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March is here and Spring is in the air! Here are the latest DT updates.

March Break: Bring Your Kids to DT!

Children of DT staff are invited to come to the office on Thursday, March 16th. If you plan on bringing your child, please reach out to Rebecca with their name, age, and any dietary restrictions. Activities will begin at 12pm!

Email Rebecca

Spring Briefing Save the Date

On April 6, Destination Toronto will host the second annual Spring Briefing event. Networking begins at 8:30 a.m and the main event begins at 9:30 a.m. Details on location are still to come, all staff are expected to attend. The Spring Briefing will be followed by lunch and an All-Hands meeting at the office.

Intranet Update

“How-to Support for Digital Resources” on the Brand Support Page has been moved to the Resources Page. The GDSS&E calendar form for Monday.com has also been added to the Resources Page.

See the Changes

Getting to Know You

In each edition of PULSE, we’re asking 3 questions to 3 phenomenal DT team members. This month we spoke to Jennifer, Indira and Farnaz.

Read the Harbour Blog

Helpful Newsletters that Keep you in the Loop!

We have created a list of our DT newsletters and helpful partner newsletters. Having the latest news delivered straight to your inbox can help you make informed and strategic business decisions.

Read the Harbour Blog

WELCOME

Welcoming our newest Destination Toronto team member:

Heidi Meisinger, Senior Manager, Events, (she/her): Heidi has spent her professional life working in hospitality, specifically in Hotel Sales & Events. She has been fortunate to work at some of Canada's most beautiful hotels including Fairmont Banff Springs, Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel Vancouver, Delta Hotels Toronto, Yorkville Royal Sonesta and Shangri-La Hotel. Heidi looks forward to working with the team to host THE WORLD in Toronto.

If you've not done so yet, feel free to send a note to say hi and introduce yourself!

DID YOU CATCH THE MOST RECENT CONTENT HUB ARTICLES?

Sharing a round-up of articles that you may have missed:

Research & Insights Terminal:

Business Events:

4 Black-Owned Businesses to Consider for Your Next Toronto Event

Consumer Articles:

An at-a-glance look at the month ahead for the DT teams.

DEPARTMENT NEWS: WHAT'S ON THIS MONTH

GLOBAL SALES AND SERVICES

MIC Educational Conference & Tradeshow - March 2 Denver, CO
Business Events Week

PCMA Foundation Fashion Show - March 8 National Harbor, MD
Destination Showcase - March 8 National Harbor, MD
IAEE Women’s Leadership Forum - March 9 National Harbor MD
PCMA Visionary Awards - March 9 National Harbor, MD
Destinations International 2023 Convention Sales & Services Summit - March 9 National Harbor, MD

St. Pat’s Parade Event/ OnPeak Chicago Client Event - March 11 Chicago, IL
Destination Reps Spring Event - March 14 Chicago, IL
XL Workshop - March 16 Toronto, ON
PharmaFourm - March 19 New York, NY
GDC (Game Developers Conference) - March 20 San Francisco, CA
Association Forum - Women’s Executive Forum - March 24 Chicago, IL
Conference Direct Annual Partner Meeting - March 26 Louisville, KY
MPI - GMID - Global Meetings Industry Day - March 29 Toronto, ON
ICCA North America Summit – March 30 – Ottawa, ON
Hosting 3 CW meetings in March:

March 5-8 Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) - 25,000 attendees
March 15-18 Association for Computing Machinery ACM-SIGCSE - 1,700 Attendees
March 28-April 2 American Counseling Association Annual Conference - 4,200 Attendees

DESTINATION SERVICES UPDATES

March Year Prior Activations

2024 ACMG Annual Meeting - Salt Lake City

March Site Inspections

NHL All Star
IREM Institute of Real Estate Management
AAPD American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry
Sibos Site Inspection + Exhibitor Day

Travel Trade

March 3-4: TT hosting clients from the UK and Germany as part of a Destination Ontario Winter
Product FAM
March 17-18: North American and European Product Managers will be in Toronto as part of a Great Lakes Cruise Association Product Educational Fam
March 13-15: TT participating in the Destination Ontario Meeting/Training sessions for Quebec based tour & receptive operators
March 16: TT participating in an educational presentation on Toronto in partnership with Anderson Vacations.
March 19-20: TT is hosting Quebec based Toundra Voyages tour operator on a Toronto Fam in partnership with Destination Ontario

GLOBAL MARKETING

Celebrating Black History Month across web and social platforms - Now You Know: Umbereen Inayet, Awakenings (NowPlayingToronto), 4 Black-Owned Businesses to Consider for Your Next Event (Meetings content), How to Support Black History Month (Corporate/Industry content), 9 Black History Months to Check Out in Toronto (consumer content)
Supporting GMID (March 30), stay tuned for details!
Adding a new hotel and pass packaging platform to DestinationToronto.com in early March (Rootrez is the name of the platform, it’s replacing Meridian)
Running a pilot project with Crowdriff Localhood to test and scale production using user-generated content (UGC)
Hosting U.S. freelance writer Jeanine Barone, March 27-30
Sharing Cultures Remix campaign on BE hub homepage
Developing You Gotta See What We See (U.S. consumer campaign) to launch in April

DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT

Preparing for the Spring Briefing event on April 6. The focus of this event for the community is to outline key DT initiatives for the upcoming spring and summer season and highlight all the ways businesses can leverage those initiatives and channels to promote their own business.
The Tourism Relief Fund project concludes in March, so all final reports and payments are being processed. In all, through this federally-funded program, 141 businesses are directly benefiting from $11 million in support funding, helping them expand and adapt their businesses. The program is managed by DT and encompasses the visitor economy in Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton.
Team is in active sales mode for new types of partnerships and we look forward to sharing news of confirmed partnerships soon.

CRM Wiki

Destination Toronto’s CRM wiki

INTRANET

Destination Toronto Intranet

HIVE app

DT Office Pre-access Questionnaire

EMPLOYEE TRAINING UPDATE

On Thursday, March 30, we will be having a training session for Harassment & Discrimination Training in the Workplace.

There will be 3 separate sessions and HR will send you a time slot for your assigned session.

LINKEDIN LEARNING LICENCES AVAILABLE

Destination Toronto also has LinkedIn Learning Licenses available. If you are not familiar with LinkedIn Learning, it is on-demand learning with unlimited access to 7,000 courses that range from 1 to 9 hours. For more information on the courses available through LinkedIn Learning, click here.

If anyone does not use their assigned license for 20 days it will be unassigned to make it available for another colleague. To request a license, please send Monique an email and a license will be assigned. If all of the licenses are out, a waitlist will be created.

If you have any questions please reach out to Monique directly.