N MID-APRIL, OTTAWA TOURISM HOSTED meeting planners and industry journalists on a fam trip to Canada’s capital city — and the
new Ottawa Convention Centre (OCC), which had its grand-opening party on April 13. After checking in at the sleek, 282-room
Novotel Ottawa Hotel, just up the street from OCC, we walked to the Westin Ottawa to join up with the meeting planners. From the Westin, we hopped a bus to the Canadian Museum of Nature, which completed a major renovation in May 2010, and where we enjoyed a progressive dinner in several event spaces. Espresso- and cocoa-encrusted bison — catered by Gourmet Cuisine — was served in the high-ceilinged, 2,906-square-foot Salon. The next day began with breakfast and a
site visit at the 501-room Westin Ottawa, which has 44,000 square feet of meeting space, and is connected directly to the new convention center and the Rideau Centre shopping mall. The rest of the morning and early afternoon, we visited Ottawa venues and landmarks, including the copper-roofed Parliament of Canada; the Canadian Museum of Civilization, whose totem-pole–bedecked Grand Hall can seat 1,000 people in rounds; the Canadian National Gallery, whose own Grand Hall, with
views of Parliament Hill, can accommodate 400 to 450 people for dinner; and the Canadian War Museum, where we marveled at the military- vehicle–filled LeBreton Gallery, which can host a 600-person banquet. At OCC’s grand opening later that evening.
our group walked the red carpet into the center, as kilted bagpipers piped us in. A six-piece ragtime Mountie band played indoors, where approximately 1,200 people noshed on passed hors d’oeuvres, sipped Champagne and wine, and enjoyed the four-floor, 192,000-square-foot facility — which provides panoramic city views through its top-to-bottom glass facade. After a gala program in OCC’s 56,000-square-
foot, third-floor Canada Hall, with bilingual (English and French) speeches from a parade of local dignitaries, including OCC Chair Jim Durrell (“What you’ve seen today is a game-changer in downtown Ottawa,” he said), the festivities came to a close with an idiosyncratic fireworks display over the Rideau Canal — a fitting tribute to a unique new meeting place. n
SCENE AND HEARD: Above, the new Ottawa Convention Centre pro- vides killer views of the city skyline, including Parliament Hill. Below, scenes from the gala opening party, including a children’s choir.