IABC World Conference – thank you volunteers, reference guides now available

It was almost a year ago that as a chapter we started thinking about our role as hosts of the 2010 IABC World Conference. With the world of communicators coming to Toronto, we really wanted to seize the opportunity to showcase our city while demonstrating the dedication, professionalism and yes, good old Canadian hospitality of IABC/Toronto members. Well, we delivered on that, above and beyond. The 2010 Conference held June 6-9 in Toronto turned out to be one of the largest ever, with some 1,520 communicators descending on us. From a quality perspective, there have been nothing but rave reviews. We should all feel a tremendous amount of pride in having served so successfully as conference hosts.

None of it would have been possible without the support of the nearly 100 IABC/Toronto volunteers who worked on everything from registration to answering questions at the hospitality desk to hosting 28 dine-arounds to organizing the CSR event…and much more. On behalf of the board of IABC/Toronto, I want to thank you for all your tireless and selfless efforts in making the Conference the success it was, and in projecting such a positive image of our chapter and our city. A special thanks goes to board member Anne Relyea who served as chair of our Conference Task Force, as well as volunteer directors Sheila Corriveau (hospitality), Katie O’Dell (volunteers) and Sara Taylor (dine-around) for their leadership and perseverance throughout the year.

We’ve had many requests to make the 2010 World Conference dine-around manual and shopping guide available – these references are now available online in place of our Conference microsite. Thanks again to everyone for making the 2010 IABC World Conference so successful. The bar has definitely been set high for future events!

Brent Carey, ABC President, IABC/Toronto toronto-president@iabc.com