Industry update: Canada flies the flag in meetings, conventions and incentive travel sector.

The Canadian pavilion took pride of place at August’s American Society of Association Executives (ASAE)’s Annual Meeting & Expo. More than 6,000 association pros and industry reps attended the event in Dallas, TX, the biggest roll call since ASAE’s Chicago meeting. The Expo hall itself was bursting at the seams, with 408 companies manning 716 booths.

• Forty Canadian partners joined the CTC’s Michele Saran, executive director, MC&IT, Danielle Foisy, director, Northeast MC&IT Sales Development and Heather Phelps, director, International MC&IT Partnerships at the pavilion to ensure the maple leaf flew proudly. The Canada pavilion was most definitely a hit, claiming this year’s Best in Show award.
• Special guest on day one was the irrepressible Nadia G. of Bitchin Kitchen. She roped in John H. Graham IV, CAE, ASAE president and CEO, for a cooking demo that included chocolate-covered bacon and Nadia G’s famous grapefruit spicy maple mojito. Nadia G. also took time out for a book signing and to go to the ASAE Healthcare Reception that Canada hosts yearly. André Natera, executive chef at the Fairmont Dallas, continued the culinary theme at the pavilion on day two. Natera and attendees also had a weakness for making chocolate-covered bacon. Stacy H. Brungardt, executive director of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, was the winner of the pavilion prize draw, winning a trip for two to the 2013 ASAE Invitational Forum Program in June 2013 along with a $250 AmEx gift card.

CTC took a select group of northeast American corporate, incentive and insurance buyers on the inaugural Signature Educational Experience (SEE Canada) program to Montréal, QC, in August. The program started with an educational seminar with Canada Border Services, Mendelssohn Customs Brokers and the CTC’s Danielle Foisy and Ava Sones, director, Insurance Sales Development, followed by a session on technology trends. One-to-one appointments with Canadian destination partners dominated the afternoon. The event moved onto interactive lessons in drink mixology and preparing hors d’oeuvres at local cooking school Atelier & Saveurs hosted by Tourisme Montréal, before closing with a city tour and dinner at Le Balmoral.

• Warren Farmer, Behringer Harvard director of Conference and Events, was particularly impressed with the first SEE event. “I’ve been on many site visits and FAM trips, but this event (I say event because it was far more than a simple FAM trip) was by far one of my best experiences to date,” Farmer said. “The city had such a great mix of old and new and the French influence was personally very enjoyable.  The speed dating session was extremely effective in showcasing a number of cities and unique events all around the country.” High praise indeed.
• Plans for SEE Canada events in 2013 are already underway. Stay tuned!

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