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Thread: Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance conference in Ottawa March 18-21

  1. #1
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    Default Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance conference in Ottawa March 18-21



    Hal Bond and I just got back from the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance Congress in Ottawa. We met with representatives of thirty communities as part of the speed dating portion of the program where we met for eight minutes with interested communities. We also renewed acquaintance with representatives of some of the communities we met last year. We were the only federation that was granted two tables at the speed dating event which doubled our appointments. Last year there were eighteen appointments and we had a total of twenty five with one of our tables only being used half the time. This time we were fully subscribed on both tables. Aris Marghetis was also there for the speed dating portion of the program and he switched from table to table occasionally in mid-meeting with a view to setting up a possible chess tour across Canada.


    There were thirty five or so communities that wanted to meet with us. We met with thirty of them in speed dating:
    Tourism Barrie


    Ville de Hearst (développement économique) which is in Northern Ontario


    City of Brampton


    Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island


    Tourism Kelowna


    Tourism Sault Ste. Marie


    City of Penticton


    City of Leduc (near Edmonton and where Edmonton's airport is located)


    Bay of Quinte Regional Marketing Board which I believe includes Belleville


    Richmond Sport Hosting


    Central Counties Tourism which is Metro Toronto and north including Markham


    Lethbridge Destination Management Organization


    Medicine Hat Sport and Event Council


    Tourism Brantford


    Tourism Kingston


    Tourism Hamilton - City of Hamilton


    City of Orillia


    Tourism Vancouver


    Niagara Falls Business Events


    Tourism Prince George


    Brandon First


    Tourism Calgary


    Visit Moose Jaw


    Sport Durham


    Fort McMurray Tourism


    Ottawa Tourism


    Québec City Business Destination


    City of Thunder Bay


    Discover Halifax


    City of Vernon






    In addition, we talked to tourism people in Laval, QC and Nanaimo, BC who are still interested from last year. We talked to a number of hotels, resorts and hotel chains as well as representatives of universities and colleges all eager to bring tournaments to their venues or communities. It was almost too much to process everything.




    We met an entrepreneur with an interesting twist on AirBNB which could lower costs of attending chess tournaments and Hal met with a professor who has studied sports tourism and who has a son who plays chess in the Guelph area.




    This was a somewhat pricey undertaking since we did not have the subsidies that were provided last year but I suspect that if we can properly follow up on all the leads the payback for the chess community will be unprecedented. We got a number of interesting leads which hopefully we can match up with chess organizers in each of the local communities.2021 is in Ottawa. 2020 is in Edmonton. Aris Marghetis also attended the speed dating meetings.


    We drove up with me picking Hal up in Guelph which helped reduce costs somewhat but there was a lot to unpack when it comes to parsing all the opportunities that we have been presented with. This probably something that we should continue to do as it has the potential to really spread chess into areas of the country which it doesn't yet have a foothold. I also met representatives from the Canadian government who could be helpful in the future if we were ever to bid on international events. There were no really marginal appointments this year.
    Last edited by Vladimir Drkulec; 03-22-2019 at 01:43 PM.

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    The time and effort that you and Hal put in was incredible! You guys were working practically around the clock. Thanks for letting me join you for the speed dating.

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    Thanks for your participation as well, Aris.

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    If you are interested in organizing tournaments in any of the mentioned communities you should contact us to put you in touch with our contacts in the local sports tourism community and its representatives.
    Last edited by Vladimir Drkulec; 03-22-2019 at 02:04 PM.

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    The breakfast speaker on the last day was Mary Moran from Calgary Economic Development who was in charge of the narrowly losing side on the referendum for the Calgary 2026 Olympic bid. She had some thoughts on twitter and trolls that were perceptive. She thought that she didn't react sufficiently to the activity of the trolls in part because of the actions of her higher-ups but also because she didn't adequately appreciate the threat. Chesstalk is our twitter.
    Last edited by Vladimir Drkulec; 03-22-2019 at 09:11 PM.

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