World Out Of Home Org Going Ahead With In-Person Global Congress Late May In Toronto
February 16, 2022 by Dave Haynes
The World Out of Home Organization, whose members include many of the largest media companies on the planet, sees enough settling down of COVID-19 in Canada and elsewhere to go ahead with plans for an in-person Global Congress in Toronto on May 25-27. It will be WOO’s first in-person congress since Dubai in 2019.
The Congress will be held at the Sheraton Toronto Centre Hotel, which is in Toronto’s central business district.
Says WOO, in announcing registration is now available …
A star-studded international speaker programme which includes key decision-makers from Out of Home, the wider global advertising industry, analysts, and commentators, is lined-up. An enlarged Exhibition Programme will feature exciting new developments in technology and measurement, with the opportunity for exhibitors to meet leading media owners face to face.
Congress will be open with its customary programme of pre-dinner drinks on Wednesday May 25, full-day Congress on May 26 followed by the Gala Dinner and awards presentations and a further full-day Congress on May 27. On the Friday night, there will be WOO’s popular informal closing party, with great cuisine and live performances.
WOO president Tom Goddard says: “This will be a red letter event for the whole Out of Home industry as we meet our friends and colleagues from across the world in person for the first time since 2019. Amid the pandemic we instituted our World Tour of virtual forum events – Europe, Asia and more recently in Africa – which has been a huge success and we fully intend to continue this series post Toronto.”
“But the resumption of our in-person Global Congress is truly extra-special, and we can be sure of the warmest welcome from our colleagues in Canada as we meet together once again in the great City of Toronto.”
As registration opens, we’re offering a generous Early-Early Bird congress rate, available until March 4th of €1,000 Euros for members and €1,750 non-members. This represents a €200 per person saving on the full rates for both members and non-members.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER AND FOR THE FULL SCHEDULE OF RATES
I will leave the health safety issues to the experts, but can say generally, as a Canadian, that the Omicron wave appears to be subsiding, with daily cases at 20% of January’s peak. But there are lots of health experts suggesting caution and expressing worries about lowering restrictions too quickly. For people coming from elsewhere, the federal government just yesterday started lowering entry requirements, making it much easier to get into Canada for people who are fully vaxxed.
The small but noisy tin foil hat crowd occupying some downtown streets in Ottawa are five-plus hours away from Toronto, so don’t let that factor into decision-making. It’s Canada, not Kandahar. Plus, the WOO dates are still many weeks away. The Sheraton is a few blocks away from the Ontario Legislature, which has also seen some anti-vaxx/anti-whatever protests, but those have been inconsequential.
It will be a busy few weeks for anyone who straddles advertising and technology, with ISE in mid-May, the WOO congress after that, and then InfoComm in June in Vegas.
Shouldn’t that be WOOHOo for in person?