On February 10, on behalf of Tourism Kelowna, I attended Tête-à-Tête, in a new virtual format this year. Hosted by the Canadian Society of Association Executives Ottawa-Gatineau Council, the event welcomed association and not-for-profit leaders, meeting and event planners, and government procurers from across the country.
The schedule was packed with informative roundtable discussions, expert panel presentations, engaging speakers, and over 75 exhibitors with products and services. Each exhibitor had the opportunity to present on a predetermined topic. Tourism Kelowna opted to share the story of our virtual, two-day Destination Showcase, highlighting the unique DNA of Kelowna, along with a discussion of future virtual events and how to run successful virtual familiarization tours that meet planners' needs as we move into 2021 and beyond.
80 planners choose to enter the Tourism Kelowna exhibitor website and learn about Kelowna on their own without engaging in an appointment while 14 other planners attended a full presentation. The platform, Remo, allowed interaction between us and was quite engaging. This was the first virtual tradeshow that Tourism Kelowna has attended and we were pleased to see it was well-received with nearly 500 planners in attendance for the day.
Over the next month, I will be reaching out to all planners that attended and couldn't stop by our "booth." The ability to connect with these association planners will help us keep Kelowna top of mind for when they begin to schedule their annual conferences once again.
For further information, please contact Pat Gappmayr at pat@tourismkelowna.com or call (416) 265-3465.
