Although face-to-face meetings and non-essential travel are not occurring at the moment, our Business Development team continues to connect with planners to generate interest in our destination for meetings, conferences, and events; we are also engaging with our stakeholder partners to support them during this time. 

During a Zoom call last week, members of our team connected with 24 local stakeholders to hear updates from each of them, to chat about current initiatives, to ask for feedback on Tourism Kelowna's The Way Forward Response Plan, and to generate topic ideas for our next call, which will take place in two weeks' time.  

Hearing from our stakeholders is imperative to ensure we have the latest data on cancellations and postponements; we can share that information so governments are aware of the full impact this has had on our community.  Hearing anecdotal information, as we did during the meeting, allows us to learn about growing trends and to look for opportunities to position our destination in the best way to restart our industry. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the majority of meetings, conferences, and events have been looking to re-book rather than cancel outright.    

Currently, our team is busy distributing a wellness minute each Wednesday to a select group of planners. Our goal is to encourage planners to take care of themselves and know that we in Kelowna care about their well being. In reaching out, it gives us the opportunity to see where they are in their planning and start conversations about future business. We are also turning this wellness content into posts for our social media channels. As well, we continue to generate content for the #exploreKelowna blog and to amplify this messaging on social media.  

We are also looking forward to connecting on April 14 for a virtual Global Meetings Industry Day celebration, which will offer the opportunity to reflect on the immense value that meetings and conferences generate economically, including business investment and talent attraction for their communities.