The Centre hosted a “Growing Event Tourism” workshop with Tourism Kamloops in December 2016. The purpose of the workshop was to share learnings on how to develop and grow event tourism as a tourism and economic development strategy.
Click here to view the event summary report.
Four essential components to success were highlighted:
- Volunteers
- Purpose
- Strong beliefs and positivity
- Good processes
The workshop included a variety of speakers including event tourism consultants and organizers. 
The event kicked off with a welcome by Delyla Daniels and her family from Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc. Delyla provided a compelling and inspiring presentation of how the Kamloopa Powwow grew over the years to an audience of 15,000 – 20,000 during the three days of the event.
The keynote talk was, ‘Why and how to deliver a winning bid: From vision to world class’ presented by Byron McCorkell, Director of Parks, Recreation and Culture, City of Kamloops, and Niki Remesz, President of 2018 BC Winter Games and Founder/Owner, Uniquely Inspired Marketing.
Throughout the day, participants worked on their tourism events ‘strategy on a page’ that was developed by the Centre.
“I work in the event industry and was previously familiar with several of the subjects. Regardless, I learned something new from each presentation.” (workshop participant)
In
the afternoon the participants had the opportunity take part in three of six World Café session topics. The sessions were:
- Developing awesome sponsorships with Bryce Herman, Advance Hospitality Consulting
- Developing a killer marketing strategy with Monica Dickinson + Lisa White, Tourism Kamloops
- Government Resources for Event Tourism with Willow Minaker, Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training
- Strengthening aboriginal tourism opportunities with Greg Hopf, Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association, and Teresa Ryder, Aboriginal Tourism BC
- Building a community of volunteers with Jenni Andrews, Challenge Penticton
- Putting together a winning bid with Niki Ramesz, Uniquely Inspired Marketing
“Some great speakers provided snapshots of events in BC. I thought it was very well organized with great networking appeal.” (workshop participant)
Finally, the last session of the workshop provided an opportunity for participants to revisit the Tourism Events Strategy on a Page and focus on the value proposition, goal areas, and strategies, based on learnings from the workshop.
A summary of the workshop presentations and key takeaways from each of the World Café topic sessions is attached.
“The workshop was well designed with a well conceived balance between presentations and networking opportunities. Discovered new opportunities to integrate into our event and made strong connections that should benefit our programming in to the future.” (workshop participant)
Click here to view the event summary report.