David Chisholm: Economic impact is created by hosting conventions, trade shows and public shows. Our primary focus is to host as many events as we can that bring attendees who reside outside of Canada, into our city. The further an attendee comes from, the longer they will tend to stay and spend more in our community.

David Chisholm: We are located in the downtown core surrounded by financial and entertainment districts, public transportation hubs, major sports facilities and thousands of hotel rooms. One key differentiator that is unlike most North American convention centres is that we produce and serve our own food and beverage operation and we provide our own technology services. This affords us the opportunity to work closely and be flexible with our customers and their unique needs.

David Chisholm: Our goals for 2019/20 are to exceed our revenues and profitability from the previous year. We can achieve this goal by booking the right type of business and being strategic with our inventory of space. More importantly, we will continue to provide our clients and attendees with top notch service excellence, including a clean, well maintained and modern convention centre experience.

David Chisholm: We host a wide variety of association and corporate events of all sizes. Generally, in the association sector they are conventions that address topics in life sciences, education, industry and professional services. On the corporate side we host many events from the IT, financial, insurance, retail and professional services sectors. I think we are always looking for new opportunities to take place in our shoulder seasons which are outside of the busy months of April through November.

David Chisholm: We have found that our clients like to use their own service providers to track the marketing and movements of their attendees. We have invested extensively into our website to make it easy to use and navigate in. We have invested in and installed five new large digital screens around the building to create opportunities for our clients to market sponsorship and advertising opportunities to their partners and clients.

David Chisholm: Our facility is an industry leader in sustainability and our efforts have been recognized through various awards and certifications. Some highlights from last fiscal year include 16,000 kg of food donated to local organizations and food banks representing 27,000 meals. 40,000 kg of materials such as lanyards, tables, lamps, carpet, and bins donated to local charities. 90% of all waste diverted from landfill. 80% of our wine list is dedicated to local Ontario wineries. 65% of all fish, meal and dairy purchased locally to help sustain farmland and local farmers.

David Chisholm: Toronto ranked #1 in North America for number of participants and #2 in number of meetings hosted for North America. We are poised to help sustain and grow this number through engaging local leaders of industry and research with our Leaders Circle program which helps support these leaders to champion our bids and host these meetings. We offer bid workshops, budget creation and support and many other services to help reduce the workload that a local leader might incur in hosting an international meeting.

David Chisholm: In many cases we work alongside our partners at Business Events Toronto to prospect and win these large events that are based around the world. These types of incentives or opportunities are organized through their offices.