event planners – Fordham PR

As the song says…”oh what a night”! We had an absolute blast last night at Urban Gallery (400 Queen St East, Toronto) when UrbanSource Catering hosted a special members’ social for Tourism Toronto event planners and corporate buyers. Thanks to the hard work of TT’s Christopher Barry and Denise Belgrove, Urban had a full house despite the rain soaked tornado-like weather conditions (no flying monkeys or witches were harmed during the making of this event!).

Before the guests arrived, the bar was set-up with wines from Pelee Island wineries (above), and Chef Lyndon laid out the sumptuous charcuterie table, complete with condiments courtesy of Whisky & Spice (booze-infused premium mustards made locally by Dan Gordon) – below.

Urban Gallery’s current art show featuring Khat Karim‘s colourful paintings, looked awesome (below)

And the team gathered for a quick pic prior to the doors opening (below: Urban’s Kaspara, Calvin, and Wayne with Christopher from TT in white shirt sleeves)

Let the games being! Toronto’s best event planners and buyers poured in and what a fantastic group of industry professionals they were. Everyone was eager to taste UrbanSource Catering’s menu and view the gallery space for potential events, meetings, parties and social gatherings….and the concensus was a big thumbs-up!

We had a couple of prize draws and Urban partner Calvin got busy gathering everyone’s biz cards (below)

One of our fun interactive activities was an art board where guests were asked to draw their company logo and take selfies for social media sharing. Below, here are some of the guests having fun with the marker pens creating their own masterpieces!

Below, Kaspara was finally able to lure Chef Lyndon out from the kitchen to enjoy the accolades and kudos for his yummy hors d’oeuvres….

…..and the team got together one more time to celebrate a fun and successful soiree, this time joined by Urban’s catering & events consultant Jean-Marc (below, far right)

Apart from showcasing the venue and catering to Tourism Toronto members, the party also marked the 30th business anniversary for UrbanSource Catering so bravo to partners Calvin Hambrook and Wayne Abell for weathering 3 decades of storms, recessions, ever-changing food trends and some of the strangest client requests (and that’s a whole other blog story!!).

If you’d like to learn more about the superb menus offered by UrbanSource Catering for corporate or private events, weddings, galas, fundraisers, etc., or the Urban Gallery space for rentals, please check out their weblinks below, as well as visiting the official Tourism Toronto website:

http://www.urbancatering.com/

http://www.urbangallery.ca/

http://www.seetorontonow.com/

Every year, several special events, meetings and incentives organizations host industry expos featuring speakers, workshops, panels and great trade show floors featuring lots of vendors with event venues, catering, nic-nacs and logowear, everything an event planner could wish for. This year, Ignite Magazine and the Canadian Special Events organizations combined forces and held a joint business expo at the Metropolitan Toronto Convention Centre and yesterday, I had a blast wandering the aisles discovering new businesses and products, so come walk the trade show floor with me….

I was greeted by the pretty showgirl working the Hart Entertainment booth http://www.hartentertainment.com/ – a lovely way to start things off with a great big smile, eh?

As I was one of the first people there, I was able to navigate the hall quickly and see how they set up the performance stage…then I turned around to be greeted by the “town crier”. Hear ye, hear ye! Loved the aqua blue and white of the Iris Blu booth below http://irisblu.ca/ and I even won a prize by picking a rose so I now have a discount off their event services (okay clients, who wants to take advantage of this?).

It was time for “breakfast” so I shuffled on over to the PAL Insurance sponsored candy bar to enjoy a Cinnabon…..flavoured vodka shot!!!! LOL (hic)…never do this on an empty tummy (hic)

Thank you to the ladies of PAL Insurance Brokers (below) http://www.palcanada.com/en/

The crazy folks at PartyPix (below) did a great job of entertaining everyone with their interactive customized photobooths. http://partypix.ca/

I just loved the mystical space that Eclectic Events created …only wish I’d had enough time to enjoy a woodland massage. But I did meet the talented glass sculptor, John (bottom pic), who created lots of cute animals…and he kindly gave me a dragon!! http://www.eclecticevents.com/

Always a favourite must-taste exhibitor was the Ninutik maple syrup food artisans (below) ..oh so sweet and deelish! Great for catering fancy-schmancy soirees and they even have gift packages. http://www.ninutik.com/store/home2.php

One of the nicest, funniest and coolest magicians working the corporate and party circuit, Mike D’urso. I highly recommend Mike for all your magical needs! http://www.megamagic.ca/

The Snapshot Photobooth people intro’d their new “Hashtag printer station” enabling events to brand their guests’ Instagram photos. Great marketing opps. http://snapshotphotobooth.com/

An old industry friend, Raviv Krikunets, has just joined another design and events mgm’t firm R5 Events, and I was blown away by his beautiful set-up…wow, check it out below. http://www.r5e.ca/

And here’s Denise and Anna of Lucky Strike Lanes ( below) who always make the trade show fun….http://www.bowlluckystrike.com/

Here’s a new talent supplier – Genevieve Demerchant of You Will Love it Live! She brought in musicians & a magician to entertain the event planners (below)…and they did a great job. http://www.youwillloveitlive.com/

Aussie Aussie Aussie…oy oy oy! That’s our “war cry” when Aussies meet each other and here I ran into Kristen Thomason, originally from Melbourne, who is Dir. of Sales for the exciting new iFLY – the indoor skydiving venue out in Oakville. I really wanna try this out – looks like so much fun. http://iflytoronto.com/

Knights and wenches and swords, oh my! Medieval Times was there, too, and I can never say no to a knight with such a big….sword! The saucy wench kept him in line, tho. http://www.medievaltimes.com/toronto.aspx

Nice to run into Kris and Maria, the sales reps for the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (below). I enjoyed a nice cuppa coffee and a 20min. rest in their relaxation seating area. http://www.mtccc.com/?m=0&t=0&c=1

Have you ever been to Moncton? I have and I love it…the people are so friendly, great facilities, fantastic downtown waterfront. Nice rep. at the City of Moncton booth reminded me what a great place it is to visit either with a business group or on a personal adventure. http://www.moncton.ca/page4.aspx

Clearwater and St. Pete’s are two of my favourite places for a quick vacay from the cruel (and long) Toronto winters, and the ladies at this booth certainly made me feel welcome. http://meetamplified.com/

Michelle of Northwest Territories Tourism (below) welcomed me to her spectacular booth…think I may have to visit myself soon. I wanna see the northern lights before I croak so I’ve just added Michelle to my bucket-list!! http://spectacularnwt.com/

Here’s a great idea for team-building fun – the Bonnie Gordon College of Confectionary Arts offers group candy & sweetie making events. Chef Michael J. Smith (pictured below with events coord. Esther) was doing whisky tastings and food infusions…yumm…hic! http://bonniegordoncollege.com/