Happy 50th At The Falls

I returned last week from Toronto (better known in Canada as The Big Smoke for its industrial growth and wealth), where the purpose of my business trip was to plan my employer’s 50th anniversary company celebration in Niagara Falls and attend an AWWA water works tradeshow. And both events went well.

At a previous job with BC TIA, combined with my past board duties for GDC BC Chapter, I was involved in putting together about 70 events. However, this celebration was the first event I had planned where I could not initially visit the venue and involved two coach buses to transport company guests and staff.

Singer Valve, my company employer for close to two-and-a-half years, designs and manufacturers quality, automatic control valves for the potable water industry on a global scale. So our guests included some of our sales representatives from countries such as Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Spain, Mexico, Columbia, UAE, UK, USA and Canada, plus a handful of our staff totaling about 100 attendees.

Saturday, June 23 involved meeting all attendees at the hotel lobby in downtown Toronto, boarding the coaches and traveling for about 130 km to Niagara Falls.

Upon arrival at the Falls at 3pm, the attendees had about 3 hours of their own time walking around the area. Then dinner at the Fallsview Keg Restaurant with a spectacular bee-line view of the Falls. Next, about 2 hours later, we headed downstairs to a seminar room for some video well wishes from around the world, award presentations, cake cutting by our President, speeches and a birthday toast.

The day prior, both company owners, with their wives and myself, visited the venue for an inspection and walk through. First we visited the seminar room where I installed the laptop and tested the hotel’s projector and sound system via playing the company branded Power Point template slides containing the videos. Seating and signage had to be finalized too as we rearranged what the hotel initially wanted to do.

I also had the hotel prepare a wine and menu tasting of the items we would serve. The principals enjoyed the wine tasting portion, which I am not much of a wine expert to help on the matter.

Planning this event had me e-mail and telephone about 150 times with The Keg and Embassy Suites personnel Christina and Jennifer, who were more than helpful with all the details I was throwing out at them, such as for a wireless mic request to hanging an anniversary banner, to special dietary food needs by some guests. Plus not to mention the transit, photographer and guests confirmations were also details that needed planning and executing.

Overall, everyone who attended the event was pleased with the outcome. Next blog posting is about the shops and sights of Toronto.