On December 7, 2021, Meeting Professionals International, Toronto Chapter, hosted its Festival of Reconnection Holiday Gala hybrid event, bringing together 137 people (115 in-person; 22 virtual).

This was the MPI Toronto Chapter’s first in-person Holiday Gala since 2019 and the first in-person indoor event since March 2020.

All attendees were required to be fully vaccinated and to show their vaccination certificates and photo ID at the door. 

One day prior to the event, organizers sent a Duty of Care statement to registrants. Anyone not completing the statement online had to do so onsite before entering the venue. Everyone was very accepting of the rules and were pleased that MPI Toronto had taken these precautions.

The biggest challenge, even up to the day of the event, was uncertainty around whether the Ontario government would further restrict gathering rules and venue protocols. Registration started slowly but it picked up so much during the two weeks prior to the event that there was a wait list. 

The original plan was to host 75 guests in-person, however high demand pushed that number up to 115. Attendees travelled from the Greater Toronto Area and as far away as Fredericton, N.B., Montreal, Ottawa, Niagara Falls and London Ont.

Attendees loved the event. They came to meet people in person, and that’s what they did. It was such a great start to getting people together again.