Happy June! Here are the latest DT updates.

Read Destination Toronto’s Annual Report

The 2022 Annual Report outlines the deployment of sales and marketing strategies aligned to market readiness and opportunity, which can be organized into three themes: reactivate, rebuild and rethink - the year of RE.

Destination Toronto is Marching in the Toronto Pride Parade

As you know, we're very excited to be participating in the Pride Parade this year on Sunday June 25th! If you are interested in walking in the parade with Destination Toronto, please fill out this form by end of day today.

To learn more about what to expect at the parade, read our latest blog in The Harbour.

Corporate Bike Share Discount

What better way to enjoy the summer sunshine than taking advantage of the 20% DT discount on your Toronto Bike Share Annual Pass! DT staff have two annual membership options to choose from.

WRLDCTY Summit 03: The Destination City

On June 13 WRLDCTY is hosting a virtual event to explore the renewed role of the visitor and experience economy in 2023-2025. Our very own Scott Beck is a keynote speaker.

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 Margaux, Heidi and Lauren!

WELCOME

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to Mara Rodas for being chosen for the PCMA’s 20 in their Twenties program in its 10th class of exceptional young leaders in the business events industry. You can read Mara’s story here. 

KUDOS

Thank you to all of our newly CPR C and AED certified employees- Alison Owers-Graham, Andrew Franklin, Denise Belgrove, Maxine Morrell-West, Monique Holmes, Rebecca Koole, Rocco Fazzolari, Tanya Wadgymar, Tom Huller, and Warren Yarde. Thank you Warren for organizing the training and for all of the staff who took part in the training. You make our workplace a safer place to work!

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

DEPARTMENT NEWS: WHAT'S ON THIS MONTH

GLOBAL SALES AND SERVICES 

Global Sales & Service

• ASAE Executive Leadership Forum - June 4-6, 2023, Vancouver, BC
• The ASAE Executive Leadership Forum (ELF) is a thought-provoking learning experience for senior-level leaders in the association community, held in Canada annually. 
• AMC's Engaged Meeting - June 6-7, 2023, Oklahoma City, OK
• AMCs Engaged features both our high-value Association Management Company clients and their end-user Association clients together to network and engage. 
• London Tech Week & Sales Calls - June 12-16, 2023, London, UK
• DT to attend with DCBE at ‘London Tech Week,’ a global celebration of tech, uniting the most innovative thinkers and talent of tomorrow in a week-long festival. Showcasing how tech is transforming business and society. DT will lead a series of in-market sales calls with high-value single hotel and citywide international corporate end-user & agency clients.
• MPI WEC - June 13-15, 2023, Mexico
• DT Sales team to participate in the Hosted Buyer portion of the event.
• Montreal Takeover- June 18-19, 2023, Montreal, QC
• Targeted sales calls and an anchor client event.
• Association Forum Awards & Gala - June 22, 2023, Chicago, IL
• Celebrating special achievements amongst association industry peers.
• Pre-PCMA EduCon FAM - June 22-25 2023, Toronto, ON
• DT team with support from PCMA will target high-value 10-12 US association clients representing meetings with 1000 attendees and greater, to attend a pre-PCMA EduCon FAM. This event will  feature a Toronto thought-leader and offer education credits to Planners, attendance at a marquis Toronto summer event, while experiencing the sights & tastes of Toronto, all in advance of traveling to Montreal to EduCon.
• PCMA EduCon - June 25-28, 2023, Montreal, QC
• As part of DT's strategic partnership Toronto will engage at PCMA EduCon as part of the VIP Hosted Buyer Program, and we will be paired with 5 high value clients/prospects to host throughout the conference.  Toronto will also support the Canadian partners by a feature at a ‘Canada lunch,’ curated by PCMA.
• Summer InnoTech x Collision FAM - June 26-29, 2023,Toronto, ON
• In collaboration with DCBE, Destination Toronto is targeting 10-12 US or international clients from the tech sector, medtech, fintech or an agency partner representing high-value corporate tech clients, with meetings of 750 attendees or greater. 
• FICP Education Forum - June 27-29, 2023, Fernandina, Florida
• The FICP (Financial & Insurance Conference Professionals) Education Forum attracts financial services and insurance meeting professionals from across North America. 
• TEAMS Europe - June 27-28, 2023 London, UK
• The Meetings Show - June 28-29, London, UK
• The Meetings Show is a traditional trade show style event attended by international corporate agencies & end-users, and incentives houses. Destination Toronto will participate in a large booth with several other Canadian destinations. 

Destination Services and Events

• June Year Prior Activations
• SNMMI-Society of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging
• June Citywide Site Inspections
• Sibos Final Site Inspection
• ACBL
• June Citywide Conventions 
• American Water Works Association
• HITEC
• Collision
• June Events Team Happenings
• GALA Choruses Festival 2028 Sales Site Visit
• Pre-PCMA EduCon FAM
• Summer InnoTech x Collision FAM
• Toronto Inc @ Collision

TRAVEL TRADE

• Rendezvous Canada Post Fam Tours, June 2-15, 2023
• DT team is coordinating product fam tours & site inspections for international tour operators who will be in Toronto after Rendezvous Canada
• Canadian Affair UK - Fam Series - June 17, 2023
• DT is supporting UK-based tour operator Canadian Affair with a series of independent fam programs for key UK based travel agents selling CA Toronto leisure packages. These fams will commence in June and run through October.  

GLOBAL MARKETING

• Preparations for the Annual General Meeting, including presentation and scripting
• Terminal article on one year of Toronto Inc with three CEOs.
• Hosting a writer from Meetings Today for a Spring venue roundup, June 1-3, 2023.
• Hosting Hunter March, host of Sugar Rush, June 1-2, 2023.
• Hosting National Geographic writer, Joe Yogerst, June 1-4, 2023.
• Participating in a one-day media mission with desksides and media lunch in Buffalo, June 5.
• Hosting a group of UK writers to experience Toronto before flying to Vancouver. Publications: Financial Times, Culture Trip, Vanity Fair, and the Scotsman, June 6-9
• Attending the Public Relations Society of America’s Travel and Tourism Conference, June 20-23.
• Hosting a Collision Innotech media FAM, June 26 - 29, 2023.
• Hosting Kyle Beechy to attend the Taste of Place Summit hosted by the CTA, June 25-29, 2023.
• Visme GSS Bid Book template launch and training.
• US Leisure Campaign: You Gotta See What We See is now in market (NYC, Chicago, Washington DC, San Francisco)
• Now Playing Toronto published three blogs in June. Read them here. 
• Read the most recent stories on BE here.

DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT

• Next EDGE is a two parter on data literacy on June 19 and 20, 2023.
• We submitted our entry to the GDS Index, which will place Toronto in a ranking of 100+ cities worldwide on the sustainability of our tourism and business events sector.
• DT has invited attractions to participate in our first Paid Consumer Pass, using Bandwango technology. SIgn ups are underway, and we hope to have the final list of participating attractions in June.
• Toronto will be featured as part of the Great Taste of Canada program, on the soon to be launched canadianculinary.com
• Collision 2023 will feature Toronto presence with a big Toronto Pavillion created through the Toronto Inc partnership alongside the City of Toronto.
• Full membership benefits have kicked in for those organizations that are now members (210+ as of right now) and we continue to confirm new members. If anyone receives interest from our community to join membership we would be grateful if these can be referred to Denise.  
• The Destination Insights Platform beta program has been launched. The BI team is currently in the interviewing phase with the participants to collect feedback. Initial feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
• Toronto Resident Sentiment Survey - Spring wave is now completed. The survey shows continued strong sentiment for the value of the visitor economy in Toronto. The BI team will share the results in a report shortly. 
• The Media/PR team has been successfully onboarded to start using the CRM for their day-to-day activities.
• The BI team is participating in a Simpleview focus group for enhancing and improving the reliability of SV - Act-On integration.

For the group benefits our consultant is producing a flyer to circulate next week but if you need a brief summary, see below.

Effective August 1, 2023 we will have some updates to our Group Benefits offering through Sun Life Financial:

1. Per prescription deductible is increasing to $10 from $5
2. Paramedical coverage: an annual combined limit of $1,500 per person
   (psychologist, physio, chiro, naturopath, osteopath, podiatrist & $700 maximum for RMT w/ Dr’s note)
3. Eye Exam every 2 years, in line with most plans
4. Dental Coverage
   Basic Dental annual maximum of $1,500 per year per person  & 
   annual scaling units limit to 8 (= to 2 hours)

HR will put together a FAQ and schedule an education session with Sun Life Financial in August. 

If you have any immediate questions or concerns please reach out to Monique.

CELEBRATING WORK ANNIVERSARIES!

Alice Au - nineteen year anniversary - (June 2, 2004)

Amy Shen - four year anniversary - (June 1, 2019)

Heather Neale - four year anniversary - (June 3, 2019)

Shannon Szucs - one year anniversary - (June 6, 2022)

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