On a beautiful fall day in Toronto 4 bloggers met up for fun, frolic and a bit of gossip.

I had the pleasure of meeting up with Tracey Kumer-Moore of Las Vegas Wedding Concierge, Cindy Johnston of Platinum Events and Cynthia Martyn of Cynthia Martyn Events for a lunch at Brassaii in downtown Toronto.

As I breezed into the restaurant, which was full of lunch time revellers, I spotted these three ladies immediately. I had met Tracey very briefly at The Special Event Show in LA as we all shuffled out of the main ballroom after a keynote. A bit like Salmons swimming upstream, we tried to fight the rushing sea of people exiting the room…without much success. Prior to today, that was the first and last time I saw her.

I’ve spent more time with Cindy, having the honor of having a great lunch with her a few months ago. And this was my first time meeting Cynthia in person.

The amazing thing was it was like I’ve known these ladies forever. I guess that’s the amazing thing about social media. You spend your time on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn building great relationships before you ever meet. Our face to face meeting served simply as an extension to the conversation we had already been having online. I look forward to continuing to nurture these relationships and many more!

Lara McCulloch-Carter
Author of the Special Event blog ready2spark
Director of Marketing – Regal Tent Productions
Past-President – ISES Toronto
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Two interesting new sites that have passed by my desk are:

GLOBAL EVENT RESOURCES
A partnership of media leaders (one of which is BizBash Media) in the event planning industry from around the globe. Their aim is to share information and give their audiences easy access to the best news and resources from all over the world. So, if you’re planning an event in a foreign country, it’s never been easier to get caught up on the local industry news.

Lara McCulloch-Carter
Author of the Special Event blog ready2spark
Director of Marketing – Regal Tent Productions
Past-President – ISES Toronto
. Follow me on Twitter
. Connect with me on LinkedIn
. Become my Peep at EventPeeps
. Befriend me at Events Network

I subscribe to a wonderful design magazine called AZURE. I read it strictly for the pictures :) It’s brimming with the latest ideas from the design and architecture worlds…and this month’s issue didn’t disappoint. It featured ‘10 designers who are shaping the future‘ and 2 of them are certain to touch our world of meetings and events.

1. Ibrahim Elhayawan & Jim Dodson – Mobile Performance Venue, Norway

David Edwards’ creation was actually a space in France called Le Laboratoire. His idea was to match creative artists with prominent scientists – a merging of form and function. Many ideas have come out of those four walls. One of which, Le Whif, I blogged about some time back. The idea behind this product is to use gastronomic scent to leave the taste of chocolate in the taster’s mouth…without the guilt (I could have used that tonight before I polished off a bag of Maltesers). Although the jury is out as to whether this product has any type of longevity, there’s no denying that the concept behind the product is a winner. Hopefully this will spawn many successful, new ideas.

Lara McCulloch-Carter
Author of the Special Event blog ready2spark
Director of Marketing – Regal Tent Productions
Past-President – ISES Toronto
. Follow me on Twitter
. Connect with me on LinkedIn
. Become my Peep at EventPeeps
. Befriend me at Events Network

We’ve all been there. You’ve slaved away on a project…giving up your weekends and a bit of sanity. The project is a huge success and as a thank you, your boss hands you an envelope. You unwrap it with shaking hands, eagerly anticipating the treat that will be hidden within the folds of your thank you letter. Wait for it…wait for it… A flower of the month card? But I’m allergic to flowers! Getting a thank you gift for a client, supplier, boss or employee can be tough – especially when you don’t know their likes and dislikes.

Lara McCulloch-Carter
Author of the Special Event blog ready2spark
Director of Marketing – Regal Tent Productions
President – ISES Toronto
. Follow me on Twitter
. Connect with me on LinkedIn
. Become my Peep at EventPeeps
. Befriend me at Events Network

I came across an amazing product called Toletta on, yes, you guessed it, springwise (my weekly candy). Being a bit of a packaging freak – i.e. I love a good package design, I instantly fell for this product. Toletta is the world’s first premium brand of paper toilet seat covers.

As they say, necessity breeds innovation and this product idea was no exception. Dora Cardenas, Toletta’s co founder and VP of communications, explains: “The product concept came to me and my husband while we were trying to find small travel packs of disposable paper toilet seat covers to use ourselves. Not only was I shocked to learn that travel packs are hard to find, but the products we did find didn’t have any ounce of style or quality tissues. All the products we found looked and felt like something you would find in a camping supply store—not exactly something retail stores and supermarkets would be proud to carry on their shelves.”

So, she and her husband answered this need with the softest tissues on the market, 20% larger and 42% thicker than other brands. And consumers can feel happy about their purchase. A percentage of proceeds help support breast cancer (pink package) and child poverty awareness (blue package).

Toletta will be available for sale on their website in February. They will be selling to selected retailers and distributors in Canada, USA, United Kingdom, Ireland, Poland, West-South Africa, Egypt, Israel, France, Asia, Switzerland, Baltic States and South America (and probably a few more). With a retail price of $1.25 – $1.65 USD, sign me up!

So what does Toletta have to do with events?
How fantastic would it be to hand out this product at a festival, outdoor concert or event…where bathrooms can be, well, nasty.
Got any other ideas?