 If you have an annual conference in Canada and haven't worked with a Destinations Marketing organization before, you may not know all of the benefits of working with a DMO or a CVB. And friends, there's an incredible collaboration happening in Canada where three of our DMOs have come together to make it even easier for you to work with them. Today, we're speaking with the brilliant minds behind Canada's Cities and Sync partnerships. Stick around. And as a site selection professional, I'm always working with those cities, DMOs and CVBs to give me the lay of the land when it comes to my clients' programs. Well, a few years back, three of Canada's most iconic destinations got together and created a program where we can work with the CVB and it makes it even easier for meeting planners to work with them, especially if they have a program that rotates across the country. Today, we're speaking with the three Destinations in Canada's Cities and Sync program and how they can help planners with their upcoming meetings and conferences. I'd like to introduce Candace Shearling, Director of National Sales, Tourism, Saskatoon, Miranda G, VP Sales, Business Events, Victoria and the Victoria Conference Center, and Paul Bouge, Director of Sales, Destinations, St. John's. Welcome, everybody. Hello. So friends, I've worked with all of your Destinations separately on different programs, and now there's this great collaboration. What can you tell me about Cities and Sync? Well, Cities and Sync was an idea born out of PCMA convening leaders. We were attending that show a few years ago, and what we found was there was three destinations in the U.S. that were doing a program where they were collaborating. And we just thought it was such a neat concept that we could bring over to Canada. So looking at what opportunities there are for destinations, you know, beautiful, Victoria, amazing St. John's, Disneyland, and it really made sense for us to do coast to coast and in between. So that's where the idea was born, and it took a lot of research. We interviewed the U.S. destinations to find out how their program worked, and then it took probably about a year and a half to get our CEOs on board, as well as our board. But, you know, our CEOs have a great relationship too, so it was just a perfect fit for our three destinations to create this collaborative program. What can you tell me about what planners can expect when they engage Cities and Sync? Yeah, definitely. So planners can expect a really efficient and easy process. So we know they have a proposal. They would send it to one of us, and we would then bring back a proposal from all three destinations back to the planner. So not only is it quick, it's easy, it's efficient, but the planner can also expect financial incentives from all three destinations, which would really help offset the cost of their meetings. So how do planners engage with Cities and Sync? It's a really easy process. You can reach out to any one of our three destinations, and you will have one contact that will solicit getting all of your bid information from all of the other destinations, and you'll get it in one nice, complete proposal and package. Well, it almost sounds too easy, Paul, so you can expect me to reach out to you soon with some of my clients' programs. Now that you guys are a few years in, and you've probably seen some great successes with the program and potentially some challenges, is there anything that you would do differently with the Cities and Sync program? When we first launched the program to now, we've made some significant changes just in the way of providing people, for example, with presentations that often you might need to take to your clients to make sure that this is the type of program that would work for their event. One of the challenges that we found was, you know, we had kind of set up a parameter where you had to book all three Cities over a five-year rotation, but actually sign contracts within a year. But we're taking each on a case-by-case basis, because we do understand if you're booking, you know, really far out that that might be difficult. But also to, you know, taking the opportunity to say we understand the need for events to sometimes be in Ontario every other year. So really looking at that flexibility where they can, you know, book every other year with one of our destinations. But quite honestly, you know, a lot of the benefits from this, you know, firstly from internally from a marketing standpoint, we've been able to host some really great events through Cities and Sync, and for each of us, that's a third of the cost, you know, offer some really great sponsorships and, you know, sort of cost share and just being able to host together. Thank you so much for sharing that, Candace. Now, Miranda and Paul, can you speak to why your three particular destinations were a good fit for this program? Yeah, absolutely. So when we're looking at our three destinations, not only was it good fit geographically for Victoria being on the West Coast, St. John's being on Barrett East Coast, and Saskatoon being central. So it's great for that rotation. But we look at our three destinations, we're very similar in terms of size and what type of group we can accommodate in our major conference centre and in terms of number of hotel rooms we have. From when, you know, clients considering a program to be rotated across the three destinations, we know that the group size can comfortably fit in all three of our destinations and that's really key, of course, making sure that we meet the needs of the clients. Paul, is there anything that you can share about St. John's involvement in Cities and Sync? You know, we're just so happy to be a part of it. And to your point earlier, there are three unique destinations here. And so when you can think about three destinations marketing each other, it really is a win-win for everybody. And so we're just so grateful for the opportunity to be part of this wonderful program and it's truly been successful for us. Can you guys share something that you're most proud of when it comes to the Cities and Sync program? Sure. I mean, on top of, you know, the opportunity to work together and share best practices, last year, Cities and Sync was awarded the Marriott Innovator of the Year Award at the Tourism Industry Association of Canada Annual Awards. And that was really special to us because it's not often that the Meetings and Conventions world is recognized through the TIAC awards. So to be honoured in that way and really bring things to light in the tourism industry overall was a really, really special moment for our team. Congratulations, you guys. And you guys should be very proud of what it is you're doing. It's an award well deserved and we're also very proud of you. Thank you. Thank you. Friends, if you have questions about Cities and Sync, I encourage you to reach out to Miranda, Paul or Candice or simply even comment on this video and I'll make sure that your question is pointed in the right direction. To learn more about Conference Direct's Complementary Site Selection Services, pop on over to conferencesource.net and take a look at what we do for our clients, including helping them get into great destinations like the three you learned about today. I'd like to thank Candice, Miranda and Paul for joining us today and sharing about the Cities and Sync program. It really is something that meeting planners should tap into when looking at their meetings that travel from coast to coast. So thank you to everyone who joined us today and we will see you next time. Bye for now. Bye.