Supporting Three Significant Events in Toronto in 2019

The Elevate Tech Festival, 6 Degrees and the Ontario Economic Summit will bring residents, visitors and international experts together to, respectively, address scaling Toronto's technology sector, advancing a more inclusive society, and driving sustainable economic growth. These events will make significant contributions to the understanding of key issues facing Toronto in the areas of social cohesion and shared prosperity. In addition, such events produce a significant economic return for the City of Toronto, with spin-off economic benefits achieved through partnerships with local businesses, venue rentals, staffing, and restaurant and hotel use. The projected combined attendance for these three events in 2019 exceeds 25,000 participants. The City of Toronto has partnered with each event in the past, in varying ways. Elevate has been a beneficiary of City programs designed to support the development of the local technology sector and its entrepreneurs. A grant of $250,000 from the City of Toronto would support Elevate's 2019 festival and thereby its ongoing leadership in Toronto's fast-growing tech sector to the benefit of firms and workers alike. The 6 Degrees conference, and its organizers, the Institute of Canadian Citizenship, are key partners for the City of Toronto in advancing the concept of the 'diversity dividend'; that there is not only a moral but also an economic imperative to having diversity in organizational governance, management and workforce. In 2017 and 2018, the City of Toronto provided $100,000 in support as a Presenting Partner at 6 Degrees. A grant of $75,000 from the City of Toronto would maintain the significant momentum generated by the past two iterations of the 6 Degrees event and support a broad range of related diversity initiatives. The Ontario Economic Summit, delivered by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, is re-locating to Toronto from Niagara-on-the-Lake for its 2019 event. A grant of $50,000 towards the 2019 Ontario Economic Summit will enable the City of Toronto to help shape the agenda for this important forum addressing inclusive economic growth and shared prosperity. A total investment of $375,000 for these three significant events from the major Special Events Reserve Fund (MSERF) will help advance knowledge generation and public discussion on key issues facing the City of Toronto. A commitment of $375,000 from MSERF in 2019 is manageable from a financial perspective, as the uncommitted balance for MSERF expected at end of 2019 is $1,973,656. Annex A to this letter contains additional details regarding the three events and the benefits that they bring to the City of Toronto. In view of the significant events taking place in Toronto over late 2019 seeking partnership with the City.