The show featured extensive PD and coaching sessions
Photo credit: credit Donna Santos Photography/IncentiveWorks
Hundreds attended the show, held at the massive Metro Toronto Convention
Photo credit: credit Donna Santos Photography/IncentiveWorksCentre
Show-stopping exhibits were just part of the event
Photo credit: credit Donna Santos Photography/IncentiveWorks
If you had any doubt that the meeting and incentive business
was thriving in Canada, all you had to do was visit the huge incentive
works show in Toronto this week. Home to
some 350 booths (featuring 750 companies) and attended by some 1,800 planners,
agents and travel types from across the country, this 26
th edition
of the show was bigger than ever.
“We really are the annual resource for meeting planners who
want to refresh their rolodex and benefit from amazing education suited to
continuing careers,” show manager Melissa Arnott told me. And the combination
of trade show, professional development sessions, networking and fun lived up
to its title: Canada’s Meetings and Events Show.
The trade show floor boasted not only of the most impressive
booths you’ll see at any travel trade show (Fountains? Really?) but also some
truly creative products. Your meeting and incentive clients can now nibble on
chocolates featuring laser inscribed images of selfies they have taken. And
wear socks branded with your logo.
And what’s new destination-wise?
Bahamar in Nassau has (finally) opened and now comprises the
Grand Hyatt, Rosewood and SLX Hotels, with shared casino, golf, tennis, spa and
meeting facilities. Charming Manoir Hovey in Quebec’s Eastern Townships – a
Relais and Chateaux Hotel rated number one hotel in Canada by
Travel + Leisure mag – is a family-run,
upscale but cosy 37 room inn that
was recently the vacation destination of Bill Clinton and family.
Grand Cayman is very happy to report that AC is now serving the island from YYZ 6 days a week
and now features the first Kimpton hotel outside the US. And emerging incentive destinations, according
to Meridican Incentive Consultants, include Antarctica, Croatia, Poland,
Rwanda, Columbia and Iceland.
Newfoundland and Labrador continue to rock (if you’ll
excuse the expression) with cool product such as Fogo Island, Fisher’s Loft
country inn, and a wave of folks who want to discover the province that inspired
the Broadway hit
Come from Away.
Stay tuned for incentiveworks
2017!
