One of the biggest events for BIZs/BIDs/BIAs in North America is taking place in Winnipeg in 2017: The 63rd Annual International Downtown Association Conference.
The International Downtown Association (IDA) conference attracts business district managers, executive directors, city planners, and others working in urban management. Don’t let the name mislead you, it’s not just about downtown! IDA works to help all urban business districts. To better identify with that goal, they have rebranded to just IDA, Inspired Leaders, Shaping Cities.
Delegates will come from Canada, the US and beyond to attend this three day event. It will be an excellent opportunity to learn from each other, share our successes and find creative ways to address the challenges in revitalizing our urban districts. The conference will consist of dozens of informative sessions about all aspects of BIZs and their district’s challenges, as well as mobile workshops and tours where we get delegates out into our areas, talking with our businesses and studying the issues. Delegates often come early and stay longer to take in the host city. The last Canadian conference was held in Ottawa where the economic spin-off was estimated at one million dollars.
Winnipeg last hosted the conference in 1995. That year over 900 delegates attended. The Downtown BIZ, West End BIZ and Exchange District BIZ are the local host committee working with IDA to deliver the conference. Additional support is provided by Tourism Winnipeg, The Forks, the City of Winnipeg, the Winnipeg BIZ (districts) Alliance and many others.
The event will take place from September 13-15 (Wednesday to Friday) next year. There will be a call out for volunteers and mobile workshop hosts so stay tuned to our West End BIZ website and facebook pages or give us a call at 954-7900. If you would like to learn more about IDA, you can head over to their website at www.ida.downtown.org.