Resorts of Ontario announces new board of directors president

Celebrating the presidents evening

On March 28, 2011, Resorts of Ontario held its annual general meeting and preferred supplier’s tradeshow at Nottawasaga Inn and Resort, located in Alliston, Ontario. Sheila Maxwell of the Briars Resort and Spa was elected as the new president of Resorts of Ontario.

Born in Scotland, Sheila grew up in Toronto where she attended York University. During her summers she worked at seasonal resorts in Haliburton and fell in love with the tourism industry. With an educational background from York, Sheila also graduated with honours from Hotel Management at George Brown College. Sheila has worked in the industry for 25 years and is currently the Director of Food and Beverage at the Briars Resorts and Spa.  

Sheila has served on the Board for Resorts of Ontario for the past 8 years. She succeeded Mark Rich – Director of Sales at Blue Mountain Resort who served as president from March 2009 – 2011. As outgoing president Mark will continue to serve the board of directors as chairman of the board.

As part of the evenings festivities, Resorts of Ontario also took the time to recognize the dedication and contribution of individuals from the industry who have facilitated the growth and progress of the Association.

The George Martin Award which shows outstanding contribution to the growth and success of Resorts of Ontario, was awarded to Anne Marshall of Elmhirst’s Resort. Anne has been involved with the association as a board member for 20 years. Anne is also a past president and represented the industry on the provincial and national level. Her passion, experience, leadership and dedication are greatly appreciated.

The second award given was for Outstanding Contribution. The recipient of this award went to Jamie Staring of Raesgo Advertising Graphics. For nearly 20 years, Jamie has made enormous contributions and has played a significant role in portraying our image. He understands the essence of “ resorting in Ontario “ , the culture of Resorts of Ontario, playing a key role in conveying our story in print, electronically, and to our key audiences.  

Congratulations to Sheila and thank you to Mark, Anne and Jamie for your contributions and dedication to Resorts of Ontario.

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Resorts Rock at the 2010 Spring Conference

Resorts of Ontario’s Spring Conference, “It’s Showtime” trade show and Presidents dinner was held last week at Blue Mountain Resort in Collingwood (Mar 23 and 24) and what an event it was. The day started with a presentation from Michael Kurts from the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, outlining how regional tourism organizations will play a role in Ontario starting July 2010. This was followed by the Annual General Meeting which featured the annual report and an outline of new initiatives planned for 2010.

The “It’s Showtime” trade show kicked off on Tuesday afternoon with a lunch featuring a classical french cheese station, a pasta station and a seafood station. Everyone raved about the meal and commented that we need a similar lunch every year going forward. The resort owners and operators made their way around the trade show floor which had representatives from different Resorts of Ontario preferred suppliers. Swissol, Planet Energy and Sam Group promoted their products through informational showcase sessions. (One of the highlights of the tradeshow was certainly the fashion show featuring different clothing items for the resort industry put on by the Sam Group and featuring volunteer models from some different resorts as well as a few staff members from our office.

The afternoon also had information sessions with the first being a presentation done by Sarah from Galigraph Design focusing on the “Keys to successful advertising.” Later in the day was a presentation from Gord Bell of Beauview Cottages on “Understanding Social Media.”

A wine reception started off the evening and dinner attendees where able to participate in a traditional wine tasting presented by the wine specialists of Inniskillen. Resorts of Ontario putting on a rockin’ good time with its Rock and Roll themed night. The dinner opened with a parade of current board members being led by Olympic Torch bearer Anne Marshall from Elmhirst’s Resort. This was followed by a tribute to past presidents. Dinner was concluded and the  live music from Jamie Williams began. Despite most people being on their feet the majority of the day the dance floor was full and Jamie even invited a few people on stage to help him perform.

The next morning began with many tired but happy people returning to their booths on the trade show floor or attending breakfast with a presentation by Kevan Ashworth (Ashworth Photography) and Barb Kienapple (Jack’s of Hearts design) on “How to tell your story!” which drew on real life experiences and how customers are motivated to buy. From there resort operators were given the opportunity to bid on donated items with benefits going to Camp Trillium.

Needless to say it was a great event and thanks go out to all who were involved.

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Resort blogs in Ontario Canada

A good way to get behind-the-scenes of a resort is to read its blog. More and more are popping up on individual resort sites linked to Resorts of Ontario. Here are three that I reviewed for this blogpost:

Bondi Village Resort near Algonquin Park hosted its annual Island Marathon Swim this week and Nanci Tapley added some great pics to her Bondi Village blog. Three young guests ages 11, 12 and 13 years beat their Uncle James back to the resort dock, swimming a distance of 1.6 km. The kids were delighted that they “won” the race. Now call me a romantic but that’s the stuff that memories are made of. So’s the video of a bunch of guys making home made maple taffy in the snow. She’s also got a link to a really neat wildlife site at Algonquin Park that I had never seen before.

Fawns in the garden of one of the cottages at Bondi Village Resort

Recent Scottish guests discovered Beauview Cottages while surfing the net. They knew all about the place and about Muskoka Lakes, Algonquin Park and Huntsville long before they crossed the Atlantic thanks to Gord Bell’s blog. I’d call that The Long Tail effect that Chris Anderson writes about. Something for everyone somewhere that can be easily sourced online. Gord’s also got a webcam which I think can be a valuable traveler resource provided it’s maintained. Gord updates his daily and in early spring when I wanted to know what the ice conditions were like on the Muskoka Lakes, I used Gord’s webcam to check. My absolute fave on this blogpost tho’ is Gord’s video of Snowtubing at Rock Ridge Park. I wanna go!!

Sunrise from the dock at Beauview Cottage Resort

This month, Anne Marshall wrote in her Elmhirst Resort blog about Odile Rablat, a gal from France who landed her ultralight at Elmhirst enroute to to Canada’s west coast. Wow, that’s impressive!! Elmhirst has its own airstrip and regularly entertains pilots from around the world. Some stay over and some as Anne’s July 5th post suggests even fly in for an Elmhirst brunch. The resort has its own farm on site so the eggs are as fresh as you can get, and so are the veggies. Steak is a house specialty since Black Angus are bred here too. A bunch of us enjoyed a steak & frites dinner here last winter washed down with some great reds from the resort’s million dollar all-Canadian wine cellar.

The wine cellar at Elmhirst's Resort on Rice Lake

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