More Than a Race: How the Honda Indy is Powering Markham’s Tourism Future

Mary Anne Ivison  0:01  
This is Forward Motion, discussions about the important topics shaping Ontario's tourism industry. Here's your host, Andrew Siegwart.

Andrew Siegwart  0:09  
After nearly four decades in downtown Toronto, one of Canada's premier motorsport events, the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy, is beginning a new chapter in Markham. But this simply isn't a story of a race moving to a new location, it's the story of how a destination, an event organizer, and a community came together to build something larger than either could have achieved on its own. Today, we'll explore what that partnership can teach us about destination development, sports tourism, investment, transportation, placemaking, and the future of major events all across Ontario. Joining us for this discussion today are Vinay Charda, president of Destination Markham Corporation, Councilor Andrew Keys from the City of Markham, as well as chair of Destination Markham Corporation, and Jeff Atkinson of Green Savary Racing Promotions, the hosts of the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy. Well, hello, gentlemen. Welcome to the Ford Motion podcast. I'm really excited to have this conversation today. Let's just start off talking a little bit about the the Markham journey. Markham is widely recognized as one of Canada's leading centers for business innovation, tech. But over the last several years, you've really been pushing your deliberate tourism strategy and identity, and that doesn't happen by accident. That happens with a lot of hard work, requires vision, investment, partnerships, etc. This question I'm going to kick off for you, Vene. How would you describe Markham's tourism story today, and how has that vision evolved over the past few years?

Vinay Sharda  1:38  
Well, thanks, thanks very much. It's it's an interesting journey, in you know, and certainly in my short tenure here so far as the president of Destination Markham, to see the evolution of the organization and in delivering this priority for the city. And so, you know, DMC Destination Markham Corporation began essentially at the throes of COVID, and from there had to find a way of maturing itself to figure out what it is that through that post-COVID period, how are we attracting people to Markham? You know, as the dust settles and people are more comfortable getting out of the house, visiting, and seeing things around, not just not just within the GTA, but the communities outside, certainly Ontario and elsewhere. How do we start identifying Markham as a location for for that destination and tourism, and so multiple folds. I think the last couple of years has demonstrated there have been multiple folds at looking at how to bring and attract people here, whether that be as a culinary destination. You know, we've we've teamed up with Global World Foods. We are looking at sports tourism, cultural tourism. There are a number of reasons why people will will necessarily come and visit Markham, but not dislike other GTA communities. You know, we don't have a water future. We're not the West Coast where they have a mountain vistas for people to to come and appreciate. There's got to be something that's unique that draws people to our community, and so whether it's the reputation of the community as it stands now, Markham's people know Mark. It's inherently a community that's well known, but because of its diversity in the community that's here, you'll find that people are traveling all across the GTA and outside, certainly to Markham for food as a destination for a cultural institution. So we have a open award-winning theater, the Flat O Markham Theater, been running for 40 years and puts on some top flight professional shows, performances almost all year round. That theater is booked. Similarly, whether it be events that take place at the Markham Fairgrounds, in our Markham Center, there are any number of cultural events that are increasing popularity that are really driving people into Markham, but there's nothing quite like what the indy is going to bring Markham. We're really excited about that.

Andrew Siegwart  3:47  
I think what you're what you're sharing with us is a part of what differentiates Markham from some of your neighboring communities is that that richness and diversity, whether that's culture, whether that's food, is that is that a fair statement?

Vinay Sharda  4:00  
Absolutely, absolutely.

Andrew Siegwart  4:02  
Tell me, and since you've been building this tourism strategy with purpose, what assets have you seen emerge over the last few years that are that are taking center stage?

Vinay Sharda  4:13  
Well, I think I think there there are three there are three or four the nature of Markham. There are three or four features that that really lay to the assets that end up becoming developed here, and so we have some of the if we talk about going back to culinary for a moment, we have some of the top tier food destination restaurants in Markham. I mean, there are there are literally people from around the world who will visit Markham expressly for the purposes of of the type of food that we offer, whether it's you know Asian, South Asian, South American, European-that that diversity is here and it's available for for people. I think the other the other component of this is we're finding that the nature of how people are are seeking out experiences isn't necessarily connected to having to be in a place like, for example, down. Town Toronto. So, if we talk about a spa experience, if we talk about visiting a quaint community, you know, a historic town like Unionville Main Street or Mark on Main Street, for that matter, and there are a few others. In fact, people are finding that those are the reasons why I want to get out of the place I live and reside to go visit another location. You know, as an example, we have a we have a community in in Markham called Cathedral Town, and that cathedral is one of the few, if not if not the only cathedral that's actually been blessed by a pope. And so that's that's something significant to you know over a billion people on the planet that are that that follow Catholicism. And so there's there are so many features like that, Andrew, that end up that you end up finding in Markham that's so unique to to this community.

Andrew Siegwart  5:46  
That's amazing. Thanks for sharing that. On a personal level, I attended the Winter Jazz Music Festival a couple of times, and I thought it was so unique to Markham, especially because you rooted the jazz in that dynamic culinary experience. So we got to taste some of the amazing work happening from all those chefs and restaurants. So I thought it was really. I'm glad.

Vinay Sharda  6:06  
I'm glad you mentioned that Jazz Delicious again, another award-winning activation that DMC has put on successfully for the last few years. And we talk about this. You know, those in the industry know that we have shoulder seasons, and the idea with Jazzallicious was to create, you know, a successful activation that is now branded and well known, you know, across the province. In fact, that helps to draw people into into a market when they're otherwise not traveling, not seeking a tourism destination necessarily. And it's great for the businesses that are involved, whether it be the the restaurants, some of the hotels, and certainly the community and those who are visiting to sort of say, Markham is putting on this elevated experience, unique across the region. Certainly, that blends very well with our summer jazz festival. So we'll move away from for a moment from culinary. We now have these attractions that are now state in Markham.

Andrew Siegwart  7:01  
Oh, that's that's really smart. So you're looking at the core product or the core experience, but setting it in different contexts depending on the season. That's really that's really smart and fun, and gets that year-round that we're all we're all looking for in the tourism space. Before we jump ahead to the Honda Indy, what else do you believe still needs to be built to help Markham accelerate its journey.

Vinay Sharda  7:22  
I'll take a start here, and and my chair might will have some ideas about that as well. Let me let me start answering that question in this way. It's essentially to the core of the theme that I believe it's taking place, and and I believe it's part of the reason why the Indy race chose Markham is that Toronto will continue to be Toronto, and the communities around Toronto will will always have, in some form, a reflection to you know the largest city in the country. And and as I've mentioned already, you know Markham doesn't have a water feature, but it has so much else going for it. And those things that are going for it over time, the city is investing into it, businesses are investing into it. The community is investing into it. That you're starting to see other communities starting to stand out and differentiate themselves to be able to attract tourism, to have a create its own culture. That we're not just bedroom communities of the largest city in the country. And so, when I think about what else Markham needs to do, or what happens after after the Indy, and we will we see this time and again at any city and location where they've had a world class event like the Indy arrive. And in in and in fact, Saint Petersburg is a great example of this. Is that 30 years ago when that race arrived? I know Jeff will will have comments about this as well. Smaller town, not necessarily on the radar for a tourism destination location, now is a bustling town in its own right. The race is a center point of its tourism season, and similarly, we can see that we can see that take place here in Markham. Thinking about what happens after we we have a large race like this, over 150,000 people arriving, 400 plus credentialized media from around the world attending with a camera, you know, looking at facing Markham, we start thinking about those other tourism facilities that decide to establish themselves here. So, do we start having some more world-class hotels join the Markham, the already existing suite of hotels and hoteliers and restaurants in Markham? Do we start seeing other events that attach themselves to Markham because they know that this town can put on a large-scale event that's multi-day, that's complex, that brings in people from all around the world. In my view, we're already doing that in Markham, but in at a smaller scale. So we have large international badminton tournaments that take place in Markham regularly. We are currently we are planning for, which is about to take place, the world robotics competition that's taking place, swim like there's swim meets, dance competitions. All of this is already happening in Markham. What the what the race does, it's going to help elevate the city beyond what it's doing at a town level, and arguably start moving it into a larger city.

Andrew Siegwart  9:58  
These events are. Plays like this help raise awareness and then help you attract some of the things you're looking for to build that capacity. You know, Andrew, I'm just gonna I'm gonna call on you for a minute because you bring a an additional layer of a of an experience. You're the chair of Destination Markham Corporation. You're also a city councilor, so you look at infrastructure in maybe very different ways, you know. From your seat, what do you see as, you know, infrastructure that that can be brought online in the future to help Markham on its visitor journey?

Andrew Keyes  10:31  
Thanks for that, Andrew. The I guess the question it's not a question of of if, it's a question of when. So it's more of a timing issue. Certainly when it comes to budgeting, etc. And we've got a very long wish list in terms of of what I would I would say are assets that would improve the attraction of dest of destination events, sporting events, and even business events. This crosses over from tourism really into economic development in terms of making the city attractive. But I guess on our list, certainly Vinay mentioned increasing the stock of of hotel rooms. We've we've obviously got a an excellent stock of places to to gather, places to eat, lots of things to do. I'll mention also that in the in the east end of Markham is the the Rouge National Urban Park, which is the larger, largest national urban park in the country, it's just getting started as well. So that's going to provide another, I guess, another dimension to the to the city in terms of what people can do when they come here with the trails, etc. All of the festivals, but when it comes to hard infrastructure, that's obviously more challenging from a from a political perspective and from a tax base perspective, I'll say at this point that the matt tax has been extremely helpful in terms of accelerating that type of work. One of the things, and I'm going to go off off topic a little bit here. One of the things that was so wonderful about bringing the indie here was it brought the scale and the the the mass of a very large international event without the need for a major infrastructure investment. Now that's you know the proviso there is we have done work on our infrastructure in terms of roads, in terms of the race, but we didn't have to build an arena. We didn't have to build a stadium. That's difficult to sell politically for a single event or a single event a year. So, as I say, I think we've been very fortunate in getting this event because it allowed us to say to to have that major presence and that major major exposure before we had to do that investment. So, down the road, obviously, we're looking at major infrastructure like arenas, stadiums. But as I say, the timeline for that is years, decades, perhaps, and much of that depends on other levels of government to come to the table and help us with some of the funding, and obviously competing against other jurisdictions for

Mary Anne Ivison  12:58  
sure.

Andrew Siegwart  12:59  
What what I love about what you've just said is, rather than look at some of the challenges and of raising capital or or building large scale infrastructure like that, you're being creative to find partnerships to bring that type of experience that ultimately helps you get there. I think that's very smart.

Andrew Keyes  13:16  
Well, and in fairness, I would say we're fortunate. We were fortunate that Green Savary and the and the Indy people identified Markham as the as the place to do that. Now it does allow us to put on this event, this major event, without that infrastructure, and it does provide a catalyst. So now, as as I think Vinay was referencing, when other levels of government look at Markham as potential places that they may want to invest. We can we can hold this event up as an example of of what we're capable of doing, and all of the benefits that Markham brings when it comes to transportation access to to other other places. So it really is a a big win for us, and we're delighted to have

Andrew Siegwart  13:57  
it. You know, the Honda Indy has been one of Ontario's iconic sporting events for decades, moving an event with that much history and scale is not simply an operational decision; it's a strategic one. So, Jeff, why now? Why is now the time to begin a new chapter? And why did Markham emerge as the right partner for your organization?

Jeff Atkinson  14:15  
Yeah, for for a lot of reasons, we we ended up in Markham, but when we started to look for at their home for the Interior Honda dealers Indy, Markham was one of the first places, if not the first place we looked. You know, we we used a lot of analytics to get where we were going. We'd been an exhibition place for close to 40 years, had many successful events there, but along the lines of where things were going, Toronto had made the decision to host the incredible FIFA World Cup games that were here just weeks ago. For us, we did not want to discontinue our event for one year. We have seen a lot of momentum in the IndyCar Series and motorsports post pandemic. I think it's safe to say motorsports is definitely on the incline. We have seen growth. In each of 2223, 24, and 25, and we're seeing that again as we launched our ticket sales in Markham months ago. The growth from a corporate business standpoint remained in Markham. Our fans like Markham, and back to those analytics we we discussed, you know, became obvious looking at these numbers. You know, 71% would have an easier commute to Markham. We had a lot of data on what we call lapsed fans-people that weren't coming anymore-and we found out there was a lot of fans in York Region that were not coming downtown. They didn't want the inconvenience of going south to the four one. And then you look at your people that are already attending your event. You're looking at your your heat maps. You're seeing Windsor, Ottawa, Kingston, and you're looking at that, and you're thinking, "Wow, we have quite the fan base. At the end of the day, there's really only two very large motorsport events in the province. There are others. Don't get me wrong, but on the the national scale, the IndyCar series allows us to provide. And with that, you look at f1 in Montreal. It's kind of unattainable thing for a lot of people from a cost standpoint. It does wonderful things for for Montreal and Quebec. They they have an incredible attendance every year, but we really view our event as really and very economical event. You know, we have our Free Fan Friday campaign that the Interro Honda dealers have put on for many years, and with that, we opened our gates free of charge on the Friday. And since 2010, we've raised 1.1 million dollars. So a lot of those analytics came in play. And once we made the decision that we were going to leave Exhibition Place, Markham became that home for us. And Markham just brings a lot. Markham, as Councilor Keyes and Renee had suggested, you know, they have a good portion of hotel rooms, and those hotel rooms will be occupied by our fans and our participants. And one thing that I think a lot of people don't realize it's it's not just the NTT IndyCar series, which is the main event on Sunday. We have a number of support series, everything from the USF 2000, USF 2000 Pro, NASCAR Canada is joining us on this Saturday, and we're also joined by the FEL Radical Series, which is another Canadian series in addition to NASCAR Canada. So we have quite an incredible lineup, and you know, before one ticket is sold, you're filling up a significant amount of hotel rooms with just participants alone, in addition to crunched staff. So you know, I think Markham had checked all the boxes, but he also talked about the restaurant, such key piece because we're busy. You know, kind of eight a.m. to 6p.m. each of the three event days. All the the men and women who attend the event and the children need something to do afterwards. And Markham offers so much more just beyond just this beautiful circuit we've curated in Markham Center in downtown Markham. There's a lot to see and do in Markham away from the racetrack, and that's what really made Markham attractive for us.

Andrew Siegwart  17:48  
What convinced you that Markham wasn't, you know, a municipality that was just willing to host but was genuinely prepared to build it with you? So, what did what signals did you get from the team as you started working together that helped to reinforce that it was the right decision.

Jeff Atkinson  18:03  
Yeah, conversations very early on on what it would take to host the event in in Markham and how to make the event successful. You know, there's one thing hosting an event. There's one thing maintaining and sustaining that responsibility for multiple years, and we landed on a five year deal to start, and that is an unusual term like for us. Typically, we have done three-year terms, but the city of Markham was very passionate about what our vision was for the event and what their vision was, and that's what led us to a little bit longer term of a deal, setting this event up for the first time. Many of the the infrastructure you'll see in place last. Councilor Keys mentioned that they they're not necessarily building arena. These are streets people drive on every day. So the the infrastructure around the event is a benefit to those who are obviously using it year round. And ultimately, what we can do for that race week, beginning on the Monday when people start trickling into town, we know that we're going to deliver a stiffened economic impact to Markham, and when we selected Markham, one of our biggest concerns we had was, are we going to lose our corporate customers? And the more you learn about Markham, about the great people that live in the community, you also learn about the great businesses in the Markham community, and that was a very key thing for us as we looked around. So we had these very honest conversations of what it would take early on. But you start looking at other cities in Ontario because we didn't want the event to leave Ontario. Ontario is such a key market for IndyCar for our company Green Savery, and we looked around and we looked at Markham and being in the Greater Toronto Area, we knew we weren't going to lose our core corporate consumers. That helps the event be what the event is for the general fan and spectator that comes down. So we talked about all these opportunities for one another. We talked about kind of what year one looks like, what year 234, and five. Look like, and we know we can build on this event for every year. And I think that's what is so unique about this municipal relationship: is we can have these conversations, we can talk about vision, we can talk about future, and we we both can dream and and we can create. And I think together, I think there's a lot of opportunities that will present themselves for this event in the future.

Andrew Siegwart  20:23  
To me, I can I can appreciate how when you move an event where you've been you've been sort of executing it for many decades, you know, obviously you're tweaking certain aspects of the experience. The opportunity to move, I would imagine, presents some interesting creative energy. You almost have a blank canvas when you're thinking about course design, fan experience, a new festival experience. Like you're kind of starting all of this. A lot of it you have to rebuild because you're going to a new place. Maybe talk to us about what that has been like. Has it been fun and exciting? You know, are you? Is it given you an opportunity to reimagine the fan experience.

Jeff Atkinson  21:03  
Absolutely, we we should switch seats because you're using a lot of the same phrases I I use, and blank canvas is one of them. And you know what attracted me to motorsports in my career was that blank canvas. You can be really creative year in and year out, and having the blank canvas for this inaugural event, august 14 through 16th in Markham. It allows us to be very creative. Our company Green Savery Toronto is owned by a U.S. based company called Green Savery Racing Promotions. We own and promote Indy car races in Saint Petersburg, Florida. We own the renowned Middle House sports car course facility, and we promote the major events at Portland International Raceway. So in total, we have four IndyCar races. That blank canvas allows you to take best practices that you experience at your own events. It allows you to, you know, kind of identify what those weaknesses are or opportunities that you've struggled with maybe before at other events or the event you're moving from. There's a lot of things that exhibition plays we can now do in Markham that was really prohibitive to us before, and I think fans will will notice those little things. They all can't happen in year one. The more institutional knowledge we'll create every year with this event allows us to make it better for the fans. But we've really stressed to our team, to the city of Markham's team, about the importance of the inaugural event and making sure the fan experience is an enjoyable experience. We are going to have many new partners on board. Our fans will recognize these brands that they interact with probably on a daily basis, whether it's in their community or at the store, wherever they may recognize these brands. But these brands are committed to making sure the fan experience is enjoyable beyond the racetrack. We talked about those race series. You know, fans don't necessarily sit in their seats for some of the support series. They may pick and choose. I like seeing NASCAR. I like seeing open wheel. I like seeing a little bit of sports car. They're doing a lot of walking around. Your fan is not necessarily just there for the IndyCar race. They're walking around a few hours. Their average visit is four to six hours at these events. Where a stick and ball sport, you might only be there for two to three hours as you're enjoying the game. So the consumer is a lot different, and their behavior is a lot different at a motorsport festival because that's really more inclined to what it is-a festival than an actual sporting event, it's the best of both worlds meeting, and I think for us, the city of Markham, I think we're very lucky and fortunate to be able to have this in Markham Center. All roads lead to Markham. You're surrounded by, you know, the 404. You have Highway 7. You have the 407. We have the Unionville Go Station going right. Unionville GO station going right through our our site, the rapid bus system there. We have a lot of transit options, and back to those initial planning meetings, kind of how you get people to the event was a big part of why this event we thought was going to be successful because we had all forms of transit leading to this property. One

Andrew Siegwart  24:00  
of the things that you said was that this new environment is giving you an opportunity to improve the fan experience for things you couldn't do before. Could you give us a few examples?

Jeff Atkinson  24:09  
Yeah. So our exhibit and activation here, from a business standpoint, that's kind of talking business terms. That's where our sponsors interact. They were very limited as to what they could do on property for a variety of reasons. Just being an exhibition place in downtown, there's a lot more creativity that can go into those activations now in Markham. It's very much rectangle format versus being disjointed. The event site for our partners, I think, lays out more strongly. Another thing that we struggled with at Exhibition Place was our sightlines. We thought our sightlines for our customers in our grandstands and our corporate boxes were subpar, and we were at the mercy of what the site had for us at Exhibition Place. A lot of times, some of these viewing areas ended up on straightaways. Not on corners. If they're on a corner, it wasn't corner with much action. When we designed this racetrack, we were able to look at key areas of the racetrack and identify a lot of areas we think which would have passing and desirable viewing for our our fans and festival goers. We're able to do that in Markham, and we'll we'll adjust things every year. You you reflect, you look back, and say, "Hey, I like this. I didn't like this. We can do that with that blank canvas we talked about earlier. So that will happen on a yearly basis. You know, at some point, we'll look to bring music to the venue. You know, live music was very cost prohibitive at Exhibition Place. That may happen as soon as this year. Time will tell. One of the desires I have is establishing an RV club in Markham. We do an RV club in all of our other events. We haven't been able to do it in Toronto, in Markham. I do think we have some space we can utilize for that, but for us, as we plan and organize, that's not something we can do in year one. So we will we'll table that. It allow us a long lead time to promote that as an option to a select number of guests. It won't be many, but still a select number, and we'll be able to provide other options to these festival goers in future years. You can't check every box in your first year, so you shelve and table some stuff for future years, and and that's what we are doing. So we kind of have an A bucket of this is what we want to do in year 1b, C, D, and so on. But they're all A's in the end. The better you make your event, the more A's you achieve. So those are a few examples of what we've been able to do in Markham.

Andrew Keyes  26:37  
I think it's also important to to appreciate the fact that we really didn't have a signed deal until late August 25, so the time to prepare for this event was extremely tight, certainly for our municipality and even for Green Savary. So when we say we're going to see how things go in year one, that's that's good planning, but it's also necessary in terms of the timeline we've been working to. We've cheaped quite a lot. I would I would say you'd agree with that, Jeff, in terms of what we were able to do in in like 889 months.

Jeff Atkinson  27:08  
Absolutely, Councilor Keys. You know, for us and the city of Markham, we have achieved so much. You know, the fact that we are mirroring and expanding what we had in downtown Toronto in year one is a huge accomplishment in less than a year to plan. Now we can continue to take best practices in year two and three and four and five and bring them in and build it even beyond what we did in year one. So being able to say we're doing more in Markham than we did in downtown Toronto, that's a great starting point, but that's not where it stops. And our fans will see that when they they arrive for our free fan Friday on august 14.

Andrew Siegwart  27:48  
That's amazing. And this is a really good example of how, when you have a partner that is coming to the table to work with you, you're getting a year one under your way, but you're envisioning together what the future will hold, and that's exciting. That's a part of the best practice. This isn't about a discussion about what didn't work in the past. It's more we all have that opportunity to have that wish list, and then suddenly when you have a blank slate, it's fun to think about where that can go. And I like that you're thinking about your fans and what you can deliver for them. That's what that's what drives innovation. One of the things you talked about, Jeff, and I'm wondering if you could expand a little bit. You were talking about how motorsport is evolving and changing. I'm wondering if you could tell us a little bit about the trends there. So, who are your fans in motorsport? Have they changed? How is that evolving?

Jeff Atkinson  28:38  
Motorsport overall has gotten much younger in the last five years, especially, I think you're seeing more women watch motorsport, and I think you're seeing a lot of crossover between the disciplines, whether it be f1, Indy car, NASCAR, sports car. I think you're seeing a lot of people just consume it differently. You look in the pandemic when a lot of things were shut down. Motorsport often many times is still running, whether it be in person or on simulators. There's a lot of ways to connect directly with motorsports, and it could be as simple as driving the car. You and I, you and I may drive. So you know, I think overall, you look at the demographics and those analytics we talked about earlier. You look at okay. You may have been male, female, 8020, maybe 1015, years ago. You're 65% male now. You're closing that gap. You've you've chopped off 15% in the last number of years. You know we have seen a huge uptake in a family focused environment for our event, you know, we made the decision 15 years ago. Now, time flies when you're having fun. I was going to say, Tim, it's 15 to do a lot of focus towards our marketing towards families, and in that, market towards moms. And we wanted to get to mothers in the household or making the person decision. Often, many times, we had. A marketing director at the time was very passionate about that, and I echoed her belief. And we've created some successful programs as a result of that, and we've continued that formula. And when we came back from the pandemic, that investment we made on five to 12 year old children and their mothers who are going to bring them out to the event, we have seen them now become the next generation of fans. So there may have been a point where we skipped a generation, but the amount of effort and commitment we have made to making sure this event is family focused, family friendly, you know, along the core values of Ontario Honda dealers, and obviously Honda Canada, who is our longtime partner, we've seen a huge turnaround with our demographics. Our rookie racer program, which hosts 250 kids throughout the entire weekend through unique meet and greet appearances with drivers, they get to be in part of the introductions for the opening ceremonies with the driver high five line. Those are memory building experiences, and those memory building experiences are some of your best advertising move forward. Word of mouth and the experience you can create for families is so crucial and critical to event success as we build and we reshape the future. So it's not necessarily for a fan that follows the IndyCar series 365 days a year. We want the festival goers and fans to be fans of what is the Interro Honda dealers in the at Markham. Now, that's what we want them to be fans of. We want them to circle it on their calendar every year and say, "I need to go that that sporting event. I need to go to that festival. I had such a good time there. And hopefully, the next generation has those key messages, those word of mouth advertising passed down to them, and it helps us. It helps the city of Markham and the other businesses in the region.

Andrew Siegwart  31:41  
That's great. Really, being proactive in identifying new markets as an organization was that did that come naturally for the organization to expand beyond your core? Did you have to draw upon new resources to get there?

Jeff Atkinson  31:55  
It was difficult for some. The event started as a beer promotion back in 1986, a beer audience is a specific audience or a specific age group. That age group eventually ages out. You ignore the people that come behind it. The sport had some challenges. Some people listening to this might understand. You know the NHL and the WHA in the 70s, NBA and the CBA. We had IndyCar and what was CART at the time, and that happened in 1996. PGA and and Liv Golf would be the most recent example, and there were two series that eventually split apart. Those series did not unify until 2008, and 2009 was the return of the IndyCar series proper, with both series reunited, so it had become very tough over the years to connect with some of those laps fans, some of those fans who joined because of a beer promotion, which that beer promotion really created this historic event that is now, as I said, 40 years into it. But you had to change with the times. You had to adjust. You had to pivot, and we had to look back to see who our fans were. At the same time, some of our businesses and partnerships. Who do our business partnerships want us to partner with? Who do they want our fans to be? We had to make sure our values aligned with the values of our partners, and that was a crucial and critical way to think as we took the event into the next chapter. This is a family event now. It's about family. It's about festival fun. There's still beer involved. Might be some coolers, some ciders now, some wines. Maybe you didn't see that back in 1986, but we had to evolve and change and adapt with the times, and I think we did a good job of that. We wanted to make sure we could give the fans the best access to the drivers and participants as we could. We really have believed in the IndyCar paddock system. What the IndyCar PADD is, you can buy a pass to get in the paddock and go see the cars and drivers up close. You don't get to go into a Leaf locker room or Blue Jays locker room on game day. You can do that at the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham. So we took some of the those best practices from before, but we also identified some of those areas of opportunity where we thought we could maybe create those new fans like rookie racers, and that that was a I think a tough pill for some maybe to swallow, but after some you know creative and critical thinking, I think we found a place that we knew if we put time and effort in, we may not see the solutions in our first year going this direction, but we know after four to five years we would, and we saw that coming out of the pandemic. I would I wouldn't be remiss to to mention the success of Netflix's Drive to Survive on f1 and their documentary, I think that created a lot of enthusiasm in the pandemic amongst the motorsport community, and I think a lot of people wanted to check out motorsports. So you get into a situation where high tide raises all boats. NASCAR has been very successful. Sports car as well. IndyCar has seen the best ratings they've seen in decades this year. They've they've actually entered into a partnership internationally with us, Fox Sports. Fox Sports crafts and curates their broadcasts on Fox every Sunday that they race, and Fox has seen a lot of results. They will have the IndyCar race following the FIFA World Cup final on Sunday, and I'm sure that's going to attract a lot more eyeballs to the sport. We are seeing more eyeballs than ever on this sport, and it has a lot to do with IndyCar, Penske Entertainment, Fox, our company Green Savory. What we're all trying to achieve, like the city of Markham, certainly invested in this great world-class motorsport event race series. We know the fans and people will come to Markham, and we've been seeing that in other Markhams for the IndyCar series. I

Andrew Siegwart  35:49  
really appreciate you telling us a bit of that backstory. I think it really resonates with many event producers across Ontario who are grappling with how to change and how to think for the future. So exceptional vision that you just shared. You can see how the indies vision has been purposely cultivated, and it's very similar to what you're doing in Markham. So talk to us about how what Jeff is doing in this this organization? How does that blend in with Markham's long term destination strategy?

Andrew Keyes  36:28  
As as Jeff mentioned, it's it really is a family becoming more and more of a family event. And from the perspective of who we would like to attract, and it's not just international. So we recognize that this event is going to bring a lot of people from outside of the city, outside of the even the GTA. So people who didn't even know Markham. So so the idea of having an event that really does cater to to a family audience obviously is is good news. We're able to reach a lot more people. The experience that they have when they come here will be more enjoyable, probably for the whole family, even for those that aren't Grace fans. But another another aspect of it is is really how this event is going to impact the existing residents of the city. That's not something that Destination Markham concentrates on. But as far as an event goes, we want to ensure that this event is not disruptive. That this event is something that everybody can enjoy. So everybody includes the fam the family demographics that Jeff Jeff mentioned. So it really is quite a good fit with with what we're looking to do here.

Andrew Siegwart  37:32  
Does it support typical destination goals like driving overnight stays versus day visits, attracting investment beyond the the the indy itself? Any any ties or links there?

Andrew Keyes  37:48  
Oh, absolutely. So you you'll hear us say quite often that this is much more than a race. That references not just what's happening on the ground during that weekend, but from the perspective of Destination Markham and the city of Markham in terms of economic development, this is an opportunity to present the city of Markham to the rest of the world. The number of I don't want to get my numbers wrong, but the you know the number of international correspondents that will be covering the event is in the hundreds. The viewership around the world is is an opportunity for people to to to have a taste of Markham. Just identifying that Markham exists is step one for a lot of these people who have never heard of Markham. But beyond that, during the coverage of the race by by all of the correspondents and all of the media, as well as the the race itself, we expect that the impression that they will have of Markham will not just be awareness, but it's a great place to be. Obviously, event it's our first event, so we're crossing our fingers that we're able to achieve that. But that is our goal to make sure that the the experience, not just for the visitors, but for the folks watching on television around the world, are certainly given given good good a good experience there

Jeff Atkinson  39:03  
with that counselor, you know you you look at 11 to 12% annually of people coming in internationally. What what a key statistic that is! The IndyCar series reaches over 200 plus countries worldwide on a broadcast lineup. This is basically an infomercial for the city of Markham of what Markham can do for a worldwide television audience, but those people who also attend from far away to come in, and I think that's what we're all excited about.

Vinay Sharda  39:30  
So, Andrew, just answering that question in a different way, I wear a different hat as director of economic development. So, and let me just connect the two dots that my colleagues have mentioned here. We have a city that is the arguably the tech capital of Canada, which has put it put the city on the map internationally for that ecosystem and for those business investment types. We have a community that has well educated. It works hard and it it holds a certain level of its own. Affluence in many areas. It is a community that is respected and respects itself in terms of its expectations of the quality of life that is here. Markham is safe. Markham is clean. Markham is growing responsibly. Also, a reason why it has put Markham has put itself on the map, and this is you know for people like Councilor Keys and others who have helped create and foster a community like this, and now we have an international world event that is coming to Markham. You know, I sort of see them in these three buckets to say it's a natural progression that something like this was going to happen, and we're so thrilled that Green Savary, that Jeff kept the race not not only in Ontario, not in Markham, but in Canada. You know, this is at the end of the day. Let's be honest. We all understand how business works, and and and ultimately, there's more of a thought process that has to go into a supply chain that has to cross the border. You know, races that are that are run in in the U.S. during that racing season, and now one has to come up to to Canada for that, and that's it's a real source of pride for us. But into to Councilor Keys's earlier comment, just our appreciation that for them to say we're going to keep this in Canada and be brought to Markham. So just kind of doubling down on that economic development comment that you had asked. Let me also add finally is that we've we have received you know in in year one of the race, interested parties that are looking to will be at the race, who are looking to build further product on the hotel side of things, as Councilor Keys has mentioned, but also promotions. You know, promoting companies that want to bring other events that obviously not a large scale world class sporting event, but other events to Markham because they know that a reputable brand like Honda, Indy, Green Savary, Jeff's team carry a reputation of they've thought about this, they're doubling down and landing it on Markham. There's something here, and that's before the race has even has even started. So we're already starting to see some of that, some of that interest, and I think that's just going to grow over the years to come.

Andrew Siegwart  42:04  
Yeah, and you're really describing a 360 degree approach to building economic development with tourism as an anchor, motorsport, great partners. It's it's great, Vinay. A follow up question for you, as and I love having the economic development discipline around the table. I think it's so important. A lot of what you're doing is raising the profile of Markham. Tell me, are you have you thought about how you might measure that after year one? Are you are you planning to measure that sentiment either with visitors or the local account or the locals?

Vinay Sharda  42:38  
My chair and I are smiling because it was the first thing he asked me when I when I approached him to say we need to get our marketing promotions off the bat, and he had said, "Well, Vinny, take a step back and tell me how you're going to measure whatever you're about to invest. So I don't know, Andrew, if you wanted to jump in on that, but we certainly have a plan. But counselor, I think you should you should probably take this one.

Andrew Keyes  42:57  
Well, my and this is probably to the to the chagrin of of my destination marketing team, but my background was advertising and marketing before I got into politics. So I guess I suggested that it would be a good idea to get a baseline in terms of our brand recognition internationally, and something we hadn't done before. And again, these are all activities, and all all all these are tactics that the matt tax and the revenue that we're able to use for that have enabled. So I thought, you know, we are all thinking that this event is going to raise the profile. One of the use, one of the things we used to say in advertising in the old days is, is I know 50% of my advertising isn't working. I just don't know which 50% It's because it is very very difficult to measure. However, there are services out there that do ongoing surveying and on ongoing brand awareness and brand basically brand scoring. So that's something that we took on. We wanted to get in place before this major event so that we would know where we stand now in terms of brand recognition, at least in the North American market, and then following this event, and then in years to come, how that has improved. Obviously, we're hoping it will improve, but to what degree? And that's that's a very difficult metric to get your your finger finger on. But I think that'll help. But obviously, there are going to be other metrics, and and I think Vinay can speak to some of those. Obviously, hotel stays, sales, obviously ticket sales. We're going to work with Green Savary as well to to do our our post mortem, if you will, that'll look at precisely how we did, where people were coming from, and where we can improve. But I'll I'll leave it to the others to to add any comments if they wish.

Vinay Sharda  44:40  
Thanks. That was perfect, Chair. I think the only thing I would add is, in addition to the brand recognition piece, which we we have already begun, is also determining through technologies that are already available with full you know privacy and confidentiality of the users to identify through cell phone data determining who who has come. From where and for how long? And so, when we talk to our restaurants, our hotels, our attractions, from a traffic management perspective as well, determine how far has Vinay come in from you know Sarnia came in for the race for two days, spent three hours at a restaurant on Unionville Main Street, spent six hours on the track, was there all day, Fan Friday. Like these are critical data points for us that we otherwise probably wouldn't have thought about how to necessarily marshal those technologies for our purpose. Because if we're not learning, I think Jeff just brought this point home as well. If we're not learning, and each year getting better, you know, as a destination Markham office, how we're identifying our brand, attracting people, or setting up attractions and events that people want to come and enjoy outside of the race, we're missing an opportunity. And so, first year of a race, certainly there'll be things left on the table in terms of missed opportunities. That's what learning is all about. But the challenge that the chair has put to us and others is make sure we just know what those are, so that in year two, in year three, in year four, in year five, we're thinking about how we're kind of chipping away at some of those things. And so we're really excited. You know, we're going to figure out what the brand is. And early indications are Markham has a positive brand overall. There are some things we'd like to work on, but when you attach that to the Honda Indy, that kind of positive brand increases really substantially. And again, the race hasn't started. This is the anticipation of

Andrew Siegwart  46:23  
it's being built. Yet you're already seeing how that affiliation and partnership is is driving results, which is which is really exciting. Jeff, you highlighted earlier a little bit about the intricacies of the transportation infrastructure to support this event. Could you maybe walk us through a little bit about what that has involved and what what aspects of transportation planning are critical to the success of this event.

Jeff Atkinson  46:48  
Yeah, no, it's a great question. You know, going back to when we were looking at a venue, you know, Markham was selected as I said early on and identified as an opportunity. And one of the biggest things I looked at was how we would actually get people to the venue, and I didn't want to be an event where we people predominantly driving to. The other challenge we had was where in Markham can we post the event? There were other venues considered in the city, but looking back, I knew I had a great relationship with MetroLink and Go Transit, and through that partnership I've had for many years with them, I knew they were the largest parking authority in the province. They park a lot of cars to get people to their final destination, and looking at train stations and parking lots became a critical aspect of this, and looking in the Markham area, Unionville became very attractive. The MetroLink system allows us to get people to and from Union Station in downtown Toronto in 40 minutes. It's a breeze to get on that train to your destination, but we also know a lot of people want to drive. 407 being right adjacent to the property, absolutely crucial in terms of getting people to and from. Understanding that's a premium road to be on, you know, we identified Highway 7 and the 404 as another key entrance to this venue, and then even coming from the east, whether you're in Oshawa, whether you're in Pickering, Ajax, as far as Kingston, Ottawa, you know we knew 401 is a great way to get people to venues. When you have an event downtown Toronto for many years. You still have to have that that critical turn at either the DVP or the 427. You got an hour still to go. You know you have a you have a half an hour to win another half an hour almost. So, you know Markham and just the selection process of identifying how they have these very centric arteries of roads and infrastructure-they checked all the boxes. Absolutely, have everything you could ever want in a venue, from all directions-north, east, south, and west-and everything from a direct train service to bus to car transportation. I, I, I, I could argue, if you look at the entire York region and Markham proper, Markham is well suited to host an indie event, but many many more events and festivals. I think I think they have a lot of opportunity in the years and decades ahead of them.

Andrew Siegwart  49:39  
Jeff, is this a is this a critical infrastructure? Because what you described is is really a high degree of connectivity and and service integration across modes. Is this something you've seen in your other events in other cities in North America that is sort of part of the winning formula?

Jeff Atkinson  49:56  
It is absolutely part of the winning formula, but the the most important thing. That winning formula is a partnership with a municipality. That is a partnership. That is a collaborative approach on how to make the event the best it can be for the fans and festival goers attending. But you need that infrastructure in place to make these events successful. And Markham has everything and more.

Andrew Siegwart  50:18  
Thank you for that. That's that's really helpful, and it gives us a sense of what a festival organizer is is really looking for and needs for success. You've you've provided such a great case study in how organizations can partner and work together to achieve great things. We've recently launched a strategy called Forward Motion that talks about essential ingredients for growth. Collaboration is one of them, and there are many others, including focusing on growing markets, transportation, etc. You are on the right track. What advice would you give to different destinations, festival producers, or municipalities that are earlier in this game? What advice would you give them on how to get started to to be thinking about their destination, like you have been open to anyone?

Andrew Keyes  51:07  
Well, I guess I'll jump in. First of all, it doesn't happen overnight. I would say we've talked about the fact that yeah, there is some existing infrastructure that has to be in place. Relationships are key, so you certainly, I think that we haven't talked enough about today the the importance that that the the government of Ontario, in fact, played in bringing this event to Markham. Jeff mentioned his relationship with MetroLink's. It was important that MetroLink was be was on board and supportive, but also the the Ministry of Sport was certainly involved in that as well. So I would say moving forward, and I don't want, I don't like giving away trade secrets because I want to keep them all, all the events here in Markham. But it is important that relationships are established with other levels of government, other people of influence. You can't approach, I think the the future without understanding that it's other people are going to be involved in those decisions, whether it's funding, whether it's just who the the leads are coming in from, and then you've got to have a little bit of patience and diligence to just keep at it. And as I said, existing infrastructure is one thing; building infrastructure is is the other piece that is going to certainly help attract those events, and and tailoring the infrastructure to the type of event that you want to bring in is is very important. And those are all long term strategies as well, obviously as well. I'm I'm on the political side of things, so there has to be the political will on council, not so much from the taxpayers. I'm going to make a reference again to the matt tax. The fact that that has helped a great deal in terms of funding these initiatives, whether it's the studies, whether it's the marketing side of things, they simply didn't happen before we had access to those to that funding and some of the infrastructure costs as well that we're looking at building going forward is really going to be benefiting from from the revenue from the the hotel industry and the matt tax. We're excited about you know what what opportunities are are before us that we've got lots of work to do.

Andrew Siegwart  53:15  
If someone has never experienced the Haunted Indy before, why is this the year that they should come, and what can they expect to discover? Not just on the race circuit, but throughout Markham in the weeks ahead.

Jeff Atkinson  53:26  
I'll start with the race, and I'll pass over to the the Markham team to talk about the great things and around the event. I think motorsports is inherently one of the most easiest forms of sports to follow. You don't need to understand the rules. Don't need to learn what an offside is, a foul ball, whatever it might be. It's pretty easy to fall. Someone wins, but you also don't have to necessarily be there in your grandstand seat the entire day. You get to walk around, you get to interact, meet new friends, and it becomes a staple of your summer. August 14 to 16, we know we're going to have everyone there from families on our free free fan Friday event in spur of the Make a Wish Foundation, and our Sunday, our most loyal fans are going to be there cheering on their heroes as they compete on these streets for the very first time. We didn't talk about the technicality of the racetrack itself, but obviously inaugural event. This is a 12-turn, 3.52-kilometer race circuit. It has a little bit of everything to it. It has a double-sided pit lane. That's unique feature to Markham. Two other races on this circuit share that. One in Arlington. One in Detroit. You can see the entire playing field if you're in the pit lane grandstand. The hairpin at Remington Turn Five is such a unique feature of this circuit. It is raised, it is elevated, is banked. It's really cool. So fans who are there to be a fan of the event in terms of the actual sporting side, it is one of the more technical street circuits you'll see in motorsports this season, and it will. Live and it will improve every year. If you're coming down just as a fan, whether you want to see the the races or not, you can go down to the Honda Ontera Honda dealers pit stop here and cool down inside the Pan Am Center. You can try some of Markham's great food that's going to be served at the event, so you can sample a little bit of everything. It's everything rolled into one, and I think that's what's unique about an indie event. You can be a sport fan or a festival goer; you'll still enjoy it.

Andrew Keyes  55:28  
Well, I'll keep I'll keep it short. I think Vene, you can speak to some of the surrounding events. This is the first one. This is the inaugural event. I think people will want to be at the first one. I certainly am looking forward to that and seeing seeing how it goes, so it's always nice to be part of the very first the very first time, and looking forward years ahead to to being able to say I was there.

Vinay Sharda  55:49  
This is your first race. You are going to be able to experience one of the most exciting, most anticipated motorsport races in the country, in a brand new track, in a welcoming community. There are going to be-I wouldn't say parties, but they're going to be-they're going to do things that are going to feel a lot like parties on the racetrack, off the racetrack, in a number of different locations. It's probably going to be as easy to get in and out of here as it is on a busy concert. You're going to see some of the great, the best food and some of the best activations that the GTA has to offer. Markham is ready for this race. We're really excited. Get your ticket. Come on, see us.

Andrew Siegwart  56:31  
I don't. I didn't share this with all of you, but I'm a huge car buff. I love the sport. I love everything to do with driving. I can't wait, and I really appreciate you spending time with me to not only talk about how exciting the event's going to be, but also to give us a really good conversation about what it takes to bring an event of this scale to a new location and how important it is to work with a partner who has just as much passion for it as as you do, Jeff. I think it's it's been a really great case study, and there's a few just closing points or observations that I think you shared with us that really stand out to me. Number one, the municipal accommodation tax. What a what a great lever, and you're using it with purpose and focus. And I think that is a best practice that other communities can think more about and and learn from you, Jeff. You talked a lot about the the sport of like motorsport, the the racing. But what I heard from you was an obsession with being customer driven, and really giving an experience and growing and changing to meet your customers' needs. Even the depth with with which you were talking about how transportation readiness matters to the experience, I think that's really something for us all to think about. The business case for events and festivals clearly needs to be more robust and dynamic than ever before. And I think working with municipal partners, you need to bring more than a one pager with an idea. This is about 360 degree economic development, and you shared that with us. Partnerships, event producers, municipalities, tourism industry, and government doesn't happen without all those players. And you really expanded upon that. And last, Councilor Keys, I loved your point. Your point about agility-that is the name of the game, and that's probably what's led to this success-is that agility mindset. So I just wanted to summarize. I think that this is a really great example of destination management and marketing and partnership delivering great results, and we're all cheering for you. I'm going to be a spiritual member of the Pit Crew all along.

Vinay Sharda  58:37  
Thank you, Andrew. Thank you to the TIAO for bringing us together and profiling this incredible race in our town, we look forward to seeing you there and and your partnership, not just for this race, but the one that we've had for you for for many many years.

Andrew Siegwart  58:50  
And we'll provide in the show notes links for listeners who can figure out how and where to get to Markham to enjoy this great event. Thank you.

Mary Anne Ivison  58:58  
Thanks for listening to Forward Motion. This show is created by the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario and is recognized by government as the voice of tourism and produced by everyone at the Sound Off Media Company.