A melting pot of culture, creativity and character, Toronto is Canada’s largest metropolis and its economic hub.
Simultaneously a world-class conference destination, a hockey mecca and a film capital, the city attracts a wide variety of business travelers, with large-scale manufacturing, world-class R&D, flourishing arts and culture, and a healthy financial services industry all combining to form a backdrop for any successful meeting experience.
Underneath its ever-shifting skyline, the city supplies a patchwork of cultures, lifestyles and neighborhoods. Downtown, one sees numerous high-end hotels sprouting from the ground up, right alongside Victorian architecture and older brick buildings characteristic of the East Coast.
In Toronto, you can barely keep track of all the meeting space. There are multiple convention facilities, conference centers and swaths of real estate offering options for groups to meet and do business.
Downtown Toronto
Much of downtown Toronto is awash in new real estate. New luxury hotels are emerging left and right, while traditional favorites are redefining themselves. The entire neighborhood seems to be under construction, with some pretty big names venturing into Canada for the first time.
"Toronto is experiencing impressive growth in attracting sophisticated, urban travelers along with high-end corporate meetings," says Tara Gordon, Tourism Toronto’s vice president of meeting and convention sales. "[The properties] provide attractive packaging and pricing for corporate meetings or adding value at existing price points. The unprecedented value now offered by top properties is just too good to ignore."
Scheduled to open later this year, Donald Trump’s staggering new 60-story, mixed-use building—his first in Canada—almost guarantees a new era for Toronto’s skyline. Featuring 261 luxury hotel accommodations and 188 condominium residences with floor-to-ceiling windows, the property overlooks almost all of metropolitan Toronto.
Ritz-Carlton opened its first Canadian property last month in downtown Toronto. Right smack in the middle of the Entertainment and Theater District, the 53-story property features 267 rooms, 159 condominium residences and the largest luxury ballroom in Toronto at 7,400 square feet. Another room, the Wellington, measures 3,000 square feet. Spacious prefunction space and additional meeting rooms all offer floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Metro Hall Park or Roy Thompson Hall, Toronto’s renowned concert facility.
Meanwhile, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) now has a permanent home in the TIFF Bell Lightbox, a five-story, $196 million multiuse complex. Opened last September, the facility features five public cinemas, a three-story atrium, two art galleries, three learning studios, a research center, a bistro, a restaurant and a lounge—all providing myriad possibilities for groups.
It doesn’t stop there. On the western, more unexplored fringe of downtown, King West Village, where several boutiques and design shops are popping up, the Thompson Hotel exudes a Bacchinalian Hollywood scenester vibe. Three different dining options—a 24/7 American-style diner, an upscale Italian restaurant and a hipster sushi bar—all provide alternatives to stiff button-down environments. The Thompson’s primo spot is the exclusive rooftop infinity pool and lounge, offering an unequaled 360-degree view of Toronto. Guests can walk around the entire perimeter of the roof and view the skyline from any vantage point. The hotel provides 30,000 square feet of function space, including a ballroom, a screening room and a terrace.
Another new property, Hotel Le Germain Maple Leaf Square, which opened in November, provides several different spaces for small groups, including the 800-square-foot Dominion Boardroom and a 1,350-square-foot Apartment Suite.
Hotel Le Germain’s Viktor Restaurant is a highlight, offering the Social 52 menu, unique in its philosophy to spotlight the vast ethnic diversity of the city. One can order any number of specific dishes from ethnic neighborhoods throughout Toronto—all served family style and intended to be shared.
"Groups love Toronto," Gordon says. "It’s able to satisfy their palate with mouthwatering meals in every corner of the city, through a dine-around of the world. But it can be experienced all in one night."
Several Toronto hotels are also improving their offerings, including the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, a group favorite featuring more than 115,000 square feet of function space.
Additionally, Holiday Inn Toronto Downtown Centre just wrapped up an $18 million renovation, Cambridge Suites Hotel was recently enhanced, and One King West is planning a $2 million renovation.
Mississauga/West Toronto/Airport Area
With 700,000 people, Mississauga is Canada’s sixth-largest city and Ontario’s third-largest. Many write off Mississauga as a suburb, but here one finds hundreds of parks and woodlands, plus huge shopping centers, renowned golf courses, horse racing and proximity to 10,000 hotel rooms, all characterizing a popular area for trade and consumer shows due to its proximity to Toronto proper, Niagara Falls, the airport and more than 100 Fortune 500 companies.
In western Toronto, just minutes from the airport, one of the preeminent facilities of its kind in Canada, The Toronto Congress Center includes numerous meeting rooms, ballrooms, prefunction and multifunction space totaling over 1 million square feet. Also a heavy player on the scene, the International Center in Mississauga sits right down the street from the airport, offering six main exhibit halls, plus a brand-new 48,000-square-foot conference center expansion. Now totaling 500,000 square feet, the space at the International Center accommodates many regular and returning trade and consumer shows, plus banquets and concerts.
Meanwhile, Hilton Toronto Airport Hotel & Suites recently completed a $15 million, top-to-bottom overhaul.
The 374-room Delta Meadowvale Resort and Conference Centre, a key property in the area, provides 40,000 square feet of space. The facility also features an array of team-building opportunities—from tennis to meditation classes.
Other notable facilities include the Living Arts Centre, providing more than 225,000 square feet of multiple performance venues, studio spaces and exhibition display areas. The facility is available for group events.
Hamilton
Hamilton wraps around the western end of Lake Ontario, just about halfway between Toronto and Niagara Falls. One of Ontario’s oldest cities and a former industrial town, Hamilton now attracts many conventions and conferences and also provides unique off-site possibilities.
Downtown Hamilton continues to evolve. The Hamilton Public Library recently remodeled its ground floor and now features a brand-new glass facade that overlooks a newly renovated and relocated farmers market. Both are within walking distance of another recently renovated property, the Sheraton Hamilton Hotel, which is connected to the Copps Coliseum, the Hamilton Convention Centre and two shopping malls. The Sheraton now features 14 different meeting spaces, including a ballroom with 6,000 square feet of space.
Hamilton Entertainment and Convention Facilities Inc. operates the city’s main complex, which includes a convention center with over 52,000 square feet of flexible space; Copps Coliseum, with 117,000 square feet of exhibition space and a 19,000-seat capacity for arena concerts; The Great Hall, a professional 1,200-capacity theater; and the Studio at Hamilton Place, an intimate 500-seat theater also accommodating of group events. The entire complex can host everything from hockey games and concerts to product launches and board meetings.
For interesting alternatives off the beaten path of convention spaces, Hamilton offers an array of options. Dundurn Castle, an 18,000-square-foot, 25-room neoclassical mansion, is quite common for receptions, gatherings and celebrations.
Markham
Bordering northeastern Toronto proper and formerly an agricultural territory as recently as the 1960s, Markham has long since become a corporate center, with many an international high-tech company choosing this Toronto suburb for a foothold into Canada. The list is impressive: Apple, IBM, Toshiba, Sony, Motorola, Oracle, Honeywell and more. In total, over 800 high-tech, engineering and life sciences companies call Markham home.
In spite of the massive growth that’s occurred over the last 10 years, Markham still retains a degree of its original Main Street flavor.
Offering numerous activities celebrating early life in the crossroads communities of 19th century Ontario, Black Creek Pioneer Village celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. The facility offers state-of-the-art meeting and banquet rooms for groups of up to 200, while outdoor space accommodates up to 2,000.
When it comes to contemporary arts and culture, Markham Theater features season after season of performances, including live music, arts events, dance and theater. The 14th annual Markham Jazz Festival takes place this August.
For meetings business, The Hilton Suites Toronto/Markham Conference Centre & Spa is a AAA Four Diamond, all-suite property with 45,000 square feet of meeting space, including 27 meeting rooms and a 14,000-square-foot conference center. Another popular property, The Delta Markham, features 10,000 square feet of function space.
Gary Singh is a frequent contributor to Meetings Focus East.
