Good Day,
We recently held our annual board and staff planning day. It is a full-day facilitated meeting where we determine our priorities for the upcoming fiscal, which begins on April 1, 2026. Yes, we start early and that is for two reasons; 1) It provides staff ample time to operationalize the priority deliverables that stem from the meeting, and 2) The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming requires us to submit our plans early in the new year to give them time to review and approve.
It is one of my favourite days of the year and this year was one of the best. What makes it so special is that a room full of dedicated tourism and hospitality professionals spend an entire day thinking of new and better ways to support the industry within Central Counties and beyond. There is no negativity. In fact, I found the day to almost play out like a classic improv class training game.
One of the first tricks you are taught in improv (or so I have heard), is to constantly build on the conversation rather than shut it down. You do this by saying, “Yes, and…”. As our board and staff discussed each of our topics, ideas kept building on one another, in many cases with a “Yes, and…”. By the end of the day, we had flip chart paper and other notes piled high and a room full of people who were mentally drained because of the depth of the conversations we had. I would like to thank each and every one of them for volunteering their time to represent you and your best interests. You may not know who they are, so I thought I would share here.
| Angela Poletto Chair |
McMichael Canadian Art Collection Associate Director, Sales & Community Engagement |
| Angela Haynes | Town of Aurora Senior Economic Development Officer |
| Aruba Ahmed Ministry Advisor (non-voting) | Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming Regional Development Advisor |
| Ashley Angeloni | City of Vaughan Senior Tourism Development Officer |
| Benni Devasia | Innvest Hotels – Comfort Inn Pickering Regional Director of Operations |
| Carol Greenwood (non-voting) |
Tourism Industry Association of Ontario Vice President, Operations & Partnerships |
| Carol Maitland | Town of Shelbourne Economic Development Officer |
| Charles Banfield | The Regional Municipality of York Manager, Strategic Economic Initiatives |
| Cristina Liu | Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville Economic Development Officer |
| Emily Quinton | Town of Caledon Tourism & Culture Officer |
| Geri Smith | The Village at Black Creek (TRCA) Supervisor, Guest Services and Audience Development |
| Jacquie Severs | Invest Canada Director, brand (Interim) |
| Jeffrey Bursey | Vintage Hotels – The Millcroft Inn & Spa Food & Beverage Manager |
| Jim Beechey | Georgina Chamber of Commerce Board Member, Chair of Tourism Committee |
| John Caneco | Holiday Inn Express & Suites Vaughan Southwest, Element by Westin-Vaughan Southwest General Manager and Director of Hotel Operations |
| Lori Feddema | Slabtown Cider Co. Founder/Co-Owner |
| Martin Kouprie | Alton Mill Arts Centre Managing Partner |
| Ross Martins-Lomas | Noozhoo Nokiiyan Limited Partnership Executive Director of Operations |
| Vicki Sword | Town of Orangeville Tourism and Culture Officer |
A lot of prep work goes into this meeting. Staff consult with every municipality to determine their upcoming priorities and what supports they rely on CCT to provide. Most of the team also spend a lot of time each day speaking with stakeholders and learning what types of support they require to be more successful. All of this information, and more, is provided to the Board of Directors prior to the meeting so that they have a good understanding of what is happening in the region.
Caroline Polgrabia, from the Ministry, has been facilitating these planning sessions for many years and, even though she in no longer our Ministry contact, we were lucky enough to have her lead the discussion this year. Her and I meet many times leading up to the meeting to plan the flow in a way that gets everyone engaged and the juices flowing. Caroline said it takes a few meetings for her to “decipher the inner workings of Chuck’s mind”. I am going to take that as a compliment.
Staff are now in the process of building out the plan that will lead this organization into the future. Caroline referred to it as “CCT 3.0”, and we will happily share it with you when it is approved by the board in early December. And while the details of the specific deliverables for 2026-2027 are still in the works, I did want to share with you that our overarching goals for the organization remain as strong as ever.
They are to:
- Develop and deliver relevant, engaging tools and supports so that ALL (ALL is the big hairy audacious goal) visitor-facing stakeholders are equipped to provide the very best experiences to grow the visitor economy
- Connect ALL visitor-facing stakeholders to the relevant, engaging tools and supports so that our destinations are full of businesses/organizations that are visitor-ready
I am sure that each and every one of you have neighbouring businesses, organizations and peers that could benefit from being connected with CCT. It would be great if you would let them know about us, direct them to our website (centralcounties.ca) and/or give them the email of your IRM or my email so that we can begin engaging them and helping them with their success. Could you imagine if every business, event and organization in your community was providing the same service levels as you do? The whole area would be thriving with repeat visitors.
That’s it for this edition! We are excited about what the future holds for our organization and our ability to support you. CCT 3.0 is coming, and it is going to be something special. Thank you for your continued engagement with us. Your success is our success.
Have a great day!
Chuck
