Celebrate Ontario Announces 2011 Grant Recipients

The province of Ontario has announced the recipients of 2011 grant funding through its Celebrate Ontario initiative. Check out the list of 2011 winners online. I'm proud to announce that the grant application I submitted for Downsview Park's Trail of Lights while working in my previous role as Programs & Events Supervisor for Downsview Park, received $75,000 - its maximum eligible funding. Congratulations to all grant winners!

VISIT WATER ON WHEELS AT THE 2011 FEO CONFERENCE

The company I launched earlier in 2010, Water-on-Wheels (http://www.wateronwheels.ca/) will be featured as an exhibitor at the 2011 Festival & Events Conference Marketplace on March 3rd & 4th at the Hilton Suites Toronto/Markham Conference Centre.

Come and speak with us, see our set-up, sample our environmentally-friendly water bottle refill service, and receive a discount coupon to use when you book Water-on-Wheels at your event in 2011.

Water-on-Wheels is committed to assisting events decrease their environmental impact by providing water refilling stations that help decrease the presence of harmful plastic water bottles at event sites. Stop by the Water-on-Wheels booth at the FEO Marketplace where we will be showcasing our refill stations and our helpful staff will be onsite to answer your questions and take bookings for 2011.

Looking forward to meeting you at the conference!

Water-on-Wheels - Making your event bottled water free!

In 2010 I started a business called Water-on-Wheels (WOW), wateronwheels.ca, that provides mobile water refill stations to events and festivals across Ontario. Water-On-Wheels stations connect to existing municipal water sources to provide event guests with the opportunity to refill their re-usable water bottles onsite at events.

Water-on-Wheels meets the growing bottled-water-free trend in the event industry. Having a WOW water station at your next event, festival, concert, or sporting event is a great way to decrease the event's environmental impact and improve its sustainable initiatives. WOW stations allow guests to re-fill their reusable water bottles for free thereby helping to decrease or eliminate the presence of commercially-packaged bottled water at your event.

WOW stations are great for indoor and outdoor events, athletic competitions, concerts, and public festivals. Having a fully-staffed WOW station at your next event is economical and environmentally friendly.

Visit the WOW website for more information wateronwheels.ca/ or to book a WOW station email me at bookings@wateronwheels.ca.

Earth Day - April 20th, 2008

Next in the line up of events I'm planning at Downsview Park is Earth Day, Sunday, April 20, 2008 from 11:00AM - 4:00PM and is free for the whole family! Rain or shine.

This public festival draws well over 5,000 people a year by offering opportunities for the public to help create a sustainable community for future generations.

This year's even includes:

• The Green Pavilion - food, crafts and products by eco-friendly vendors and exhibitors


• The Recycle Yard welcomes your donations to Goodwill and iRecycle (used computers and other technology)


• Interactive exhibits by Creepy Crawlers, Earth Rangers and Citizen's Environment Watch


• The Kids Area - arts and crafts, origami, buskers, face painting and more!


• On the main stage the best in up-and-coming enviro-focused Canadian artists Delta Folk, the Funky Mamas and GreenTaRA

If you are looking for a corporate or community team-building activity for your coworkers or community group, join the Team Green Challenge on Earth Day and register to plant trees in the park's Canada Forest. Tree planting teams can compete to be the "largest group of planters" or the "most spirited group of planters".

Click below to download a Team Green Challenge registration form!
http://www.pdp.ca/media/ED_teamregform.pdf

For more information about Earth Day at Downsview Park or to register a team for the Team Green Challenge, visit the Downsview Park website at: http://www.downsviewpark.ca/ or contact me at 416-952-2222 or info@pdp.ca.

Direct Energy Centre - A Sustainable Event Venue in Toronto

The Direct Energy Centre at Exhibition Place in Toronto offers Canadian event planners the opportunity to host a sustainable and eco-friendly event, literally from the ground up. As a preeminent leader in sustainable event venues, the Direct Energy Centre demonstrates its commitment to reducing emissions and waste in the events industry through many unique and influential initiatives, including:

• A Waste Diversion Project rendering the Direct Energy Centre 70% waste-free by 2008
• Initiatives on the premises to separate and recycle waste materials (including glass, paper, wood, plastic and food waste)
• TREC's Wind Turbine, the first permanent turbine in the City of Toronto. Capable of generating 1 million kilowatt hours of power per year
• The installation of energy efficient ballasts and lamps result in an annual reduction of 2.3 million kilowatt hours of energy use
• Linen-free meeting rooms to reduce environmentally harmful dry-cleaning of table linens
• An urban forestry program, which preserves and renews the urban forest.
• Use of LED streetlights at Exhibition Place
• Compostable Food Packaging Recycling Program

For more information about the Direct Energy Centre sustainable events initiatives or holding events at the centre, check out the website: http://www.directenergycentre.com/

Planning Sustainable Events

The special events industry in North America is poised for considerable change in the changing face of environmental priorities and global concern. "Green" the term coined in reference to all things eco-centred or environmentally related is already having a considerable impact on the mindset of professional event planners - and rightly so. The Live Earth concerts brought to light a eco-based paradox in our industry: the footprint. Pre-Live Earth events such as Woodstock were hailed as precendent-setting events for one reason or another (attendance, revenue, popularity...damage to their environment) - the last one went consistently overlooked for years.

However, change is before us. It is no longer permissable that concerts (or any other event) cause wakes of direct and indirect environmental damage. As event planners, it is our responsibility to work to minimze and regulate the environmental impact of our events. In an effort to contribute to the event industry's ongoing sustainability efforts - this blog will feature interesting and informative green event resources for event planners.

Check back regularly for links and blogs about planning sustainable events.