Rogers Centre (Ottawa Convention Centre) | 30.45m | 4-5 fl | Completed

[Urbanarchit]

Convention Centre by Shel DeF on Flickr

[Abe Simpson]

Originally Posted by defishel

Convention Centre by Shel DeF on Flickr

I really like the way the Convention Center lights up at night. With the purple lighting it looks pretty spectacular!

[rocketphish]

Photo by me. Aug 23, 2014.

[waterloowarrior]

Rebranded as the Shaw Centre
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news...hts-to-convention-centre-in-10-year-deal

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

Rebranded as the Shaw Centre
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news...hts-to-convention-centre-in-10-year-deal

Came here to post this. Thanks Waterloowarrior for always being on top of the ball!

The award-winning Ottawa Convention Centre will be rebranded the “Shaw Centre” under a 10-year naming deal with Calgary-based Shaw Communications.

Centre chair Marc Seaman said the agreement will enable further growth in the “lucrative national and international meetings and conventions marketplace.

“Over the coming decade, the Shaw Centre will leverage the strength of one of Canada’s leading brands and media organizations to enhance and increase its profile and standing as a world class convention facility,” Seaman said.

“We are privileged to work with this world-class and award-winning facility, and are eager to showcase the Shaw brand to hundreds of thousands of local, national and international visitors that come to the Shaw Centre every year,” said Brad Shaw, CEO of Shaw Communications.

The participants said the deal will allow the centre to boost its profile through Shaw’s strengths in Internet and other communications streams. Shaw, for its part, will gain “the opportunity to showcase its leading media brands, products, and services to guests from Canada and abroad.”

Visitors to the rebranded Shaw Centre will enjoy seamless access to Shaw Go WiFi – Shaw’s carrier-grade wifi network – throughout the building with complimentary access available to all guests in recognized gathering areas.

Shaw Centre said it will continue to use “Canada’s Meeting Place” as its descriptor, and will continue to partner with Ottawa Tourism in all marketing efforts.

The was no dollar figure immediately available on the deal.

[Horus]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

Rebranded as the Shaw Centre
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news...hts-to-convention-centre-in-10-year-deal

Anyone else find it odd that Shaw picks up the naming rights in a city where you can't get Shaw cable or internet services?

[daud]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

Rebranded as the Shaw Centre
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news...hts-to-convention-centre-in-10-year-deal

The Shaw brand is barely recognizable outside western Canada and I don't think the name will serve much.

This is probably a cash and services deal which will help the convention centre financially. The OCC gets free internet services and infrastructure+Cash, Shaw gets the name.

The facility, from what I hear, is not quite as busy as they budgeted. Unfortunately the Ottawa Convention Centre needs more attached hotel rooms and more floor space to really lock in major conferences. The Westin is great but its always full and this has been a problem for the OCC. The Ottawa Convention Centre is very attractive, but is, at best, a tier 2 facility in the Canadian convention market. There are many Canadian based associations with head offices in Ottawa that never hold their conventions in Ottawa because the facility is too small. Talk about lost opportunities. Many in the industry lament that a bigger building with more hotel rooms was not built.

Still, it looks good and the deal will help their bottom line.

[Schattenjager]

Is Shaw preparing for an expansion into the Ottawa market?

[rocketphish]

Originally Posted by Horus

Anyone else find it odd that Shaw picks up the naming rights in a city where you can't get Shaw cable or internet services?

Shaw Direct satellite service is available here, isn't it?

[Catenary]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Shaw Direct satellite service is available here, isn't it?

I keep getting flyers for it, so I would think so.

[kevinbottawa]

Doesn't say if the digital screen on the south wall is a part of the deal.

I don't like name though. Shaw Centre sounds like it could be anything. Doesn't sound like the city's premiere convention facility.

[Mikeed]

Some Shaw persence in Ottawa is that Shaw owns Global News (which has the best office out of other major networks, top floor of the Chambers Building across the street.) Though only after purchasing troubled Canwest in 2010.

Also, Shaw & Rogers partnered up to launch a mediocre netflix, and more excitingly Shaw plans to launch a Global all-news channel soon. And, Shaw Direct satellite service.

[LeadingEdgeBoomer]

Originally Posted by Mikeed

Some Shaw persence in Ottawa is that Shaw owns Global News (which has the best office out of other major networks, top floor of the Chambers Building across the street.) Though only after purchasing troubled Canwest in 2010.

Also, Shaw & Rogers partnered up to launch a mediocre netflix, and more excitingly Shaw plans to launch a Global all-news channel soon. And, Shaw Direct satellite service.

Yes to all that--and perhaps the Global Centre would resonate better with some.

[Mikeed]

Originally Posted by LeadingEdgeBoomer

Yes to all that--and perhaps the Global Centre would resonate better with some.

I would agree.

[Boxster]

Shaw has been around the area for at least 10 years.

It previously went under the Star Choice name.

[J.OT13]

Canada already has a "Shaw Conference Centre" in Edmonton.

This is just going to be confusing. And if our facility is just called "Shaw Centre". The word "Centre" doesn't say much. Should be "Convention Centre".

But whatever. If it helps great. If anything though, I think it's going to hurt business further.

[Harley613]

Maybe it is a good thing they bought the rights to the Convention Centre because I had no idea they had a presence in Ottawa until I heard about it...

[J.OT13]

Kelly stepping down as Shaw Centre CEO
David David SaliPublished on January 09, 2015

When Pat Kelly arrived in Ottawa to become GM of the Westin Hotel in 1988, the main topic of conversation in the local tourism industry was the need for a larger downtown convention centre.

Nearly two decades later, Mr. Kelly took over as CEO of what was then known as the Congress Centre, vowing to make that goal a reality. He did just that, overseeing the building of a new, larger Ottawa Convention Centre on the former Congress Centre site.

Now, after nearly eight years at the helm of the recently rechristened Shaw Centre, Mr. Kelly is moving on.

The Shaw Centre’s board of directors announced on Friday that Mr. Kelly will step down as the facility’s president and CEO effective March 31.

Board chair Marc Seaman praised Mr. Kelly’s “tenacity and vision” in spearheading the construction of the new convention centre, a project that had been talked about for years but finally came to fruition under his leadership. When the Ottawa Convention Centre opened in April 2011, the 192,000-square-foot facility nearly tripled the meeting space offered in the old Congress Centre.

Mr. Kelly’s ability to push the project through to completion will be his lasting legacy, Mr. Seaman said.

“Pat was instrumental in getting that built,” he said.

Mr. Kelly managed Westin and Fairmont hotels in locations around the world before serving as the dean of the School of Hospitality and Tourism at Algonquin College. In a news release issued on Friday, he thanked the Shaw Centre’s board for hiring him in 2007, calling the job of CEO an “extraordinary opportunity.”

Under Mr. Kelly’s guidance, the Shaw Centre boosted its annual visitor tally to more than 300,000 and last year was named runner-up as the world’s best convention centre by the International Association of Convention Centres.

As CEO, Mr. Kelly also helped boost annual revenues, which jumped from less than $10 million at the Congress Centre before his arrival to more than $16 million at the new facility in fiscal 2012-13. In October, the convention centre inked a 10-year naming rights deal with Calgary-based Shaw Communications.

“I am proud of what our team has accomplished during the past several years, and I’m excited with the future growth prospects for the centre and Ottawa as a national and global convention destination,” Mr. Kelly said in the release.

He was unavailable for further comment on Friday afternoon.

Ottawa Tourism president Noel Buckley called Mr. Kelly a "consummate tourism professional" and said his contributions to the local industry will be missed.

"He's worked his entire life in this industry," Mr. Buckley said, noting Mr. Kelly managed the "two most significant" hotels in the region during his career, the Westin and later the Chateau Laurier.

But he agreed Mr. Kelly will be remembered most for his involvement with the Shaw Centre, adding he believes it is the premier convention centre in the country.

"It's a beautiful legacy to have," Mr. Buckley said. "It's a spectacular facility. I think it's changed the (tourism) landscape in Ottawa."

Mr. Seaman, who said Mr. Kelly and the board mutually agreed to his departure, said a five-person search committee to replace him will be co-chaired by board members David Scott and Mona Fortier. The committee plans to have a new CEO in place by the end of March.

Mr. Seaman said the next CEO will be “more focused on national and international marketing” in an effort to attract more clients from the United States and Europe.

The committee plans to meet with various members of the city’s tourism industry to get their input on the kind of person they’d like to see in the position.

“I think the pool is pretty open,” Mr. Seaman said.

http://www.obj.ca/Local/Tourism/2015-01-09/article-4001755/Kelly-stepping-down-as-Shaw-Centre-CEO/1

[mykl]

Noticed new scaffolding beneath the big empty wall of the Shaw Centre today. Are they actually going through with the giant screen? There's no more construction to be done on that side of the Rideau Centre so it certainly wouldn't be for that.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by mykl

Noticed new scaffolding beneath the big empty wall of the Shaw Centre today. Are they actually going through with the giant screen? There's no more construction to be done on that side of the Rideau Centre so it certainly wouldn't be for that.

I'm putting my money on a giant "SHAW" sign.