 If you think destinations and destination marketing organizations aren't business as usual in 2020, you'd only partially be right. My experience has been to witness a ton of creativity and ingenuity when it comes to destinations reaching out to their clients and connecting them in a time where it's not safe to do so in person. In this week's video, we're hearing from three industry leaders from across Canada share their stories of how their destinations have gone above and beyond to connect with their clients. Miranda G with Business Events Victoria in Victoria, BC. Tammy LeBlanc with Discover Halifax. And Trina McLeod with Meetings and Conventions Prince Edward Island. Come join me, folks. We're going on a trip. Hi, I'm Miranda G with Business Events Victoria. I'm going to talk about how we've been engaging our clients during this time and what we've been doing here is look at doing virtual events such as a virtual cooking show. We've partnered with our local chef, Chef Dan Hayes from the London Chef Cooking School, where he has changed his format of his cooking classes before he used to have classes where he would cook and demonstrate in his kitchen. And since COVID, he's been demonstrating through virtual events and engaging with people online to create these wonderful dishes. So along with our hotel partners, we partner with Chef Dan and hosted a series of cooking events with our clients across the country. And the purpose of this was really just to engage with our clients to update them on what's happening in Victoria. And to be honest, who doesn't want to connect through food and drink. So it was a series of events where we're learning about some of our local recipes, learning about the ingredients we have in Victoria, and using those along with our local chef to create these amazing dishes that we can then enjoy together. And the reason why we decided to do this was really we recognized that during this time, people still want to connect. It's so important to connect and have fun and communicate with each other still. And although we weren't able to do these events in person, as we are used to doing, we can still do this virtually. And for myself, this was really motivating to keep me going because part of the passion and love I have for our meetings in the street and events and what we do is the people that we get to meet and talk with. So having these events to see our friends again and to connect with them and enjoy an activity together really has kept things positive and filled up my hopes and dreams of one day that we will do this again in person. So something I wanted to share with everybody is a motivational tip that I've kind of thought about and it's kind of kept me going during this time. It's a quote from Buddha and I'm going to read this out to you. The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, nor to anticipate troubles. But to live the present moment wisely and earnestly. Thank you. Hello, my name is Trina McLeod and I'm a business development manager with meetings and conventions Prince Edward Island. Since March of 2020, we've been reaching out to clients and prospective clients with what we have been calling a PEI Pick Me Up. It's a little package of PEI goodies with an written note and we've shipped out quite a few to date and we also have another shipment going up before the holiday season. The importance of doing this during this time is we feel is that it's important to connect with clients and potential clients as well as showing our love and support and compassion for the industry and that we're all in this together and we will get through it. And who doesn't love a little pick me up in the mail. Any motivational tips I can offer during this time would be to take a chance, take a leap of faith, things you're doing things that you've never done before that you never would have seen yourself doing before. But we are doing them. They've become our reality and what we have to do moving forward. And what I have found that when I'm doing these little leaps of faith and things that I've never done before is a feeling of success. When I have achieved them, sometimes they're not perfect. Like this video is not perfect, but you learn from everything that you do and it gives you a little feeling of a little pep. Hi everyone, I'm Tammy O'Blanc with Discover Halifax based in Ottawa. I truly appreciate Leanne recognizing the creative efforts of many in our industry this year and let's face it it's been a doozy. We've been busy at Discover Halifax focusing on projects and initiatives to keep Halifax top of mind when we can't meet face to face with our clients. Our leadership team has given us the freedom and the encouragement to try new ideas. And a few of these projects include a new Discover Halifax website that will be launched in Q1 of 2021. It will include virtual 3D tours of our venues and hotels. The first time in Canada that such a comprehensive and complete series of venue and partner tours have been captured and shared. And we also had a multi-touchpoint project launch in October called Hosted in Halifax. It targets a Canadian association in corporate markets. And it combines a web-based approach through the creation of Hosted in Halifax.com, a uniquely Nova Scotian gift package, and invitations to have a virtual coffee for those who receive the gift. We partnered with our members to create content that features our hotels, off-site venues, and of course the Halifax Convention Centre. Last new properties that have come on board, like the five-star Sutton Place Hotel, which opened in September, and the upcoming opening of the Mirror and Autograph Collection by Marriott in 2021. The site also includes up-to-date best practices and safety protocols, as well as a planner's toolkit. Our members created personal videos for the site. And make sure you check out the bloopers because they're pretty funny. We felt it was important at this time to do so because it brought us all together with our local members and eventually with our clients. It's added a personal touch on both fronts during a time when many were feeling isolated and it also helped us focus on the future. We all know this pandemic will end. And when our clients are ready to start planning face-to-face events again, they can feel comfortable knowing that they have partners in Halifax. It's been fun and motivating to work on this project. And our client feedback has been encouraging. Plus, we've gotten some new leads and does that ever make me happy? If you're feeling stuck, my suggestion is to go back to what's important in our industry. To me, it's creating and maintaining those relationships in your own unique way. Thank you.