide to Canadian airport pubs, visit Cheapflights Canada’s site

For the guide to U.S. airport pubs, visit Cheapflight Canada’s site

Patty MacPherson, CMP Sales Manager JPdL Toronto Inc.

When US Airways Flight 1549 plunged into New York’s Hudson River in January, 2009, an aviation specialist said one of the contributing factors to the successful landing was that the crew — Captain Chesley Sullenberger, copilot Jeff Skiles and three flight attendants — acted together. They had done four flights together and knew each other, so they reacted as a team.

Fortunately, most of us will never have to be responsible for saving a colleague or client’s life. However, this does highlight the value of teamwork. And in an era where we struggle to understand colleagues and clients and not overstep social and business boundaries, the concept of team-building becomes more important.

Game-Based Activity

Traditionally, team-building has been a game-based activity, sometimes not universally greeted by openedarmed participants. For most city-based desk-jockies, it’s a stretch to figure out the relevance of hanging from treetops in the forest. The one unifying element is usually a collective hatred of the person who organized the activity.

And does effective team-building require pushing people to be uncomfortable or frightened?

Niesa Silzer, creative director at Calgary’s Details Convention and Event Management, did her masters degree on adventure travel and meeting planning. Her conclusion: There’s not enough data to prove taking a team whitewater rafting will improve staff retention or address other HR issues.

Silzer says, “A lot of people contact our company and want a team-building programme. I say, ‘great, what are your objectives?’ And immediately, that stops them.”

Not only have clients not thought about objectives, but they “don’t dedicate the resources or dollars to do a programme that will actually teach them to communicate better. There are some fantastic programmes out there, and they’re expensive. But they actually have results.”

Silzer is a fan of L(earn)2’s programme Save the Titanic. “It’s fantastic. I’ve seen groups go through it where they actually learn how to communicate in a group setting and there’s that ‘ah-ha’ moment. Of course, they’re being facilitated through it, but you can see that this person has tuned out, that this person is taking charge and how everyone is working together — or not — based on how they’re contributing. Once those lightbulbs go off, all of a sudden, everyone starts working better together.”

“Our industry loves ROI, but a lot of it is so hard to measure. What’s your return on your satisfaction level?” This is where philanthropic team-building is on the rise. While some participants may feel less than motivated in a game situation, others can be driven by the desire to actually make a difference.

Habitat For Humanity

One of the biggest groups working in corporate teambuilding is the Habitat for Humanity Canada Foundation.

With the help of 50,000 volunteers (up by 20,000 in five years), Habitat builds 200 new homes a year in 73 locations across Canada. According to Lisa Lalande, Habitat’s Toronto-based national director for corporate partnerships, “We see a movement to more of the hands-on impact and direct local community involvement.” Habitat provides “that tangible opportunity to get involved,” which is key for team-building.

Lalande tells the story of a woman who came to the build site with her colleagues. “The team leader for the day asked her, ‘what are you good at?’ She said, ‘I’m good at painting and landscaping.’ He said, ‘excellent. You’re going to be putting in a toilet today.’” She was given a task that stretched her and provided a new skill.

Bike Building

Patty MacPherson, CMP, sales manager at JPdL Toronto Inc., has worked with Mount Tremblant-based Outeractive Experiences, who facilitate bike-building as a team activity. Outeractive’s concepts creator Patrick Lussier says they can accommodate from 50 to 300 participants.

For one group client, they built 55 bikes in the ballroom of the Hilton Lac Leamy. Lussier says “They were launching a campaign internally to get employees to be more sensitive about the environment. The recipient organization was Bikes for Humanity, so they had representatives present a short slideshow showing how bikes impact the lives of the people in Africa. A bike does a lot for us, but does a lot more for an African mother who wants to take her children to a hospital.”

Participants also learned that the container transporting the bikes would be converted into a bike shop, with locals trained to become bike mechanics. “So there’s a whole programme behind the donation that’s a little more complex,” he says.

MacPherson likes the bike programme because “it’s a turn-key solution. The client shows up with their delegates in the meeting space and we take over.” Asked how she measured the results, MacPherson says, “Every programme we’ve run has been a huge success. When the children arrive to pick up their bikes, we create a small ceremony. We present each team to the child and they, in turn, give the child his/her bike. There isn’t a dry eye in the house. That’s genuine.”

Daily Bread

Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank is another example of socially responsive team-building. They host corporate groups three days a week. According to Kristin Thomas, Daily Bread’s development officer for corporate and foundations, “Some groups will just come in with a few people from a department, whereas some will come in with over 100 people and make it a competition to see who can sort the most food. Often, they’re bringing employees who work in different offices, offering them a way to connect, as well as give back to the community.” It’s so successful that Daily Bread books groups up to three months in advance.

Best of all, this new-style team-building lets colleagues connect over something real and doesn’t require trekking off into the wilderness, saving time and budget. However, for those who want to do something to help the wilderness and aren’t afraid of travel, there’s Inuit-owned Cruise North, which operates a 122-passenger, 328-ft. expedition vessel in Canada’s Arctic. While they have hosted a floating meeting, they also offer a conservation cruise each fall, which could easily be offered as a team-building expedition.

Their typical clean-up cruise itinerary allocates three days cleaning up a site(s), two days of fun (looking for polar bears and other wildlife) and two days sailing. He says, “If you want to incorporate team-building with a small group (10-30) into the clean-up cruise, there’s plenty of free time and space to do it. The majority of our client’s interest is leisure, but we can always tweak it so it accommodates team-building.”

— Allan Lynch is a New-Minas, N.S.-based freelance writer and regular contributor to M&IT.

Originally published in Meetings & Incentive Travel Magazine

Vino Volo offers wine and tempting small plates.

Vino Volo – A boutique retail store, with a tasting lounge and bar, serves wines by the glass or in tasting flights. Wines can be purchased by the bottle, to take onboard or ship home (local laws permitting). Also available are small plates such as locally-produced artisanal cheeses and dry cured meats (all food can be packaged to carry onboard). Locations in 10 U.S. airports, including New York, Washington, D.C., Seattle and Philadelphia.

La Bodega Winery – A North Texas winery, La Bodega offers blessed respite from the chaos of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Pull up a chair at the mile-long granite bar and choose from a wide selection of boutique wines by the taste, glass and bottle. Food pairings, such as olive tapenade or boursin cheese, with crackers, suavely complement the vintages. Wine-related giftware, too.

Beaudevin Tapas and Wine Bar – Nestled inside Brussels Airport, this wine bar is divided into three sections: a central bar area; a social meeting area; and a more private zone for business travellers who want to rest or work. The list of vintages hails from Belgium – and throughout the world – and the tapas have a Mediterranean slant. Plans call for an international rollout in airports and railway stations.

Eco-Friendly Business Cards

Toronto-based Traffic design + marketing inc. is promoting the “World’s Greenest Business card.” The full-colour cards use Forest Stewardship Council stock, water-cased vegetable inks and put multiple designs on the same press sheet (a gang run), printing 1,000 of each sheet, for economies of scale. In addition, for every order of 1,000 cards (cost is $150), Traffic will plant a tree in conjunction with Trees Ontario, a not-for-profit organization committed to the re-greening of Ontario through tree-planting efforts on rural lands and in urban areas. Bernard Hellen, president and creative director of Traffic, says the July press run is sold out. Check the website for the next run. Visit www.trafficdesign.ca

Las Vegas

After one of Las Vegas’s darkest periods in recent memory, there are signs that the city is slowly emerging from the depths of the economic crisis.

In recent months, meetings business is down as much as 20 per cent across the board. The city has endured everything from pure cancellations to postponed conferences, slashed budgets and drops in attendance by as much as 30 per cent.

Difficult Times
“Business has been affected significantly and things have been remarkably difficult,” admits Michael Massari, vice-president, Las Vegas Meetings by Harrah’s Entertainment. “It’s a challenge that we’re facing in the meetings industry in general and we need to get better at convincing people how important meetings are to the growth of their businesses.” The company is the consolidated meetings and conventions arm of seven Harrah’s properties, which, collectively, do approximately $380-million annually in meeting business and offer more than 1-million sq. ft. of meeting space.

“One of the manifestations of our structure is that you can have your continental breakfast, breaks and luncheons at Paris, your opening gala dinner at Caesars Palace and your closing reception at Rio,” explains Massari.

While looking at poor numbers for 2009 and 2010, Massari sees things shaping up very well for 2011 and 2012.

“Broadly, this is a short-run problem because, at the end of the day, meetings are about growth,” he says. “In the long-run, if companies expect to grow their way out of the challenges they are facing, then meetings will have to be a big part of that. Nothing good ever happened until someone held a meeting.”

The “AIG Effect”
The city has also had to battle back from the “AIG Effect,” where the corporate market has become gunshy at the prospect of negative public perceptions. Since February, when President Barack Obama warned corporations that “they can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas…on the taxpayers’ dime,” the city has experienced 340 meetings and conventions cancellations, costing it more than $130-million.

MGM Grand

“More and more CEOs are telling me that they love doing business in Las Vegas, but that they need some cover,” says Chuck Bowling, executive vice-president, Mandalay Bay. “I think that our efforts at educating people about the positive ROI has provided that cover.”

Mandalay Bay forms part of the MGM Mirage portfolio, which comprises close to 50 per cent of major hotels along The Strip. The meetings business accounts for anywhere from 10 per cent to 40 per cent of each property’s overall market mix, with Mandalay Bay being at the high end.

Best Value
“We’ve been filling our empty spaces by contacting people we have been doing business with for years, working with them to see the value in booking their meetings right now,” says Bowling.

The value has never been better for holding meetings or conventions in Las Vegas, with prices on everything from airfare, hotel rooms and meetings space being slashed. Las Vegas also has the advantage of experience on its side, with teams of seasoned meetings-planning professionals.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve faced perception issues when trying to earn the business of certain customers, but it’s our ability to execute meetings and support our customers that will decide whether or not we earn that business,” says Massari.

Moreover, Las Vegas is home to three of the top five convention centres in the United States and offers almost 10-million sq. ft. of meeting space.

The city infrastructure is equal to the task, with approximately 145,000 hotel rooms, an international airport minutes from the city centre and a portfolio of some of the continent’s best restaurants and entertainment options. By day, Las Vegas is a designer shopper’s paradise and a gateway to the natural beauty of Nevada and the Grand Canyon.

Sunnier Days
While residential development projects have been scrapped or put on hold, hoteliers have fought through the challenges they are facing and look ahead to sunnier days. In July, Caesars Palace will unveil its new meeting facility, adding 100,000 sq. ft. of space to the Harrah’s portfolio.

“We had an opportunity to cancel the project, but we chose not to, because it’s been well received by our customers and we already have significant business on the books,” says Massari.

Collectively, the city of Las Vegas is highlighting its many and varied core strengths, fighting through adversity to retain its supremacy in an industry that will inevitably rebound.

— David Pye is a freelance writer based in Montreal.

Marc Seguin, vice-president of feature film and technology, CFTPA

Anyone who’s ever dragged a delegate bag full of conference brochures and reports back to their hotel room knows just how much of that material never makes it home. The one thing delegates won’t add to their suitcase is a mountain of paper.

For three days in February, the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) tapped into the power of the Apple iPod Touch to turn its annual Prime Time convention into a paperless conference. The digital delegate bag eliminated the need to print 111,000 sheets of paper and to produce and distribute hundreds of video DVDs.

All 560 delegates were handed a brand new Touch preloaded with a custom-designed application featuring 12 functions — everything from programme details and speaker profiles, to a venue map, video ads and an instant-messaging tool.

Using the Touch to achieve a paperless conference was the brainchild of Marc Seguin, vice-president of feature film and new technology for Ottawa-based CFTPA. Seguin says the idea came to him early in 2008 when CFTPA staffers were up to their eyeballs stuffing bags with material for that year’s conference.

He had recently purchased his own Touch, so it just clicked that the unit’s large storage capacity and high-res screen would be perfect to showcase film and video — the group’s raison d’etre. “We needed to guarantee that every delegate that came to our conference could experience it in the same way,” Seguin explains. “It was the only device of its kind that could do the job I was looking to do.”

Seguin estimates that about two-thirds of the printed material distributed at previous CFTPA conferences was actually being left behind in Ottawa hotel rooms by delegates. “We’re a small conference… If you get the NAB Show or the Cannes Film Festival to do something like this, can you imagine how much less paper you would use?”

When Seguin discovered that no one had ever developed a conference application for the Touch, he began a year-long journey to pull together financial support and worked with partners to develop and execute the initiative.

ALL ABOUT THE APP
The surprise hit of the conference was the Social Network function — a simple instant messaging tool that allowed people to connect with each other. More than 2,500 messages were exchanged over the three days.

“We were stunned at how quickly the word got out about the social-networking tool and the volume of traffic,” says Kevin Ford, president of Parliant Corporation, the Ottawa-based company that created the CFTPA application. “Most of those messages were about ‘meet me at the north door, we need to talk.’ Just short, quick things like that.”

The tool also proved to be quite nimble. During the first day of the conference, an attendee asked whether they could broadcast a message to all delegates via the Social Network function. “It was one of those ‘what a great idea’ moments,” says Ford, “so it also occurred to a sponsor to ask for the feature. Since we were lonely at the support table, we were able to add that application in the afternoon, which is the way it should be in a service industry.”

The CFTPA conference application included 12 functions: Welcome, Tutorial, Program, Panels, Map, Sponsor Videos, Member Videos, Video Ads, Publications, Social Network, Settings and About. Most of the information was offered in both English and French.

“I knew that the options are endless, but my pocketbook isn’t. Everything comes at a price,” says Seguin, who remembers spending quite a bit of time with Parliant boiling down his long wish list of functions to ones that reflected what the CFTPA really needed and could afford. “We decided to do less and do it really, really well.”

Delegates were able to view welcoming videos from conference organizers, a venue map showing the session rooms, dozens of videos, sponsor ads and material, like brochures, that would have otherwise been printed. The Program function, for example, included the entire conference agenda and allowed users to drill down to see session descriptions, speaker bios and colour photos.

The CFTPA gained valuable knowledge about how people chose to navigate the application. One tool that was not well used was the Panels function, Seguin says. It was meant to duplicate the one-page quick reference guide many conferences hand out every day in printed form. But CFTPA delegates chose to instead source that same information in the Program function.

The annual Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) Prime Time convention goes paperless

The Publications function proved to be a great place to store brochures, press releases and other information, but some of it was difficult to read and navigate because a number of suppliers hadn’t formatted their material for the Touch.

It’s that kind of trial-and-error learning that is so valuable to other conference organizers. Dr. Michael Oh, associate professor, Department of Neurosurgery, Drexel University and University of West Virginia, attended the CFTPA conference specifically to see the Touch application in action.

He’s taking his observations back to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), which holds an annual conference for as many as 3,000 delegates and generates a considerable amount of paper such as scientific abstracts.

“One of the key things is [the Touch application] gives readier access to information, and that’s what we want at our scientific meetings,” says Dr. Oh. “I think that’s one of the ways it’s going to be an enabling technology and not just a gimmick.”

PAPERLESS AT ANY PRICE?
Going paperless isn’t cheap. Seguin says the initiative cost thousands of dollars to develop and execute. The total cost was covered via cash and contra, but doesn’t reflect the real cost, because many of the conference partners provided thousands of dollars worth of services pro-bono.

“I financed this essentially using three sources of revenue: there was a slight bump in registration fees, I found sponsors specifically [for the device], and I achieved a number of cost savings in my existing budget,” Seguin says. That included the elimination of printing costs and purchasing delegate bags. Still, the CFTPA ran a deficit that will be amortized over the next few years, Seguin says.

The cost of executing a similar programme for the AANS could be a stumbling block, Dr. Oh admits. The CFTPA opted to give a new Touch to every one of its delegates (the cost was just under the retail price of $230 each). A similar move by the AANS could run as high as $700,000, and that doesn’t include the cost of developing an application or on-site support, Dr. Oh says.
It makes sense to tap advertisers and other supporters for financial support, but sponsorship packages — that typically include recognition in the show programme or other printed material — need to be restructured.

The CFTPA had its app designed so that ads popped up every time delegates turned on the devices. Advertising messages were also placed strategically within all of the functions. The sponsor videos, member videos, and video-ads tools allowed supporters to run any length of video, from a five-second clip for Westwind Pictures to a 22-minute video for the Ontario Media Development Corporation.
All of the provinces and territories belonging to the Association of Provincial Film Funding Agencies (APFA) contributed funds to help get the initiative off the ground, says APFA chairman Richard Brownsey.

“It positioned us as supportive of an initiative that was environmentally sound and technologically sophisticated,” says Brownsey, who is also president of British Columbia Film.
Brownsey says he was very impressed with the user experience: “You could put [the entire conference] in your jacket pocket. There was a lot of information that was available…it was very intuitive, so you could actually follow the conference quite easily.”

Parliant’s Ford says it took some convincing before advertisers believed this new medium would perform better than the printed Conference Program. “We were on the show floor polling advertisers and there wasn’t a single one who didn’t feel that they got better value.”

If the CFTPA decides to do the same thing next year, Seguin says he will likely try to offset costs by soliciting ads from services like taxis and limos, hotels and restaurants. He’s also considering a registration discount for anyone bringing their own iPhone or Touch to the next conference.

Still, Seguin understands that in a recession, every cost is under the microscope. “We’re a small organization, we run on a shoestring budget. I figured out how to finance this with the goodwill and generosity of several partners,” he says.

The CFTPA board of directors will soon decide whether the Touch will do a repeat performance at next year’s conference. Seguin will present a full de-brief at a June board meeting.

“Ultimately, it will be up to them if we do it again,” Seguin says, “I have no doubt that our board members understand the significance in this initiative, as they themselves are leading entrepreneurs who produce innovative television, feature film and interactive media content.”

—Angela Kryhul is a Toronto-based freelance writer.

Power Within presentation of former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush

If you did nothing for several days but sit in a convention centre’s foyer and observe the comings and goings of conference delegates, it would soon be apparent that these facilities cater to a diverse clientele.

People attending business meetings and conventions reflect the changing workplace, which today is populated by four generations of employees — from tech-savvy college and university grads in their early twenties to baby boomers hitting their sixties, many of whom intend to work past the traditional retirement age of 65. The median age of Canada’s population is 39.4 years, according to Statistics Canada.

A convention centre that might one week host a society of anesthesiologists in their forties and fifties could, the next week, see a gathering of professional videogame designers in their twenties, or a one-off event like the Power Within presentation of former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush. Different age groups have varied needs and expectations and that’s being reflected in the architecture and design of a new generation of convention and exhibition centres being built in cities across Canada. Now, more than ever, it’s important to understand how the workforce is changing.

“There is no such term as ‘general public’ anymore,” says Warren Buckley, president and CEO of BC Pavilion Corporation, which operates the newly expanded Vancouver Convention Centre. The Centre now offers 500,000 sq. ft. of pre-function, meeting, exhibition and ballroom space almost exclusively for business and trade use.

First, several months before the Centre opened, Buckley had a look at the promotional brochures produced by an edgy and youthful advertising agency. “The print was small, there were too many words, the visuals needed to be larger. Those sorts of things needed to be dealt with, because we all know that very soon, there will be more people over age 50 than under,” Buckley says. Lots of thought went into the signage at the Centre — larger type makes it easier to read. The Centre’s lighting is bright, there is plenty of seating throughout the building and chairs in the meeting rooms are more comfortable.

Secondly, when 63,000 visitors toured the Centre during its grand opening in early April, Buckley was struck by the number of people Twittering about the event and downloading videos to You- Tube. But the Centre’s designers had anticipated this kind of use by outfitting the building with wireless Internet access, and making sure there are plenty of electrical outlets so that bloggers and others are able to recharge their computers, iPhones and other electronic devices.

In the workplace, there are changes afoot in the way people interact, that are also being reflected in convention centre design. A number of corporate offices are being designed or reconfigured to include more collaborative work areas. The creation of comfortable lounge spaces, where people can bring their laptops and work together on projects, is being driven, in part, by a younger generation who favour a teamwork atmosphere over the isolation of cubicles.

“The Convention Centre has been designed to take the meetings out of the meeting rooms,” Buckley explains. “These days, when you give someone an assignment, particularly Generation X or Y, they make up teams and they collaborate. It’s very natural for them to have open discussions, to come to conclusions as opposed to doing work in isolation. So you have to provide those types of spaces.”

Andrew Beattie, vice-president of sales and marketing for the Ottawa Convention Centre, which is being completely rebuilt and expanded to 192,000 sq. ft. of usable space, is contemplating whether to order egg-shaped tables with built-in USB ports that bloggers can plug into.

Set to open in April, 2011, the Centre will primarily be used for business conventions and meetings, Beattie says. And, like Vancouver, the Ottawa Centre was designed to provide more public space, to facilitate “more of those smaller, collaborative meetings,” Beattie explains.

“It used to be, in old hotels and convention centres, the hallway space outside your meeting room was 10 ft. wide and you had to really search for a place to have a conversation. One of the things we’ve incorporated into the design, is you can actually pull some furniture together and have a small meeting” in the public spaces, he says.

When the Ottawa Convention Centre is completed, it won’t have the sort of grand staircase typically found in many convention and hotel meeting spaces. Instead, it will have a “grand ramp-way,” Beattie says. The ramp, connecting the first and second floors, is accessible to wheelchairs and is easier for older visitors to use than a long staircase, he explains.

The Ottawa Centre will also have a four-storey-high west-facing glass façade — a green feature that will not only help lower heating and lighting costs by making better use of daylight, it is also a way to aid “intuitive circulation” throughout the building, Beattie says. That means visitors standing in the foyer will have clear sightlines to the meeting and function rooms on all four floors. “That is really important for a lot of people, especially for seniors,” Beattie explains. “You can very quickly and easily see where you have to be.”

Niagara Convention & Civic Centre

In Niagara Falls, Ont., construction has started on the Niagara Convention & Civic Centre, a 280,000-sq.-ft. facility where flexibility is paramount because it will cater both to business and the public when it opens in 2011.

“The idea is that this will be an extremely flexible and well-used space by all kinds of people in the community, and that, of course, leads to the idea of multigenerational use…which is really key to this project,” explains Susan Spencer Lewin, principal with CS&P Architects Inc., the project’s lead architectural firm.

“Keep in mind that when we talk about accessibility challenges, we’re not just talking about wheelchairs,” Lewin says. “We’re talking about all kinds of people who may have varying levels of mobility challenges, sight issues or balance issues.”

That’s a key point, says Kerry Painter, president and general manager of the Centre, who says the city’s Disability Advisory Committee was approached for advice on the design. “We had them go through the plans (from the point of view) of guests and employees.” Things like impaired hearing and mobility were considered, as well as issues that might be faced by visitors who have orientation difficulties or who might be on medication.

The fact that the theatre, exhibit hall and ballroom are all on one level will make mobility and navigation easier, Lewin explains.

An acoustic consultant is reviewing the design to ensure that hard reflective sound will be kept to a minimum because it can disorient visitors who may have hearing issues, she says.

“We’ve made sure the counters in the building are designed for wheelchairs and special needs; we have colour-contrast on the stairs and walls to ensure a person with low vision would be able to sense the edges and to reduce disorientation. Outside, we have lots of drop-off areas and multiple entrances all along the north face of the building,” Lewin says.

It’s challenging to design a building that will meet the evolving needs of the meetings business for decades to come, says Scott Ferguson, interim president and CEO of Trade Centre Ltd., in Halifax. The city is developing plans for a project featuring condos, office and retail space, a major hotel and about 150,000 sq. ft. of useable convention space, he says.

“The industry is changing and people are trying to anticipate what will happen,” in terms of economic, environmental, demographic and communications issues, Ferguson explains.

—Angela Kryhul is a Toronto-based freelancer.

0% said yes
100% said no

July 09, 2009
Has your meetings business declined during 2009?

66.7% said yes
33.3% said no

July 02, 2009
Do you plan to take a group to Las Vegas on a programme?

11.1% said yes
88.1% said no

June 25, 2009
Have you taken a group to Las Vegas on a programme?

20% said yes
80% said no

June 11, 2009
Are you on LinkedIn?

25% said yes
75% said no

June 04, 2009
Are you planning fewer events this year, compared to 2008?

55.6% said yes
44.4% said no

May 28, 2009
Are You on Facebook?

33.3% said yes
66.7% said no

May 21, 2009
Are you on Twitter?

13.3% said yes
86.7% said no

May 14, 2009
Has the swine flu affected any of your meetings or events?

26.7% said yes
73.3% said no

Canadian International Auto Show

Did Canadians not get the memo about the world going to hell amid economic collapse? It’s hard to avoid headlines screaming about declining consumer confidence, tanking retail sales, job losses and
plant closings, yet in Canada, banks still post profits and business continues.

Amidst all this doom and gloom, an investigation of Canadian trade-show trends reveals that producers believe the situation ain’t that bad! In fact, it’s almost frighteningly normal. Nina Kressler, vicepresident of sales and marketing at Halifax’s Trade Centre, says, “From a convention perspective, with a trade-show component, we haven’t experienced any change in trending.”

NO CANCELLATIONS
Patrick Guidote, assistant director of media relations at Tourism Montreal, reports the Montreal Convention Centre hasn’t had cancellations and is receiving inquiries for new shows. And while Detroit’s International Auto Show was a subdued event, with six of the world’s major manufacturers cancelling, the Canadian International Auto Show (CIAS) in Toronto was totally different. The only
manufacturer to cancel was Porsche, which, in refocusing its marketing, pulled out of all auto shows. As for attendance, it only dipped 17 per cent from 2008.

Tom Tonks, CIAS general manager, says, “There’s been a bigger demand for (space) this year than ever before. Initially, there was almost a deer-in-headlights freeze, but everybody has come to realize it’s all about the marketing. You’ve got to get out and show this product and how good it is.”

Laughing nervously, he says, “We did a survey of all the exhibitors — there’s 20 manufacturers — and not one asked for less space for next year. In fact, a lot of manufacturers are asking for more for 2010.”

Such positive news is almost unnerving. Tonks says, “The situation here in Canada is not exactly mirrored with what is happening in the United States. It’s become very clear that the country’s banks and economy have been well managed…so we have to be careful not to use the same yardstick to measure this economy with the American economy. There are still a lot of people working here.”

OPTIMISM
Anita Schachter, vice-president of the Canadian Gift Shows, for GLM LLC, a dmg world media business, says after her first show of the year, in Edmonton, in February, “Retailers are more cautious in their
spending habits than they were a year ago, but while this market was slightly down, there was optimism.

The environment is, I think, a little more positive than we’re feeling in the East. And that was evidenced at the show. Buying was quite strong, and even though we were down single digits (in attendance),
that was better than we had anticipated.”

Schachter’s colleague, Wes Scott, business development director for dmg’s Global Petroleum Show, is equally positive. He’s organizing the biannual GOEXPO: Gas and Oil Exposition, for June, 2009, in
Calgary, which will host 25,000 attendees and 600 exhibitors. “This is definitely going to be a more challenging year, but when we go back to our historical figures, it will fall right in the middle of our 2005 and 2007 events for size, from an exhibition point of view,” which puts it about 12-per-cent down from the goals they set in early 2008.

Scott is also organizing the World Heavy Oil Congress, in Venezuela, in November. “That one is tracking much better than we ever expected it would, which is phenomenal.”

Over at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, chief operations officer Lisa McDonald is equally upbeat. Speaking just days before her annual February event, McDonald confirms another
sell-out show, with 1,000 exhibitors and 18,000 attendees. “Our numbers are looking very good. For us, in some part, timing was on our side, because we are such a large show, we start our exhibit sales at the end of July. Typically, we will sell out on the very first day. If you didn’t get your application in that day, you’re on a waiting list. Fortunately, that occurred before the complete implosion of the economy.”

WELL-POSITIONED
While she is unsure of what 2010 will bring, she feels they are well-positioned to ride out any upheaval, “because it has been so difficult to get into our show that people have kept their booth space,
because they don’t want to lose it when things inevitably start ramping back up again.”

So why are Canadian trade shows doing so well? Thrift. Canadians traditionally keep costs low, compared to other countries. McDonald says, “We resisted the urge, when things were flying high, to
jack fees up, and that is serving us well now.” Tonks credits CIAS’ seven-day set-up, versus the month plus for the Detroit International Auto Show, for keeping costs down.

While these planners aren’t panicked, they are noticing some trends. Tonks noticed about 10 per cent of exhibitors cut back on things like carpeting and lighting. And McDonald has seen a rise in early
sales of $75 day passes versus the $390, multi-day, full-delegate registration.

To help exhibitors, Scott is looking at adding value by increasing social networking opportunities for exhibitors to meet clients, asking his suppliers to sharpen their pencils and recommending exhibitors
save shipping costs by having materials printed in Calgary.

As for the future, Scott sums up the general impression among show producers. “Our events for 2010 are tracking way ahead of what you would have expected. There definitely seems to be an attitude that by the tail-end of 2009, going into 2010, that the economy is going to be right back on fire again. And they’re definitely telling us that with their chequebooks.”

Bottom line: It’s about positioning yourself for the recovery.

— Allan Lynch is a New Minas, N.S.-based freelance writer.

The Fairmont Waterfront

While the world’s attention is on Vancouver and the Lower BC Mainland for the Olympic and Paralymic Games, Richard Yore, director of group sales for Tourism Vancouver, says it’s important to remember that these two events only occupy 25 days out of the 2010 calendar. After these games, this region will be left with a rich legacy of new and improved venues, transportation systems and accommodations.

Hosting the Games has proven to be a type of a pre-stimulus package that insulated the Lower Mainland against much of the economic roller coaster. Sue Roberts, managing director of Congress World Conferences Inc., who handles a dozen international association and medical meetings a year, says, “If you don’t read the papers or watch the media, you wouldn’t know there’s economic trouble in parts of Vancouver. I was talking to a property management company in Whistler and they’re suffering. We (in Vancouver) have not seen the downturn as badly. We’re in a little bubble here at the moment because of the Olympics.

The bubble is due to the infrastructure developments and salaries, plus a steady supply of officials, athletes, spectators and media who have already booked 60,000 room nights attending the nine world cup competitions leading up to the Games. The tangible legacy of the Games could reach $6-billion-plus in public spending on venues, infrastructure and facilities, like the $880-million addition to the Vancouver Convention Centre, which will be the media centre for the Games. This is supplemented by another billion dollars in private-sector spending.

Naturally, with any large-scale public spending, there is a lot of negative news, but Jack Tillar, general manager of TBA Global Canada, thinks it’s unfair. “We are so negative as a people. I don’t know if it’s been done, I haven’t seen one, if someone would do an honest ROI on what the Olympics cost us and three years later, say, this is where we are,” and factor in “all the people who worked building the infrastructure and the extra money we pumped into the economy, I believe Vancouver will do well.”

There are three host communities for the Games. In spite of their name, the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games are actually being held and co-hosted by three communities: Vancouver, Whistler and Richmond.

DRESSED UP VANCOUVER…
The biggest new investment in the city is the expansion of the harbourside Vancouver Convention Centre. The new, carbon-neutral expansion, opened in April, has a six-acre grass roof and offers over 223,000 sq. ft. of additional exhibition halls with dedicated loading bays, a stunning glass-walled 55,000-sq.-ft. ballroom capable of hosting 6,000 at a banquet (9,900 for a reception) and 52 additional meeting rooms. The original convention centre has 133,000 sq. ft. of space, including 91,000 sq. ft. of exhibition halls and a 16,600-sq.-ft. dividable ballroom and 20 breakout rooms.

Supporting the centre is a cluster of new and existing hotels. The refurbished 503-room Pan Pacific Hotel, which has 42,000 sq. ft, of meeting space, sits on top of the original convention centre. Across the street is the 489-room Fairmont Waterfront Hotel, and a new, $200-million, 415-room Fairmont Pacific Rim. At the far end of the new expansion is the 438-room Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside.

Among the other notable developments on the Vancouver hotel scene is a complete, $25-million refurbishment of the 372-room Four Seasons Hotel; the return of the St. Regis Hotel after an $11-million, 14-month renovation of the 1913 property; completion of a $24-million renovation of the Westin Bayshore; as well as several exciting new-builds: 77-room Loden Vancouver Hotel, 60-room L’Hermitage Hotel and the $300-miliion Shangri-La complex, which includes a 119-room luxury hotel.

Cypress Mountain has spent $40-million to improve facilities, which include the addition of a 48,000-sq.-ft. lodge. UBC has built the $47.8-million Thunderbird Arena, available for hire, and the $88-million Vancouver Olympic Paralympic Centre is a sporting and recreational facility which will be re-configured after the Games as a community centre.

…AND RICHMOND
The city of Richmond is home to more than 180,000 people. It’s an interesting option for groups, because it is off most people’s radar. This community, with 4,500 bedrooms and 135,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, is ideally suited to active groups. For example, Richmond has 80 km of cycling trails. Without leaving the community, visitors can see eagles and otters and go whale watching from the quaint little fishing port of Steveston, with streets lined by specialty shops, cafes and restaurants, a marina and a National Historic Site, the Gulf of Georgia Cannery, that is popular for receptions and dinners.

Richmond also offers the John MS Lecky UBC Boat House, a glass pavilion on the shore of the Fraser River, which can host 190, and the BC Federation of Sports’ facilities’ five fully-wired, light-filled meeting rooms.

The biggest addition to the community is the Richmond Olympic Oval, a $178-million, green, multi-purpose sporting facility built to host the Olympic speed-skating competitions. The 343,000-sq.-ft. Oval has room for two NHL-sized ice surfaces at one end, plus space for eight basketball courts and a 200-metre running track and 8,000 spectators, plus restaurants, fitness facilities, clinics, meeting space and outdoor river-side event venues.

On the accommodation side, the hotel collection includes the 185-room Radisson Hotel Vancouver Airport, which has just undergone an $8-million renovation. The 390-room Best Western, next to the Marriott, re-flags in May as a Sheraton. Since this property shares ownership with the Marriott, planners can work with both properties and have everything placed on one master account. Other Richmond properties include a 200-room Westin Hotel, opening in January, 2010; the 237-room Hilton Vancouver Airport; the 415-room Delta Vancouver Airport Hotel set on 7.5 acres of waterfront property which has 16,500 sq. ft. of conference space; and the 392-room Fairmont Vancouver Airport Hotel.

— Allan Lynch is a New Minas, N.S.-based freelance writer.