CSTA Announced Congress Line-Up! Sport Events Congress 2010 Toronto

CSTA is excited to announce its line-up of presenters confirmed to be part of the conference program at Sport Events Congress 2010 taking place in Toronto from April 21-23, 2010 presented by eventgraphics and hosted by Tourism Toronto. The Congress’ closing lunch will feature Stacey Allaster, Chairman and CEO, WTA in a tell-all interview conducted by Brenda Irving, Host, CBC Sports. This presentation will be the highlight of the Congress and should not be missed!

On Wednesday, April 21st, Congress delegates will be treated to:

• Ontario Sport Tourism Stakeholders Session: Pan Am Games 2015 – A Beginning, Not an End!
• Sport Tourism 101
• State of the Industry Keynote Address by David Whitaker, President & CEO, Tourism Toronto
• Hosting BC Program – A Case Study presented by Bruce Dewar, CEO, 2010 LegaciesNow
• Legal Issues and Sport Events presented by Benoit Girardin, LBB Consultants
• Social Media & Sport Events presented by Jaime Horwitz, President, Cactus Rock New Media
• Maximizing Funding Opportunities Under the Federal Policy for Hosting International Sport Events presented by Benoit Girardin, LBB Consultants
• STEAM (Sport Tourism Economic Assessment Model) presented by Tony Fisher, Senior Research Associate, CSTA
• Sport Tourism Planning Template presented by Blair McIntosh, Director of Games, Sport Alliance of Ontario
• Business Plan Template for Sport Events presented by Eric Savard, President, Organisports

On Thursday, April 22nd, day two of Sport Events Congress will feature:

• Breakfast keynote – speaker to be announced
• Sport Events Exchange, the flagship element of Sport Events Congress
• PRESTIGE Awards Luncheon

On the final day of the Congress, Friday, April 23rd, conference delegates will have the choice of a sport marketing stream or a sport tourism stream:

Sport Marketing Stream presented by Mark Harrison, President, TrojanOne
Sports Marketing in 2010 - Looking Back and Looking Forward Ten

As sport marketers on the brink of a new decade, we strive to be innovators while working within our resources and delivering on our objectives. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the CSTA and Sport Event Congress, Sports Marketing in 2010 will look back at the greatest sport marketing success stories of the past decade, and look forward to what the next 10 years will hold for sport marketers in Canada. Featured presenters include John-Paul Cody Cox, Executive Director, Volleyball Canada, Chris Morrissey, CEO, 2011 Halifax Canada Winter Games and Andrea Shaw, VP Sponsorship Sales and Marketing, VANOC.

Sport Tourism Stream featuring:

• CSTA’s official launch of its Bid Template for Sport Events presented by Bob O’Doherty, General Manager, 2009 World Junior Hockey Championships
• Best Practices Panel featuring Cheryl Finn, Manager Sport Tourism, Tourism London; Dan Stefanson, Executive Director, Tourism Abbotsford; Wayne Long, Events Development Officer, City of Charlottetown.

Registration for Sport Events Congress 2010 is on track to reach its highest attendance level in the history of the event. Over 300 delegates from the tourism, economic development and sport industries are confirmed to attend Canada’s largest sport tourism conference!

For a complete copy of the Congress schedule, including speaker bios, or to register on-line, please visit us at www.canadiansporttourism.com.

Canadian Music Fest, a resounding Success

Canadian Music Fest marked its place as the caliber of musicians and bands involved multiplied,

surpassing all previous years. The Fest expanded with a total of 713 bands filling 58 venues to capacity throughout Toronto, prompting notice that the festival was officially "sold out". Some musical highlights included: Our Lady Peace - Hedley - Constantines - Joel Plaskett - Great Lake Swimmers - Cage the Elephant - IllScarlett - Fucked Up - Dillinger Escape Plan - The Trews - K-OS - Moneen - Daughtry - DJ Champion and his G Strings - Steel Panther - Born Ruffians - Faber Drive - Bedouin Soundclash - Jason Collett - The Rural Alberta Advantage - Marianas Trench - Default - Platinum Blonde - Speech Debelle - Plants and Animals - Jeff Martin - Comeback Kid - Beast - Arkells - Handsome Furs - Dan Mangan - Timber Timbre - Vivian Girls - Electric Six - Woodhands - Maddy Rodriguez and more!

source: CMW news update

Canadian Music Week sets records in Toronto

Canadian Music Week News Update from news@cmw

Unseasonably warm as it was outdoors, the interior heat was cranked to the red zone at Canadian Music Week and Canadian Music Fest this year.

Music industry and enthusiasts from around the globe came, saw and celebrated in record numbers. This year's festival rocked with more attendees, performers, venues, countries represented and media accredited than ever before.

Some highlights include:

Industry Delegates: 1,883

Attending Musicians: 3,565

Canadian Music Fest

Number of bands performing: 713

Number of participating venues: 58

# of Days: 5

Countries Represented: 23

Media Accredited: 654

The well-attended Digital Strategies Conference focused on effectively marketing products and services in the Digital Age and featured keynotes from Bob Garfield, Scott Fox, and Louise Clements. Our new OIART Mentor's Cafe Series, featuring over 50 industry movers and shakers over the course of three days, proved to be extremely popular with face-to-face encounters with the pros amidst our bustling exhibition district. Conference seminars in all streams - Executive Music, Radio Active, Digital Music & Media, and TuneUp - were jam packed with attendees looking to learn from a top-notch line-up of speakers. Burgeoning songwriters and musicians flocked to the Songwriters' Summit to get up close and personal with some of the world's leading songwriters, composers and publishers.

Continuing its international outreach, CMW 2010 presented the Spotlight on India, which provided an insider's look at the world's second fastest-growing economy and hosted an Indian Music Showcase over two nights. The International Marketplace played home to several visiting countries, including Australia, Botswana, China, Russia, Croatia, Italy, Germany, Hong Kong, Scotland, Finland, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, England, India, France, Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, and the USA, and hosted one-on-one dedicated matchmaking meetings with India and Australia. Canadian Music Week donated $5000 to Young Artists for Haiti at The Indies, and gave away an Epiphone guitar, courtesy of Gibson, autographed by Indie Awards performers, nominees and presenters in attendance, to lucky winner Mike Dobson who was in the audience sporting a "Young Artists for Haiti" T-shirt.

Jaime

Canadian Tourism - Inbound numbers are in. US down 10% compared to Jan 2009

Statistics Canada just published its January 2010 Service Bulletin International Travel: Advance Information (Catalogue # 66-001-P). While it's not surprising, one would hope to see better numbers. Unfortunately, all the work by tourism marketers in Canada leading up to the Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Games did not materialize in substantial increases in inbound tourism. However, given the worst economic environment since the Great Depression, particularly in the United States, I don't want to imagine how bad the numbers would look if Canadian DMO's and the CTC had not worked so hard last year to keep Canada in the minds of as many travelers as possible. This is not to say that I am completely happy with the way Canada markets itself internationally, but not being my gig, there's not much I can do about it.

Having said this, I think Montreal stands out in 2009 for their innovative approach to promoting their destination focusing primarily on digital media. I also like what Banff Lake Louise Tourism is doing in this regard. Their Facebook presence is paying off and they are doing a great job to leverage the new meeting place for the world (Facebook has more than 400 million active users now, and it won't be long before it reaches half a billion members - just this past week it was reported that Facebook was, for the first time, the most visited website in the US passing long time champion, Google).

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Overall including all markets there was a decrease of 9.5% January 2010 compared to January 2009

United States -10.1 %

United Kingdom -4.2

Germany -7.9

China -13.6

Hong Kong -37.6

Australia -14.6

Mexico -52

Brazil -3.9

source: StatCan Service Bulletin International Travel: Advance Information January 2010

France bounced back from Jan 2009 with an increase of 13.4% in Jan 2010. There was also good growth from India with a 17.9% increase Jan 2010 from the same period last year.

Going forward I anticipate a better year than 2009 and I expect to see some traction generated by the Winter Games, but it won't necessarily be a large spike. The biggest challenge facing the Canadian Tourism Industry this year and next will be the high Canadian dollar, which closed today at US $0.99 and it's expected to remain at/or near parity for the rest of 2010 and possibly all of 2011.

Jaime

Canadian Music Week in Toronto - awesome!

Canadian Music Week is fast becoming one of my favourite events of the year. Ironically, I first discovered Canadian Music Week because my daughter became seriously interested in breaking into the music business. I attended last year's Canadian Music Week conference for the first time as well as the Canadian Music Fest, the largest new indie music festival in the country. The conference proper is for the music industry, but the MusicFest is open to the public, and it's a tremendous deal. Buy a wristband for $30 and you get access to a large number of showcases. Some showcases accept a limited number of wristband holders and some headliner shows require a ticket, but by and large, you can enjoy a lot of musical acts for a low price during MusicFest. (photo: Copenhagen's "A Friend in London" and Maddy Rodriguez)

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Because of other commitments and deadlines, I was not able to cover as much of CMW and MusicFest as I would have liked (and I am already planning to clear my agenda during next year's event in order to cover more ground). However, I was able to attend several sessions of the conference and some showcases. One of the bands I really like is a band from Copenhagen, of all places, by the name of "A Friend in London." These young guys are loaded with talent and their front man, Tim Schou, has a fantastic voice. Their music is reminiscent of U2 and ColdPlay, but with their own stamp. I think they may go far.

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Canadian Music Week in Toronto - Over 700 artists, how to choose?

I thought choosing films to watch at the Toronto International Film Festival was difficult with so many films at the festival. That seems easy compared to how to choose which showcases to go to at Canadian Music Fest (part of Canadian Music Week). It's a matter of time, in a way. With over 700 artists showcasing at CMF, how do you narrow down your choices? First, I go over the program and try to determine the kind of music that a particular showcase presents, e.g. metal? hip-hop? pop? country? Once I determine the kind of music I want to experience, then I will go to MySpace and listen to probably just one song (if the song grabs me in the first 30 seconds). If I come across a jewel, I will circle that showcase/artist and add it to my schedule. Then there are the hundreds of postcards lying around near the registration area at the Royal York. I may grab one or two of those if the image on the postcard catches my eye. I will then check out the artist on MySpace and follow the steps described above.

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Jaime

Music to invade Toronto this week. Canadian Music Week and Canadian Music Fest 2010

From March 10 to March 14, Toronto will host once again to Canadian Music Week and Canadian Music Fest 2010. Canadian Music week brings together hundreds of bands, independent and not so independent, together with several of the most important leaders in the Canadian and International Music industry. Canadian Music Week includes a conference, a music festival (this year with over 700 bands and artists), an awards section (including the Canadian Radio Music Awards and the Indie Awards) and a film festival.

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I will be blogging about the music scene from CMW in English (here) and in Spanish at my BlogdeCanada.com. And I always will be tweeting at twitter.com/jaimehorwitz

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Canadian Music Week

Canadian Music Fest