Great to see the Four Seasons project officially break ground.
Now, for a bit of a rant...sorry in advance.
I'm very familiar with Toronto, and I really don't get the decision by Collision to move to the Enercare Centre. Having been to Exhibition Place (where the convection center is located) in the past, I can tell you that it is physically isolated from the downtown area (where most of the hotels are). The Gardiner Expressway and a train line are on the north side of the property. Lake Ontario is to the south. There are streetcar lines that run from downtown to Exhibition Place, but it's not a short ride. Factor in at least 20 to 40 minutes on the streetcar depending on how far from the lake you are. I definitely would not be staying near City Hall. Walking from the heart of downtown would easily take 45 minutes. There is also the GO train that runs every 30 minutes. It's a quick 10 minute ride over to Exhibition Place stop, but you still need to catch the subway or hoof it to Union Station which adds time. If you miss the train, it's a nice 30 minute wait for the next one (been there done that). Basically, everyone will be shelling out money for either transit or a cab/Uber fare. Here is a map showing how isolated it is...
Enercare Centre
The physical isolation of the facility also means crossing under the expressway and through a tunnel (GO train stop) under the railroad tracks to get to the nearest neighborhood where there are several restaurants to eat at (definitely not to the same level as those here). I don't think there are any food facilities at the convention center based on past experience. It's a good 15 minute walk till you hit the first places to eat in the nearest neighborhood.
Enercare Centre is a perfectly fine facility , but it's also pretty small in terms of convention centers. Total capacity is around 15,000 people if you combine all of the halls together based on the convention center's capacity charts. I don't really see how the conference can grow any larger than it is now in this facility.
What Toronto does have is ample flight connections to international destinations since it's home of the Air Canada hub. You'll pay an arm and leg to fly there due to the high taxes, but at least it will be non-stop. I have a feeling the flight availability and the current political climate are what ultimately pushed Collision to Toronto. There isn't much we can do about the flight issue since Toronto is a hub, and there also isn't much we can do about national politics.
Toronto is an amazing city, but I feel that the attendees will have a worse experience overall mainly due to the isolated location of the convention center. Here, they can literally walk 15 minutes and be in the French Quarter hanging out at a world class restaurant or excellent drinking establishment after a long day at the conference or just for lunch.
I really don't get it.
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