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From the Heart of Ottawa: Lesley Pincombe on Reimagining the Rogers Centre
27 Plays2 months ago
When it comes to destination marketing, few cities are embracing purpose, sustainability, and inclusion as holistically as Ottawa. In a lively episode of Eventful Encounters, recorded at IMEX Frankfurt, Lesley Pincombe, President and CEO of Rogers Centre Ottawa, made a compelling case for why Canada’s capital is more than just a political hub – it’s a venue for transformative events.
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to a special edition of Eventful Encounters with a special international guest. We're your hosts, I'm Tanita. And I'm Leanne and today we're absolutely delighted to welcome a very special guest of the mind, representing one of the most dynamic and culturally rich destinations in North America.
00:00:16
Speaker
Please give a warm welcome to Lesley all the way from Ottawa. Lesley, it's so good to have you here. Thank you so much ladies. You're welcome. So let's kick things off. which you want to let Leslie introduce herself first? Yes, I am Leslie Pincombe and I am the President and CEO of the Rogers Centre Ottawa. Oh, nice.
00:00:36
Speaker
So let's kick things off with the essence of Ottawa. It's a city that's deep in history, politics, culture and nature. So Leslie, your new venue and How does that harness or the unique identity to attract international events and visitors to your venue?
00:00:55
Speaker
Well, being the capital of Canada, it was very important that we had state-of-the-art meetings facility in the heart of downtown. And so 2011, we opened the Rogers Centre Ottawa, formerly the Ottawa Convention Centre and the Shaw Centre, under new naming rights as the Rogers Centre Ottawa. It is an absolutely beautiful glass, beautiful tulip architecture on the banks of the Rideau Canal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. lots all neutral yeah um Lots of natural light just beaming into the the building. which makes massive difference. And a beautiful view of not only the parliament but also the
00:01:39
Speaker
the Chateau Laurier, the very famous Fairmont Chateau Laurier as well. So beautiful, beautiful skyline vistas that you can see from just standing in the center. So in the heart of downtown, which is you know, where policy and and all of our government decisions are made.
00:01:57
Speaker
And so it's an important building for us to have for Canadians and international conferences. Fabulous. So there's no denying that tourism is shifting fast from tougher expectations and how to market them.
00:02:10
Speaker
How do you think your venue is going to evolve its strategy to stay fresh and ahead of the curve? um At the heart of everything that we're doing, not only within the building, but also within the city, stems around you know so sustainability and making it easy for conference organizers to leave a legacy of their own. But a lot of our time has been spent you know, sort of curating those programs so that they're on the shelf and they're just easy for the conference organizers or delegates to participate, leaving everything from, we're organizations that they can leave any of the left behind binders and bags and and you know delegate things that they bring into the city but don't need to bring home with them. we We connect them with organizations in need. And to make sure that it's really easy for them to give back and keep it out of the landfill. so so yeah And then we have you know other programs as well. you know on the sustainability side and and helping conference organizers made make really conscious choices when they're planning their re event that not only benefit our city, but also just the conference that they can use it as storytelling and and put a really positive spin on you know the food choices that are being made and on how things are being ordered in our buildings is really important part of what they can do to make an impact. It's such a massive topic at the moment, isn't it? It is, yeah, absolutely.
00:03:37
Speaker
Definitely so. One of the big pieces of news that we found out lately is that there's now a return direct flight from London Heathrow to Ottawa. which is a total game changer.
00:03:48
Speaker
and What kind of impact do you think that that will have on people coming to your venue and driving events from the UK? We do have a large focus on international conferences and Ottawa is certainly you know one of the top competitors and in Canada now for conferences. We we follow a great history of very very you know successful conferences hosted in in some major cities but having a new convention center obviously was a game changer for Ottawa alone but being able to service from an air perspective into the city is really important for international conferences so now we have the Air Canada direct Heathrow flight and
00:04:31
Speaker
you know Canada being a very large country, we're almost closer in some respects to London than we are to the west coast of Canada. Right, exactly. So it's really important for us to to have that connectivity. and they're they're you know Even just with the five eyes, and we have a lot of lot of our people that work within Ottawa that travel over to UK a lot. So just on that economic development side, landing companies, all that, it's ah great and it just obviously helps with lift into Ottawa for delegates so they don't have to make an extra step.
00:05:02
Speaker
Yeah, love that because we did do some research once, didn't we, where people are looking at international destinations and the organisers were saying that they prefer to have direct flights but the most they would ever look at was sort of like one stop and during the travel so that definitely helps to drive that international market, doesn't it?
00:05:20
Speaker
But the major airlines, you know, through Star Alliance on the Air Canada side, they really connect to anywhere else in the world as well. So it's, you know, it's a really a win-win for them. And we also do have a direct flight with Air France into Paris, and into Charles Gaulle. She's amazing. amaze at me So yeah you have that European, Central European connection as well and KLM connectivity. So that connects them into, you know, a lot of the French-speaking African countries and into Lebanon and so otherwise so yeah amazing this sounds like you're not going to have lots of international delegates and of course we can't talk business events in 2025 without talking about inclusivity what are you doing to walk the walk when it comes to ah being more inclusive and responsible for your events
00:06:06
Speaker
Well, we have just launched a responsible event guide. And this is a step-by-step guide that not only touches on leaving a legacy in our city, but also talks about access accessibility and inclusivity. yeah And so we've just launched that. We really want it for everybody to use. So it doesn't need to be specific to an event in Ottawa. There's some really great tips and tricks that people can take from it. That they can apply to their conferences.
00:06:34
Speaker
now, but you know some of the elements obviously on the legacy side that I spoke about earlier are specific to Ottawa, but that's okay if they if they fuel an inspiration of a thought of something that they could do. Exactly, can take things. That's great. We're happy share. Adjust them.
00:06:49
Speaker
We'll just be a leader in that area. Not to say that we're doing everything right or that we're we're ahead of anybody, but I really do think that we've put a very thoughtful and thorough approach of suggestions that planners can pull from. And I hope it's here to not just live on a shelf, but that it will be a practicable yeah practical guide that people can really actually use.
00:07:12
Speaker
It's so important for knowledge sharing as well, isn't it? So if you've put that together and you're happy to share it with other destinations and other venues, that's great. Absolutely. So for anyone that's listening right now who's planning their next big event What's your message? So why should Ottawa be top of their list?
00:07:33
Speaker
You've already sold it to me, if I'm honest. I'll be there. think that in today's day and age, we need to explore beyond um you know just the top destinations that, you know for good reason, have really taken the headlines for many, many years. But there are so many cities that are maybe you know just under underrepresented in some ways and in the marketing of of them and and Ottawa is one of those there is rarely someone who ever comes and once they come and experience Ottawa
00:08:09
Speaker
you know, the nature, yeah walkability, the greenery, the bilingualism. Where do I sign up? We obviously have, we're just divided by one very small river called the Ottawa River between us and Quebec, so it has that very European flair to it.
00:08:28
Speaker
And you know, there's just so much to offer. And the national museums, you've got Parliament, the policy makers. So, and we also have just a very strong ecosystem to support it. We've got major universities, we have large economic development, we're headquartered of, of you know, National Defense and and CSIS and Interpol. and And so there's just such a deep breadth of of knowledge keepers.
00:08:56
Speaker
And then there's there's also just that Indigenous culture that We have worked very hard to ensure that we are telling the right stories of the past and you know being able to incorporate that into your conference and sharing.
00:09:11
Speaker
um you know We are unceded territory of the Algonquin people and there's just so much knowledge to share from that land and the waters and being able to incorporate that into the delegate experience is is something really, really special. so Wow, definitely. I, for one, will definitely be heading to Canada.
00:09:32
Speaker
Leslie, thank you so much for joining us today. It's been a pleasure to hear out how Ottawa is not just open for business, but doing it with purpose, creativity and a seriously strong welcome. We'll definitely be keeping our eyes on all the exciting things coming out of your venue and hopefully it we'll visit soon ourselves.
00:09:47
Speaker
And to our Memphill Encounters listeners, thank you for tuning in. And don't forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. We'll see next time for more behind the scenes conversations from the people shaping the global events industry.
00:10:00
Speaker
Bye for now.