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Toronto 2015… Global

City of the world

or in the world?

What can we say to make Toronto famous? What can we do to make Toronto relevant?

………………………………………..

An audacious and forward looking guide to the creative-strategic development of a competitive identity for the city ……………………………….......... Recommendations from Torontonians September 2010

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Executive Summary Consider this report as very nutritious food for thought and action. Toronto’s self concept and external image are blurred, lacks relevance and character. Its overall image is closely tied to the outdated and bland image of Canada; hence, we entertain the thought that Toronto must aim to become a bigger brand than Canada. A more effective partnership with Canada Tourism Commission and Toronto Tourism also needs to be established since CTC is frequently the loudest voice in communicating the country.

Toronto is obsessed with its own multi-ethnic mosaic and the cosmopolitan credibility it signifies. Little do we know that we are promoting an unacknowledged and vague attribute of diversity perceived of little value in the minds of people around the world. The story of Toronto urgently needs to advance relevantly.

We have teased out a budding reality of Toronto in which we believe is where Toronto’s true genius lies. Although there are many other global cities in the world, Toronto is a unique global city which also feels like a real global community at the same time. Our established and potent diversity has given birth to a new breed of Torontonians that have organically been socialized as inter-culturally competent and intrinsically global citizens. Unlike other global cities, Toronto is better rounded and truly signifies that it means a lot more to being a global city besides economic integration. A compact expression to guide meaningful actions to strengthen this critical truth is “Genuinely Global” The unique outcome of our diversity is what truly puts Toronto in a class of its own, not the diversity itself.

Young Torontonians feel and see themselves as global citizens and its beginning to grow as their overall identity. This is not a full truth for all Torontonians, but at the same time it is for many, especially amongst the younger generation. Now that we have recognized this emerging phenomenon, it is up to us to nourish and cultivate and accelerate it through a flow of “on brand” symbolic actions. We can’t afford to just say that we are a “genuinely global city”; but rather we have to deliberately prove it to the world. A reputation can only be earned.

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Why brand Toronto? pg.4

Previous failed attempt pg.5

Project description pg.6

What is Toronto? pg.7

“Torontoness of Toronto” pg.8

Perceptions pg.9

“Canada effect” pg.11

Has diversity/multiculturalism become lame? pg.13

Intercultural city pg.17

Toronto’s unique creativity and global actions pg18

Toronto’s unique “globalness” pg.21

Impending Brand Promise=“genuinely global” pg.22

Debunk diversity please pg.24

Stakeholder involvement pg.29

Conclusion pg.30

Conversation starters/actionable ideas pg.32

Appendices pg.49

Table of Content

Not mandatory to read: Some of many Ideas that exemplify the brand.

Toronto’s evolving brand essence.

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Why brand Toronto?

• Entices the city to entertain the big thought of what’s the highest and best it can be.

• Boosts economic prosperity. (Attracts more tourism, investment, talented immigrants, world events, etc).

• Aims to cultivate a productive and positive psychology for the entire city.

• Strong brands make it easier for people to make decisions, and makes it easier for the city to project international influence.

• Strong brands create powerful images in people’s minds.

• Strong brands enable for effective marketing. It helps form partnerships of the various stakeholders within the city in order to collaborate and align marketing strategies and communication programs.

Place branding has the positive effect of bringing together various stakeholders and working out a unified pitch for the world. Another great side effect of branding is that it’s also geared to deal with emotional issues and it can be used right now as a timely and potent subscription to the cities worsening self concept due to poor management at city hall, constant union strikes, weak transportation system, G20 drama, the recession, poor performing sport teams, and so forth. If Toronto integrates a cohesive, creative and appropriately courageous image strategy with its other programmes and policies, we believe Toronto can attain a stronger brand, in the global context sooner rather than much later. Toronto’s current situation makes branding activity more urgently required, not less. Please bear in mind: Place branding is not the same as commercial product branding! A city is tenfold more complex and dynamic than any product. A story or reputation can only be earned, not constructed. “Branding is about how we do things, why we do them, and how we act. It’s not just about a logo.”-Wolf Olins. In place branding, on brand “symbolic actions” as Simon Anholt calls it; speak louder than any logos, taglines, or communication campaigns in order to strengthen the image of a place in people’s minds on the world stage. We shouldn’t think of what to say next, but rather what to do next to make our story clearer, stronger and truer.

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Let’s take a gander at a previous failed attempt by the city… In 2004- Toronto Tourism, the City of Toronto, the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Recreation and the City Summit Alliance partnered on the Toronto Branding Project with the goal to create a shared Toronto brand that would communicate Toronto’s strong, unique, dynamic identity to the world. Brand Architecture, a New York firm was in charge of the project. Great research was conducted for the project and the promise that Toronto unlimited promised was “Realize your dreams in a city of unlimited possibilities”. After the launch of the brand in 2005, the brand was not well received and failed to take off. Needless to say, other than the useful research that came out of the project, it was a waste of money ($4 million), because now the brand is buried and not being used by any organization. The main reasons we discovered of why the brand failed are:

• The research and effort primarily focused on the tourism market and did not have a memorable or relevant meaning to local or international business interests.

• Focused on logo and tagline, not substance (logos, taglines, or campaigns don’t improve perceptions, only real change to the city does)

• Didn’t advance the story (by the way what does unlimited mean? Unlimited call plans, unlimited texting...?)

• Viewed the place branding approach the same as commercial product branding which is very different.

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Project Description

A great deal of inquiry, considerations, and thought went into formulating this report. The process to build the strategic competitive identity was a creative and highly inclusive one, public involvement and capitalization on feedback validated that the ideas developed were not myopic.

Toronto is a very complex city with unique circumstances; therefore, an original strategy was formulated, customized to its own unique situation and environment. We took the challenge to develop a single brand that would resonate with various target markets (tourism, investment attraction, business, talented immigrants, and so forth). Although it’s a daunting process, we were confident that we would be able to identify where Toronto’s real genius lays, its unique abilities and potential that really puts the city in a class of its own. We firmly believed that if we looked hard enough, we will find something that is uniquely ours, and inherently competitive.

We knew from our research what various target audiences were looking for, both in a travel destination, a place to invest and do business, and as well live in. What we needed was an authentic and compelling positioning, one that we could all agree on and be supportive of. The ideas and strategies in this report were shaped through a wide array of research that we had done and as well capitalized on the abundant research which Carl Knipfel at city of Toronto was kind enough to lend us.

We then synthesized and extracted useful insights from both the tangible and intangible data we collected and last but not least, used our imagination, creativity, and logic to develop an analysis and actionable recommendations that if taken, seem likely to us to bring the most ideal development of Toronto's competitive image on a global scale.

This report is meant to be open ended, and will be continuously updated. Please send any feedback, opinions or requests for a meeting to further discuss the report at brandtoronto@gmail.com or 416 893-2170. With gratitude and respect, Jyoti Singh www.jtsingh.com

City of Toronto 4500 local survey responses 230+ in-depth interviews and roundtable discussions 14 focus groups conducted in Canada, USA, and UK Our own research 100+ opinion leader interviews (A rundown of the people we met and the publications we examined during the course of things is given in the appendices). Social media-Facebook where hundreds of opinions were posted Exploration of Toronto (ethnography), thoroughly browsed through various touch points (writing, videos, reports, websites, brochures, etc) of Toronto.

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So briefly what is Toronto…? Linguistically, the word Toronto originated as the Mohawk phrase tkaronto and meant “where there are trees standing in the water” The most common meaning for Toronto given in current references is “place of meeting”, derived from the Huron people. Toronto is a relatively a young city, but it has rapidly become the economic capital of Canada.

An article in Spacing Magazine described Toronto as an

intersection of everything: of

architecture “cute Victorian next to glass high rises”, of people “Polish living next to Tamil next to Vietnamese next to Persian”, of classes “Saabs and rooming houses on the same block”, and even of flora “Southern coniferous and northern deciduous forests meet here too”.

“Torontonians live in a city where the beginning is forgotten and the end is unknown, and

so whatever happens can only surprise and surpass. Tremendous historic events do not resonate in its cement, glass, and brick. The city was not built upon sturdy founding mythologies, and only historians and enthusiasts know the names on its street signs, who designed the CN Tower, what the aboriginal word ‘Toronto’ means, or what any of the mysterious little discovery Walk signs that dot the city might refer to…Eric Rutherford Utopia

Toronto, with a self-consciousness and earnestness less common in more settled places, had decided to seize on this fact of post modern life to make itself something half-imagined. Paris and London and New York were all highly international, too, of course, but all of them, in their different ways, were too old, too amorphous, or too preoccupied with other matters to adjust very much to their latest immigrants; Toronto, by contrast, with less to lose and a less sharply defined sense of itself, had embarked upon a

multicultural experiment with itself a guinea pig. Pico Iyer- The Global

Soul

After Jane Jocobs completed her definitive autopsy of the modern city, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, in New York, it was Toronto that she decamped, to try to make her theories live (the local government encouraging her in her

efforts to devise a downtown of diversity in which has

allowed our downtown to be a

beautiful community feel.

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“Torontoness” of Toronto? When it comes to Toronto’s overall image, it’s key to understand that the soft factors of the city are usually

not so soft. Our approach firmly bears in mind that a ‘sense of place’ of Toronto and a sense of the mentality of Torontonians are imperative economic and social assets, and they are every bit as captivating as the cities (for instance) low tax rates or infrastructure and every bit as important to making commercial decisions.

Currently there isn’t any sense of “Torontoness.” It is unknown and it’s just not clear on what it is? As a result Torontonians are not good at being Torontonians. This may sound a little silly, but it has profound identity and marketing ramifications. Therefore it is our top priority to discovering and characterizing the best Torontoness of Toronto and making it legible, because we believe besides already being competitive in the hard factors, Toronto potentially can be most competitive in, where no competition in the world can beat us, is in purely being Torontonian. Another way of thinking about this is to ask the question: if Toronto is an ingredient, what does it add to the mix or what are the flavours of Torontoness? For example if you don’t know what eggplant taste like, you’ll never exclaim, “Wow! I love this soup! It’s full of

eggplant!”, if you can’t identify Torontoness, your ability to appreciate or value it will be impaired.

It’s critical that we characterize and strengthen the nature of Toronto as a whole because whether you are selling Toronto tourism, business, investment opportunities, real estate, or even Torontonian art, you are selling, in large part, the same Toronto overall.

“Those who deny the importance of soft power are like people who do not understand the power of seduction”-Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

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Perception of Toronto?

Research reveals that Toronto’s image on

the world stage is blurred. It lacks the

dimension and clarity of iconic cities such as Paris, New York or London, or even the singular clarity of a place like Las

Vegas. Absent a rich “storyline”, Toronto is perceived as simply another North American (Canadian) city among

outsiders, and a large and impersonal metropolis among Canadians.

To our only neighbour, the Americans;

we are perceived as part of ‘The Great White North’ viewed as comparable to

American Midwest cities, but not on par culturally with LA, NYC, or Chicago. Image of Toronto is driven by the image of Canada, i.e. nature and outdoors.

To Canadians, Toronto is viewed as the “Big Smoke” or gateway to nature. Politically, (the centre of the universe), it is also well known that Toronto is not a well liked city across Canada, especially in Montreal and Vancouver. The cause of this dislike varies. Overall, Toronto is viewed as an urban and cultural Mecca, but inferior in terms of outdoor activities amongst Canadians.

To Torontonians, its mixed reactions. It seems as though many love Toronto to pieces, but many also have a love-hate relationship with city which needs to change.

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“Toronto is unfolding before us, 'unfinished' and full of possibility”-Wendy Gold

“Toronto is yet to establish a clear and unique story”…

“People do not have a lot of

specific knowledge and associations with the city and “Toronto” doesn’t conjure many meaningful images.”

“Toronto is an undemonstrative, unassuming city unsure of how to represent itself, with no identifiable brand of metropolitanism”-Eric Rutherford

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“The Canada Effect” (Toronto’s image is intimately tied to that of the country)

In the eyes of the world, Canada's images remains largely what it was a century ago, namely, a resource economy. According to a study of Canada's international brand undertaken in 2000, contemporary elements –dynamism, innovation, technology, tolerance, competiveness, and multiculturalism-were conspicuously absent. Although Canada had a high “likability” factor around the world and positive values were attributed to the Canadian brand (“best place to live,” “tolerant,” “welcoming”), it had little presence, and few foreign audiences had any up to date knowledge about the country. A federal government review of all public opinion research on how Canada was perceived abroad concluded that Canada suffered from a chronic lack of profile, was regarded as a past player in world affairs, had solid though unspectacular products, had boring tourist attractions, and was not a top of mind destination for foreign investment.

The Globe and Mails Geoffrey York, writing in 2005 about Canada's image in China concluded that many Chinese believe that Canada is too sleepy and dull-a good place to live in retirement, but not a vibrant place to build wealth. Also an international poll conducted in 1997 by the Angus Reid research organization found that less than 1% of Germans and Japanese associated Canada with telecommunications or other technologically based products, while more than 50% associated Canada with lumber, pulp, paper and food. Furthermore, the CTC (Canadian Tourism Commission) market research indicates that the images most often associated with Canada are “cold, pristine, and natural”

Since tourism is frequently the loudest voice in communicating the country, this can over the years, have the effect of drowning out the economic, political, industrial and even cultural voices. This is precisely the reason why Canada’s nation brand is full of outdated associations which conflicts with other up-to-date elements. Canadian Tourism needs to

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understand that from the point of view of a busy consumer halfway across the world, the natural advantages of Canada are of little interest, and seldom add up to anything that could be described as a coherent or powerful brand. A more effective partnership with Tourism Toronto and CTC is urgently required to address this issue because there is nothing in urban Toronto that pertains to mountains, canoes, beavers or moose.

Research suggest that Toronto's image is intimately tied to Canada's; therefore, this is causing Toronto’s image to remain weak in terms of not being perceived as a dynamic, global, and knowledge economy city. We call this the “Canada effect” Although Canada has recently received positive attention on its strong banking system in the world, Canada has also received a great deal of negative international media attention for seal hunting and tar sand oil. Canada has simply not done enough in successful terms to promote itself as a modern and dynamic nation on the world stage which in turn is projected on to Canadian cities and organizations. An interview with Joe Martin, of Rotman School of Management, told us that when he had to attract business to Canada, he found that just mentioning Toronto sealed the deal, but if he mentioned Canada, it was a lot harder, so he learned to separate Toronto from Canada to get better results whenever necessary.

By and large:

We propose that Toronto must aim to become a BIGGER brand than Canada, for example, Paris is actually a bigger brand than its country, France or Amsterdam is bigger than the Netherlands. When people think about Canada, the first images that should come in mind are the dynamic global cities which are Vancouver, Montreal, and especially Toronto, rather than the mountains, arctic, or a moose. Toronto needs to at times separate itself from Canada's image, because “the Canada effect” certainly isn’t helping much for Toronto’s global reputation.

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Interesting Fact: Toronto cited a U.N. study to bill itself as the world's most

culturally diverse city. It was discovered later that no such

ranking by the United Nations even exists, and the

city soon removed all references to it in its

promotional literature.

So… what’s the deal with all this diversity, multiculturalism and mosaic talk always going on in this city…?

Nearly half (47%) of Torontonians were born outside Canada

border. While only Dubai and Miami may have a greater percentage of foreign born residents, the vast majority of them are from Latin America and the Caribbean in Miami and many are temporary workers or primarily come from a few sources of countries in Dubai, neither cities have the comprehensive, global spectrum of countries from which Toronto welcomes its new arrivals. “Neither Miami nor Los Angeles nor New York City can compete with Toronto’s cosmopolitan credentials.”-Richard Florida, The Great Reset

Some official Toronto slogans are: a world within a city, expect the world, and diversity our strength. Clearly, this is a city obsessed with its own multi-ethnic mosaic and the cosmopolitan credibility it signifies.

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The concept of diversity is intimately tied to the hearts Torontonians. They are very proud of

the fact, because they live and breathe the diversity every day. They firmly know that Toronto has the most potent diversity in the world and they see it as a very beautiful thing to the point it feels sentimental. In an aging city where about one fifth of locales are 60 or older, Toronto continues to depend on immigration to revitalize its workforce. The continuous flow of immigration also maintains the authentic vibrancy and cultural abundance which the city cherishes.

Moreover, Toronto does see diversity as a critical

driver of long term success. Toronto demonstrates active leadership at the level of the city government and at the level of NGOs and foundations. There is a very active agenda to

promote open-ness in the city which permeates city thinking and strategy and there is increasing attention to building the intermediate tier of organisations and projects needed to achieve inclusion. The city is also aware of research and work

done by Maytree foundation on showing the

business case for diversity and how diverse

leadership or organization enjoys quantifiable business benefits that homogeneous firms do not.

The Diverse city report by Maytree makes the definitive case that diverse leadership leads to:

• improved financial and organizational performance;

• increased capacity to link to new global and domestic markets;

• expanded access to global and domestic talent pools;

• enhanced innovation and creativity; and • Strengthened cohesion and social capital.

However! It must be said that regardless of

all these efforts of achieving inclusion: 47% of Torontonians are visible minorities, yet fill just 13% of the GTA’s leadership roles and Immigrants earn 85% of what Canadian born workers earn in spite of having higher levels of education; they also face barriers to career advancement. As a result there is a strange contradiction in the air.

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Also… heres the thing!

Research reveals that foreign audiences perceive little value of diversity because they may not think it’s unique

or see any symbolic relevance to it. Although Toronto’s diversity may be at a much higher degree, many other cities in the world are also very diverse. Since diversity is up for interpretation, there could be other contenders

too. London, NY, Paris, Los Angeles and a handful of other cities could also have a strong claim to be the world’s most diverse.

Table 1: Cities with 25% or more foreign born residents (by alphabetical order)

Toronto isn’t the

Amsterdam Auckland Brussels Dubai Frankfurt Hong Kong Jeddah Jerusalem London Los Angeles Medina Melbourne Miami Muscat New York

Perth Riyadh San Francisco San Jose Singapore Sydney Tbilisi Tel Aviv Toronto Vancouver

Toronto isn’t the only city that’s diverse. Even though our diversity is at a higher degree than other diverse cities, there has to be something else other than the diversity that truly puts us in a class of our own.

6 billion is a slight exaggeration, but the point is that for the most part, diversity isn’t perceived as a unique selling point.

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Wait there’s more…

Our model of multiculturalism that we take so much pride in has in many cases evolved into a phenomenon called:

Boutique multiculturalism is the multiculturalism of ethnic restaurants, weekend festivals, and high profile flirtations with the other. Boutique multiculturalism is characterized by its superficial or cosmetic relationship to the objects of its affection. Boutique multiculturalists admire or appreciate or enjoy or sympathize with or (at the very least) "recognize the legitimacy of" the traditions of cultures other than their own; but boutique multiculturalists will always stop short of approving other cultures at a point where some value at their center generates an act that offends against the canons of civilized decency as they have been either declared or assumed.-Stanley Fish, University of Chicago.

Although many Torontonians have excelled to the next level where they meaningfully thrive on the stimulation provided by knowing people and situations different from themselves, there are many Torontonians that stay within their ethnic bubbles or superficially feel they are engaging with other cultures when they really are just simply gazing. In other words,

our city has become somewhat clannish which is not a healthy thing for a city in times of a creative and collaboration driven-economy.

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All this goes to show that although Toronto may well be a thriving multicultural, ethnic mosaic of the sort Michael Adams' Unlikely Utopia proudly identifies, the design of it needs to be deliberately upgraded to make it meaningful and relevant in the eyes of the world. So what to do?

“The creative challenge is to move from the

multicultural city of fragmented differences to the co-created intercultural city that makes the very most of its diversity”.-Charles Landry

The story of our multiculturalism is already slowly and naturally evolving into an intercultural city which is amazing, but we need to accelerate the process. By intercultural we mean the

creative interactions of different cultures, disciplines and exchange of ideas. Toronto is uniquely poised to be a intercultural city which still allows each culture to

retain its integrity and flavour but also engages different cultures to the point where Torontonians can select and absorb elements of other cultures into their own cultural make-up and produce new ways of thinking, seeing, imagining and creating.

“Toronto has just been saying that we are diverse, but not behaving diverse” Nick Noorani of Immigrant Magazine

“We have to move beyond staging the celebrations of our global cultures; it should just be there, naturally all the time”

So now what?…

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There are many positive economic and social outcomes by evolving our stale model of multiculturalism to interculturalism. In a creative driven economy, Toronto can be home to a unique kind of creativity which isn’t predominant in other cities. Exposure to different cultures enhances our creativity. Five experiments by North westerns Adam Galinsky showed that those who have lived abroad outperform others on creativity tasks. Creativity is also higher on average for first- or second –generation immigrants and bilinguals. The theory is that cross-cultural experiences force people to adapt and be more flexible. Just studying another culture can help. In Galinskys lab, people were more creative after watching a slide about China: a 45 minute session increased creativity scores for a week. It turns out that being exposed to cultures that function differently from our own – from language to social customs to public transport – awakens the brain, alerting it to a much broader range of possibilities for being, living, and making. The beauty of it is that you don’t have to travel the world to experience the world, you can get it right here in Toronto, but Toronto does a poor job at leveraging this to its fullest potential.

“Toronto has succeeded at just about everything, except looking glamorous to itself; and by glamour I mean a cities attraction to its own uniqueness, moved by the conviction that there is a style of creativity that can only be done here. A city must believe this. We must believe this”-Pier Giorgio di Ciccio-Toronto Poet

Kudos to Toronto for earning the impressive “multicultural/diverse” status; however, that doesn’t

mean we should now rest. Our next advancing challenge is to earn the truly “intercultural” status.

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It’s difficult to prove that the comprehensive global community of Toronto plays a major role in enticing or sparking the many global thoughts and actions happening within our city every day and every minute; even so, we steadily believe it does play vital role. The following is a brief visual essay of some of the intercultural/globally mindful actions happening in this city all the time.

International banks (ICICI, Punjab bank, etc)

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So what does this all equate to??

“The background buzz of conversations in other languages had become so commonplace to me that it took me a while riding the tube in London before I realized that Toronto was far more diverse. Partly, it was the languages themselves (mostly European languages in London and languages from all over the world in Toronto) but it was more than that. In London, the different languages are always spoken by tourists. In Toronto, it’s almost always residents.”-Kevin Stolarick, Martin Prosperity

Institute.

Here comes the fundamental insight of this report. As it happens, Toronto is a considered a global city primarily based on the levels of integration to global markets, exchange of goods and services, movement of capital and finance, and etc. On the other hand,

Toronto has a qualitative global attribute which is remarkably unique compared to any other major

global cities. Toronto has a distinct global feel or vibe

or emotion about it in the air. In the midst of such a potent and comprehensive spectrum of global diversity combined with the innovative and unique propensity of retaining culture and openly celebrating it, it’s hard not to feel part of a real global community. It’s embedded within the DNA of Toronto.

“I’m a global citizen…I find it impossible for me to have any other identity being a Torontonian” Priscilla Garay-U of T student

For example, Seoul is ranked higher than Toronto in the Foreign Policy Global City ranking; however, you won’t feel any sense of a global community in that city, but rather feel very “Koreanish”, or Brussels and Paris which are also ranked higher than Toronto, you will surely feel very “Europeanish” in Brussels and very French in Paris, not to mention these 2 cities have increasingly become anti-immigrant. The same could be said about Hong Kong, Tokyo and even New York where you may fundamentally feel “Americanish,” not to mention its melting pot type of city.

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Impending brand promise of Toronto:

Experience a profound sense of a genuine global community where a special kind of creativity manifests. In a compact expression: Toronto is genuinely/intrinsically global. We add soul to the word global which is usually seen as a soulless word (global markets, global firms, etc) Toronto is global on the inside and out. So London is the capital of English culture, Paris of French culture, Sydney of Australian, New York of American culture, Madrid of Spanish, Amsterdam of Dutch culture, and so forth. Canada doesn’t have a culture or maybe it does but Toronto is just disconnected from it, so needless to say, Toronto is only poised to becoming the capital of global culture. If we take ownership of this now, we can begin building upon it and make it a proportionate truth in the near future.

We acknowledge that this is not a full truth for all

of Toronto or Torontonians as of yet, but there is a critical mass in this city that organically have attained a global mindset and are extremely interculturally competent. This is an evolving and

unique observable fact especially amongst the youth.

When David Suzuki was asked what his biggest pet peeve is; he answered people’s inability to consider the future. The truth of the matter is that the Global culture resonates especially with the younger generation because unlike the older generation, Gen Y-ers had the upbringing and socialization at a time when the global pluralism of Toronto was firmly established and potent. This has astronomically affected their character and world view and we have to fathom the fact that this is a very new global phenomenon rapidly taking place right here in our very own city. If we are to develop a sustainable or enduring brand, we must take in consideration the reality of today’s youth.

“Could Toronto become the 1st city to truly embrace the world’s global citizens? That would be cool”-Richard Florida

“What is a city, but the people” William Shakespeare

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Also keep in mind that Young Torontonians have grown up among intense globalization in a digitally connected age, and they have the propensity to travel more meaningfully

and intimately explore foreign cultures; they swim in a global pool and it’s only going to continue to expand in the future to come. Here are a few

ways to describe the evolving mentality of young Torontonians; they may sound poetic or even happy-clappy to some, but it’s a serious and hyper valuable happening if leveraged.

• Global Soul-A person that always can make the collection of his selves something greater than the whole; that diversity can leave him not a dissonance but a higher symphony. Pico Iyer

• Xenophile-A person attracted to that which is foreign, especially to foreign peoples, manners, or

cultures. • TCK-Third culture kids grow up in a genuinely cross-cultural world. Third culture kids have incorporated

different cultures on the deepest level, as to have several cultures incorporated into their thought processes. This means that third culture kids not only have deep cultural access to at least two cultures, this also means that thought processes are truly multicultural. That, in turn, influences how third culture kids relate to the world around them. They usually find it difficult to answer the question, "Where are you

‘People think that businesses make decisions about where to locate on purely rational grounds, but at some level there’s quite an emotional pull. The places that manage to suggest they have these qualities (cool, glamorous, sexy) often win out even though maybe their taxes are little bit higher or their transport doesn’t quite work. It’s that kind of magic fairy dust that some places manage to sprinkle over themselves and some just don’t.’ Alain de Botton, Author of The Art of Travel

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from?" Compared to their peers who have lived their entire lives in a single culture, TCKs have a globalized culture.

• My country is the world, and my religion is to do good. • Global Citizenship is... A way of understanding… how the world works; links between our own lives and

those of people throughout the world. A way of seeing… social justice & equity; other people’s reality; diversity; interconnectedness; the way that people can make a difference. A way of acting… exercising political rights; critical thinking; challenging injustice.

Not those words please…

We believe there is a fundamental opportunity in taking charge of our language, as well as in attempting to influence the language that others (the press) use to speak about Toronto. We as all the stakeholders (citizens, Gov, business, NGO) of the city must try to minimize the way we currently describe our city (diversity, multiculturalism, mosaic, and tapestry) which we showed on pg.15 on how vague and unacknowledged these concepts actually are largely amongst foreign audiences. “Our current motto “Diversity our Strength” does not play up enough the global nature of our relationships and is very inward looking”-Ratna Omidvar. The word diversity

sounds very “policyish” because it has traditionally been branded as a “human resources” term, associated with fair hiring practices or enhancing an organization’s image as a good citizen. “Diversity our strength” is great as an internal motto for the city perhaps, but externally it needs to be refreshed regardless of how habitual the term has become for us all. Here is a just quick little brainstorm of different ways to describe our true and evolving essence of Toronto (Genuinely Global) Culturally intersectional/ global crossroad/global renaissance/ /Born in Toronto, raised by the world/creative for the world/ when in Toronto, do as the world does / Culturally abundant/ global+creative=Toronto state of mind /the world is not a boring place/global class, and yadi yadi yada, the possibilities are limitless.

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The New Global mindset Driving Innovation through diverse perspectives Ernst & Young produced a land mark report which reveals that differing voices and viewpoints are powerful factors in steering innovation.

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“The purpose of conscious brand is to teach an organization how to be itself in all ways and at all times”-Simon Anholt As much as Toronto is attached to the fruitless and ineffective term of ‘diversity’, we need to graduate it to the next level (interculturalism). We propose that “Genuinely Global” is the most excellent expression to guide gainful actions in order to strengthen Toronto’s reputation. Genuinely global conveys that our city is well-rounded, advanced, open, and most importantly of all it allows us to truly be ourselves at all times and promotes a positive and purposive psychology for the city as a whole.

This positioning doesn’t have to be worded exactly as “genuinely global” As long as we get the point that the aim is to make Toronto to be known as a deeply well-rounded, wholesome, and intrinsic global city. With further “wisdom of the crowds” we can fine tune the wording if necessary.

We strongly believe that this positioning fulfills the criteria for a strong and visionary brand:

Truthful: Its corresponding with reality and citizens can live and breathe the brand

Complex yet clear: It doesn’t reduce the complexity and dynamism of the city

Authentic: It is real; it can be seen, felt, heard, and experienced.

Enduring: It is here to stay and grow sustainably

Defensible: It’s back up-able with legible proof points or evidence.

Relevance: Contributes advantageous value economically and socially, and to global conversations

Realistic: Setting expectations that can be met or exceeded

Unique: Not generally predominant in other cities

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Advancing: It evolves the story and advances it gradually increasing richness and strength

Global reach: Thinks and acts both locally and globally

Caution!: We have to be careful not to sway the Genuinely Global positioning to connote a kumbaya type of image or a page out of a Unicef brochure. (Not to say that Unicef isn’t cool because it

does amazing work) But we are aiming for something more appealing. Genuinely Global is meant to connote: imagination, globality, smartness, cutting edge, and creativity for the world.

By definition, the term “glocal” refers to the individual, group, division, unit, organization, and community which are willing and able to “think globally and act locally.”

Local

Genuinely global and creative

Diversity, ok so what?

Glocal

Current

Future

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Torontonian aka Global Citizen

Canadians understandably regard “brain drain” as bad and “brain gain” as good. But global mobility has ushered in an era of “brain chain” We need understand that people will move around the world and come back and forth to Toronto adding a more valuable and global contribution to our city.

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Business

NGOs

Citizens

Government

Bringing the brand to Life

It’s essential that key stakeholders come together in partnership and collectively believe in the brand, (Government, business, NGO, and most importantly each and every citizen). This is the only way to make a place brand strategy come fully alive. What is required is a partnership where all of the key stakeholders regard each other as equals, regardless of their power or resources and where their individual contributions are valued because, without them, Toronto will not realize its full potential. This is the kind of informal and formal body in which key stakeholders jointly develop, create and lead on the implementation of the city branding, under shared responsibility. As the brand is taking shape, new and different partners will emerge to play a vital role in its realization. A brand partnership should not be as an (old boys club) or the (usual suspects) of the city’s establishment, but a body that responds to change by changing and reinventing itself.

The creation of a Brand Toronto Council is most mandatory. It will be charged to implement a holistic approach which will facilitate the implementation of “on brand” symbolic action and coordinate the marketing efforts of all Toronto businesses, artists, musicians, actors, sportspeople, designers and more, leverage off each other, under a unified Toronto brand. The council will consist of relevant members who are passionate, imaginative, forward looking and at the same time, can become powerful champions or advocates of the brand. A talented Brand Toronto Council along with supportive affiliates is bound for a successful brand Toronto.

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Conclusion

Our firm understanding is that citizens of any place want to feel proud of where they come from and live, they want their city or country to matter. The identities of the places we reside in are really a seamless extension of the identity and self concept of ourselves; it is a natural human tendency for people to identify themselves with their city. Unfortunately Toronto is lacking in this department. We have identified that Toronto’s self concept and international image is a burning platform. One way of looking at it is that Toronto is a teenager that doesn’t know what it wants to be when it grows up, and this report acts as a timely and powerful mentor that helps discover Toronto’s true passion and strengths; needless to say, finding your passion changes everything. We also urge Canada to step up and address the weak nation brand it currently carries as we identify in this report. We agree with Daryl Copeland’s proposal for developing a brand strategy for Canada informed not by the beauty of our nature, but rather by the nature of our beauty.

The “genuinely global” theme resonates with not only the leaders of today but more importantly by the leaders of tomorrow. The intercultural movement and other globally symbolic actions will make our “genuine globalness” more attractive and truer. If Toronto integrates a cohesive, creative and appropriately courageous image strategy with its other programmes and policies, we believe Toronto can attain a stronger brand, in the global context sooner rather than much later. This is a long term game and it’s going to take everyone in this city to play role in

making Toronto the highest and best it can be within our lifetimes and beyond. "Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody." — Jane Jacobs

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“Toronto has a very good opportunity to become an urban-innovation hot spot,” says Kaplan founder of Innovation Factory. “It has an active creative class. And there’s a vibrant conversation about social change that you hear everywhere in the city.

“Groups quickly come together in Toronto to discuss challenges,” Kaplan adds. “And those groups, in turn, form networks to tackle every kind of social challenge. That is a double blessing. Citizens make a success of the project they’ve rallied around. And that success attracts talent, money and other resources to take on still more challenges.”-Toronto Star

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The portfolio of ideas that follow doesn’t exactly constitute a grand strategy for bringing about Toronto’s brand as a “genuinely global city”, but rather it is an attempt to spark experimentation with multiple creative approaches that can be rapidly prototyped, tested, and communicated as part of a more definitive city strategy. These ideas act as brief conversation starters and should entail implementation by various groups who feel that the ideas fit their mandate, or citizens who have the drive can also step up and help put the ideas into practice. Please share your own ideas as well to lend a hand in making Toronto the best and highest it can be. Overall, the actions should play a role in creating symbolic evidences and proving that we are the genuinely global and creative city of the world.

1. Your idea:pg33 10. UN Global Culture University:pg40 2. Behave like the capital city of Canada:pg33 11. Improve Transportation:pg41 3. Harness the power of non-state actors:pg34 12. Capitalize on Strong Banks:pg42

4. Exclusive Toronto Cuisine:pg34 13. City Hall = City Lab:pg42 5. Ambiance Neighbourhoods: pg36 14. Collaborate IPA’s:pg43 6. Foster global culture/inter-culturalism:pg37 15. Rethink Tourism:pg.45 7. Grand Event where we can feel one:pg38 16. Creative Toronto all over:pg47 8. T-shirt campaign:pg39 17. Create a global leaders award:pg48 9. Make winter awesome:pg40

The adage ‘fake it till you make it ’ contains a powerful truth, but only works if something is actually being made; one can ’t just fake it. Things must be built and done; policies must be changed; action must be taken. -Jeremy Hildreth

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1. What’s your actionable idea or conversation starter? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

2. Behave more like the capital city of Canada rather than of Ontario’s

“Cities are the real magnets of economies, the innovators of politics, and, increasingly, the drivers of diplomacy. Those that aren’t capitals act like they are.”-Parag Khanna. There is no doubt that although Toronto isn’t the capital city of Canada, it sure does seem like it is. Most people that know of any Canadian cities may think that either Toronto or even Montreal is the capital of Canada, and would never guess that in fact Ottawa is. Despite what people think of the G20 being hosted in Toronto; it was a very positive thing for the city. The G20 is a good start in giving Toronto international significance, and much more globally recognized forums/conversations should take place in Toronto. For example, Daryl Copeland-author of Guerrilla Diplomacy agrees that Toronto has the potential to be a co-host city for United Nations events since we are situated very close to the head quarters in NY and also in the same time zones. Toronto as a global city needs to show deliberate influence and interest in playing a role far beyond its municipal borders.

Perhaps Toronto would be able to participate more in the global conversation if the city had more means to control its own destiny. Alan Broadbent identifies this in his book ‘Urban Nation’ why we need to give power back to the cities to make Canada strong. “Cities have the governance sovereignty of small

“The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.” -Socrates

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children in patriarchal family. It is time, says Broadbent that Canada woke up and stopped starving the geese that are laying the golden eggs.”-Michael Adams

3. Harnessing the power of non-state actors

Shamin Mohamed was only 15 and living in the Jane-Finch area of Toronto when he founded a charity aimed at raising youth awareness of HIV and AIDS in Canada and abroad. Jenna Hoyt, who is completing a nursing degree at the University of Toronto, was in her early 20s when she started the Little Voice Foundation, which helps African communities operate schools and housing for homeless children. Mohamed and Hoyt are just two of the growing number of Canadian youths trying to make a difference in the world and in their own communities at home. Wanting to help others overseas or in Canada is nothing new. Toronto is home to some the most active and creative diasporas and global citizens in the world.

Social innovation is rapidly rising in Toronto; this is evident by how busy the social innovation department (SIG) at Mars stays, and the Social Innovation Centre in downtown was so successful that it has opened another whole new building dedicated to social innovators. When we asked Dr John R. Evans-Emeritus of Mars, what do you think Toronto can be a leader in on a global scale? He thought for a while and firmly answered “social innovation, there should be more SIG’s all over the city.” 4. Exclusive Toronto Cuisine

a) Food is a powerful element of all cultures, and with Toronto being full of various cultures, a unique cuisine that is local to Toronto would accentuate our identity. We already do it in some ways in our homes where we combine different ingredients inspired by different cultures and create our unique fusion dishes in our homes. A good example of a region that has done this is “California cuisine” which is a fusion of local foods infused with primarily Asian flavours. California cuisine is now well known and raved about all over the world. Creatively establishing a several invented and tasty recipes that reflect the diverse flavours of

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Toronto would make a statement of our cultures intermingling and as well inspire more locals to do some of their own infusing.

b) When you go to certain parts of the world, you will discover that the McDonalds or Subway restaurant menus may have different offering to reflect the local culture. With Toronto being so culturally abundant, it would make a strong statement if these chains began offering food that reflects our various local cultures. Such as the McDonalds maharaja burger or Subways chicken tikka sub both from India to cater to the large South Asian demographic in Toronto and many others that love Indian flavors. In eastern Canada, you can exclusively find lobster sandwiches at McDonalds which reflect the regions unique culture and flavors, so why can’t Toronto have unique options?

A step in the right direction has been to allow more ethnic street food vendors in Toronto, oppose to just having hotdogs.

Also a report by Perry Caicco of CIBC World Markets reveals that over the next decade, up to 70 per cent of retail sales growth in Canada will likely come from “visible minorities,” who prefer brands and flavors that they recognize from home. Therefore, mainstream businesses must adapt to our changing consumerism.

Korean food meets Mexican-Korean tacos

California cuisine-Asian flavors fusion with California flavors

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5. Create an enhanced ambiance for our neighbourhoods

The true meaning of “global class” can be found along the walks in our Neighborhoods. Very few cities in the world bring so many diverse cultures, festivals, and businesses together in a single place. These neighborhoods include: Greek town, little India, little Italy, little Jamaica, Korea town, Kensington, Portugal Village, China Town, Yorkville and so on. The only thing is that some of these neighborhoods don’t do justice for the type of area they are known for. For example, other than the signage’s of Italian restaurants and other small street signs, there is minimal evidence that you are in little Italy. We spoke to some people walking in little India, and they all mentioned that they felt as though they were walking down an average street. Let’s make every cultural neighborhood in the downtown area full of ambiance, just like China town does. China towns across the world including Toronto’s are great at creating an authentic feel with the complete sensory experience. They include community markers, art work, architecture, sounds, smell, and etc. With the collaboration with artists, the city, and local businesses, this can be easily achieved, and in fact many leaders in these neighborhoods expressed concern about this issue, so they are ready to take action.

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6. Foster global culture/ interculturalism

a) In Singapore, they have posters with an attractive young woman, and if you pay more attention to the poster, she has a tattoo in the shape of the double helix of DNA enriched on her upper arm. In smaller print the poster reads “Got a passion for science, we will take it to a higher level”. Singapore understands how to make science sexy and appealing and Toronto needs to also be creative in coaxing or encouraging Torontonians to interact with other cultures meaningfully. By promoting and harnessing global behaviour, we can produce a special kind of creativity in this city.

b) The practice of taking a 'Gap Year' is relatively minimal in Canada as compared to other countries where it is customary for youth to travel abroad and cultural exchange as a useful tool to create global understanding and experience before entering college or university. This is causing many young Torontonians to not experience the world and develop a well-rounded world view. Toronto youth need to be educated early on about this

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and be encouraged to save money for a gap year after high school. Inspired by Adil Dhalla of My City Lives

c) Interest in learning different languages in Toronto is rapidly rising. I don’t know any person in Toronto that can even formulate a sentence in French, probably because we are more interested in learning other languages like Arabic, Mandarin and etc. Schools need to upgrade their language programs at the earliest levels of education. Rosetta Stone is an amazing language program which makes learning easy and fun and should be a standard software in every school computer. In a globalized world, every Torontonian should be able to naturally speak 3 or more languages. Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd earned plaudits for his fluency in Mandarin, there’s no reason Toronto politicians or anyone shouldn’t be able to do the same living in such a global city as Toronto.

7. An event that we all can participate in and feel one

A flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, and then disperse. The concept of flash mob was taken to the next level when more than 20,000 people pulled off a massive surprise for an unsuspecting Oprah on her 2010 season

starter show in Chicago. The entire crowd performed a choreographed piece to the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling," Award-winning director Michael Gracey says the interaction between the Black Eyed Peas and the crowd is what made the flash mob so extraordinary."There's something really special when you take an audience and instead of just being passive and watching, you invite them to participate, it becomes magical for both parties. Two groups of people came together to create something that neither of them could have done alone. A mass flash mob event is an extraordinary way that

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Torontonians can participate and feel one. The event will only get bigger every year and it can happen on Toronto’s birthday, or whenever. A great song to do it to for the first time would be Jai ho, from slum dog millionaire, after all this film was discovered at TIFF. Inspired by Mark Sarner of Manifest Communications

8. Enhance identity through t-shirts.

People love to wear t-shirts with catchy and clever lines. T-shirts can also be a great way to show-off your Torontonian pride. Citizens can customize

their own shirts, and print anything that resonates with them along with the acronym T.O. For example, the lines “creative for the world T.O.” or “Support your local artists T.O.” or “Earth is my turf T.O.”, and etc. The possibilities are endless. Inspired by Tonya Surman, Director of Social Innovation Centre

9. Make winter awesome

One thing that almost every Torontonian dislikes is the blistering winter weather. The winter blues seem to kick in, and the bonanza of festivals and fun things to do during the summer suddenly disappear when winter arrives. This doesn’t have to be the case. The city has Wintercity festival for a couple of weeks, but

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that’s about it, and needless to mention, it’s not that appealing. The city can be an innovator in extending the summer fun through winter as well. For example, the number one tourist attraction in Sweden in an ice hotel and Quebec City has also now created something similar. An ice hotels, bar, or restaurants would be a great addition to Toronto’s winter which would not only spice up winter for locals, but as well attract tourists during the winter season. Another great example of winter fun that Toronto can learn from is in

Ottawa, which is transformed into a winter wonderland. Snowflake Kingdom is a park that hosts the continent's largest snow playground, complete with 30 giant snow slides, ice-carving contests and magnificent ice exhibits. These are just a couple of ideas, but with creativity and imagination, Toronto can make the city not only enjoyable for locals and tourists during the summer, but also during winter.

10. Establish a UN Global Culture University

The International Centre of UPEACE in Toronto ceased its activities on November 28th 2006. After a

successful 15 month period delivering programs in peace education, the Toronto Centre of the University for Peace closed its doors. While the Centre was generously supported by the Government of Canada through the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation during this time, it was unable to secure the further financing required to continue its operations. This was an embarrassment because needless to say, Toronto is an ideal location to situate such an institution yet while we finally got it; it was later relocated to Costo Rica. We need to have another go at this with better management and approach. The waterfront area is an ideal place to situate a world renowned UN university specializing in global matters such as development, public diplomacy, Diaspora, culture and etc.

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11. Improve Transportation dramatically

Korean international student-“TTC sucks in this city, in Seoul Korea is so much better, I miss it”

Me- Really it’s better there?

Korean International student: Way better, the subway can’t be bad, because many people start complaining angrily right away.

Me-“but a lot of people complain here as well”

International student-“Yah, but they take complaint seriously in Korea and fix it right away”

Urban transportation is the space race of the 21st century. The city that cracks the commuter nightmare of traffic congestion and pollution will steal a march on cities competing for business and tourism. It takes a commuter an average of 80 minutes to get to work in Toronto, according to a global study.

This city must break the log jam on transportation. The average commuter in Toronto requires more time to get to work than the average commuter in Los Angeles, New York or London, England. An OECD study says congestion is costing $3.3 billion in lost productivity.

“There have been lots of announcements. If announcements were streetcars, they would stretch all the way to Montreal. This is a burning platform, this is an urgent situation. Fifty years ago, the Alaskan Highway was built in the dead of winter. It was 2,450 km in length. Thirteen kilometres were built every day, 133 bridges were constructed and thousands of culverts. It was finished in eight months. It can be done! Yonge Street holds the Guinness Record for the longest street in the world. The Caribana Festival holds the record for the longest festival parade in the world. I suspect

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the Don Valley Parkway holds the record for the biggest paved parking lot in the world.”-Frank McKenna

12. Creatively capitalize on the current good rep of Canadian banks

Canadian banks were ranked the soundest in the world two years in a row by the World Economic Forum. The big four banks of Canada which are all headquartered in Toronto have been getting great recognition on a global scale due to performing better than most other financial institutions in the world during the recession. A world renowned institute for risk taking is in process of being constructed in Toronto which will be symbolic and enhance the prestige of our financial sector. More of these symbolic actions need to be established in a creative way for the world to firmly recognize the strength of Toronto’s financial sphere for years to come.

13. Do something about boring city hall. For those who have ever been to city hall, know that you instantaneously get a feeling of dullness and boredom as soon as you step foot into it. When you speak with people that work at city hall, you can almost sense that they speak with a vibe of limitation and unimaginativeness. Most of the people that run our city are senior white guys who have a huge generation gap between the youth and not to mention lack diverse perspectives. City hall clearly needs an internal culture change, and the environment needs to be rejuvenated where creativity and fresh ideas can flourish. Physically, city hall is a temple to rigid and predictable method of working. Uncreative or ineffective ideas are bound to be created in this kind of environment. The following ideas need consideration: a) Lets completely rebrand City Hall and call it City Lab. This will emphasize that the cities job is to formulate creative and sound policies instead of the bland and unimaginative ones they create majority of the time.

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b) City hall must open up to a host of new concepts of interior design, furniture, and workflow that enable idea generation, development, prototyping, testing, and deployment. The space at city hall needs to expand the mental boundaries that balance openness with intension.

14. Foster collaboration between GTA IPA’s (Investment promotion agencies) for a regional approach

One thing is certain, many European and North American cities have recognized that to be competitive in the global marketplace, they have to organize and act as a wider metropolitan or sub-regional level when it comes to investment attraction and retainment. Knowing this, we have come to firmly realize that Toronto must establish a single regional focused IPA (investment promotion agency) Regional economic cooperation is a concept that is being increasingly embraced by metropolitan areas around the world who are seeking a competitive edge in the race to retain and attract business.

From a business perspective, urban centres, and its surrounding municipalities are seen as a cohesive whole, municipal boundaries are a small consideration, if at all. Businesses locate in an economic region in order to serve the entire economic region (and in many instances, beyond)

At present investment promotion within the Toronto region is fragmented and under funded with activities often being duplicated by multiple municipalities or organizations. This lack of centralization creates disjointed information for investors who are looking for invisible municipal boundaries and local governments who work together seamlessly. The absence of a unified Toronto region IPA is hurting our ability to compete globally. As a result, the perspectives of the business operating within an urban centre tend to be regional, while governance structures tend to be local. This disconnect between the realities of the marketplace and of government can be an impediment to a region realizing its full economic potential. Fragmented governance structures can make it difficult for businesses to operate efficiently, which has a detrimental impact on economic growth and job creation. To be successful in attracting investment, these IPAs need to have the same perspective as the investors they are wooing. Not surprisingly, the most successful jurisdictions in attracting investment are the ones with a regional IPA.

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According to a recent IBM report on global location trends, three cities with strong IPAs for their region – London, Singapore, and Paris – are the top three cities in the world for attracting investment dollars. These 3 cities all follow regional, singular investment models in order to attract FDI. According to the same report, Toronto unfortunately, does not make the list of the top 20 cities in the world in attracting FDI.

Many of the economic development departments and/or agencies in the GTA municipalities undertake investment promotion activities. The most prominent example is Invest Toronto, the New IPA for the City of Toronto. While the economic enhancement goals of Invest Toronto are certainly laudable and necessary as Toronto seeks to recover from the global economic crisis, its structure (in that it is only structured to attract investment into the city of Toronto) does not recognize the role of Toronto as a key player within a regional system, or the realities of the marketplace for the investors it is seeking to attract. There are also a number of non- -governmental organizations that engage in investment promotion activities which is another indication that multiple actors are speaking for the Toronto region on the International stage. “In principle, things work much better if a single regional IPA is responsible for all the communications activity. It is rather wasteful if they are all firing off incompatible messages and promoting different images of the region; hence, confusing investors.”-Simon Anholt

“A better solution is for all these agencies to truly collaborate (very different than cooperate!)” -John Jung former president of GTMAThe GTA is a very large geo-political organism which first needs to work out their collaborative

strategies and mechanisms. A well developed ability to create and sustain fruitful collaborations gives the Toronto region a significant competitive leg up. These agencies need to learn how to actively collaborate by developing mechanisms-structures, processes and skills – for bridging organizational and interpersonal differences and achieving real value from the partnership. Multiple ties at multiple levels ensure communication, coordination and control. This is not the first time anyone has thought about this, in fact there was a GTA summit last year where dialogue was established but very little action after the fact. With the current recession, let’s not further delay positive change.

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Toronto must be the master brand of the region, since it is the foremost anchor. Simon Anholt a policy advisor in London has a term he calls “Box of chocolate brand architecture” We recommend that the brand on the outside of the box is Toronto and since familiarity is low for Toronto already and zero for the surrounding municipalities, we should definitely market the box, not the individual chocolates. When Toronto gets interest from investors, we can then open the box and introduce the individual chocolates, each one is distinctive, with its own appearances and flavors but bearing a strong family resemblance and a clear connection to each other and to the brand on the box. For example, if an investor wants to invest in an industrial sector, he may pick up the Brampton or Durham chocolates, or if he wanted to start a biotech company he may choose Toronto, Mississauga, or Markham. It depends on the investor’s criteria and choice, but the important thing to keep in mind, is that Toronto is the anchor, and wherever the business situates, the whole region benefits as a whole.

15. Rethink Tourism

a) The future of Tourism is being influenced by the rise of the experience economy. This can take many forms, such as travelling to learn another language, to lean an instrument, to experience different cultures, to pursue an interest or hobby such as rock climbing or scuba diving. In other words the experience has become the object of the holiday, not just relaxation or sightseeing. Fulfilment comes from involvement, understanding and self improvement – returning home a more knowledgeable, spiritually refreshed, or more experienced person. This reflects the progression through Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and the level of self actualization is where people are increasingly seeking fulfilment through travel.

Vaughan

Markham

Mississauga

Stop marketing all the individual municipalities! Toronto should be the only anchor to attract investment for the region!

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The more a destination can engage with potential visitors on an emotional level, as somewhere that promises to fulfill this demand for a fulfilling experience, the more chance it has of attracting the growing number of people, particularly in developing countries, who see the type of holiday they take as an expression of their personality. This means telling a story about the destination, which strikes an emotional chord with potential visitors and stays with them. Being warm, sunny, and naturally beautiful is no longer enough. Destinations have to express their personality and convey a sense of soul, heart and spirit that engages visitors in order to avoid being viewed as another (me too) destination. The brand story that it tells, is passed on by satisfied visitors to other prospects, and eventually becomes a powerful agent for widespread social marketing effects.

Tourism Toronto is the official destination-marketing organization for Toronto’s tourism industry. This organization does an excellent job, and the fact that it is the sole organ that does, makes it all that more effective. Toronto Tourism had great aspirations for the Toronto Branding project in 2005 (Toronto Unlimited), and invested 2million in the 4 million project. But unfortunately, it didn’t succeed, and as a result, left Toronto Tourism without a foundation to run with. The genuinely global positioning this report proposes gives Toronto tourism a style or theme to run with. Instead simply promoting Toronto as just another North American city, we can now present Toronto as a global city of the world where travelers can meaningfully experience our distinct global culture. (The symbolic actions this report proposes first need to be implemented for this experience to be strong for tourists.

b) Lets promote domestic tourism. Research suggests that Torontonians have largely not discovered their own city yet. This lack of knowledge of all the things to do and see in the city leads to weak perceptions of our own city and we begin to think it is a boring place. Toronto Tourism publishes an amazing and insightful magazine which is distributed only in hotel rooms; if that same magazine can also be available for Torontonians, it will allow Torontonians to be more aware and appreciative of the offerings in the city.

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16. Productive creativity throughout every community in Toronto

A study was done by the Centre for Urban and Community Studies, "The Three Cities within Toronto: Income Polarization among Toronto Neighbourhoods, 1970-2000. The study shows how, from 1970 to 2000, our city of neighbourhoods has been transformed into three separate cities, defined by their economic differences. Although Toronto is a thriving city with an abundance of world cultures, it is one where ethnic diversity is overlaid by growing class division. Richard Florida of U of T explains that the key task of our time is to build new institutions to spread the gains of the creative economy. If not, it will continue to concentrate those gains geographically and socially. Action required to overcome that class divide and build a more cohesive and shared creative economy. We need to make sure all Torontonians can use their creative capabilities and as such contribute even more fully to economic growth. No Torontonian should be left behind when it come to fostering the creative energy.

“Highly creative adults frequently grew up with hardship. Hardship by itself doesn’t lead to creativity, but it does force kids to become more flexible—and flexibility helps with creativity.”-Newsweek Article

a) Far too many inner city youth are spending their time doing unproductive things due to a lack of creative facilitation which downtown T.O. neighbourhoods are fortunate to have. Creative and inspirational spaces a needed for them. Everybody wants to go to a dream space or third space which is neither home nor office (where one works) Cafes are one example of such a space, but Starbucks don’t exist in many neighbourhoods and it’s kind of a stigma for urban youths to go there anyway. When one wants to dream, write poetry, forment a revolution, brainstorm, one goes to a café. A space is needed where all kinds of diverse elements are at play (other people, internet, instruments, books, music, sports, ambience, the world beyond the windows-to help inspire your ideas and dreams, and etc). The interplay of personal and public space, combined with a sense that anything can happen, makes such places a great place for innovation to happen.

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Community places are the perfect place for such creative spaces, and to increase accessibility they should be standard pretty much everywhere: condos, open schools (afterschool hours), libraries, and even mobile truck containers. These third spaces are not expensive because the environment is similar to a start-up, where most things are used and messy, and people can donate their own things and it is a continuous improvement process. It inevitably involves trial and error-there are just so many imponderables. Above all, these dream spaces should represent freedom for those who go there; kind of like to a jazz club for ideas, a place where participants can breathe.

b) Create an online magazine for creative’s educating them on how to make their ideas happen; an avenue where they can read the stories of other local success stories who went through the rough to become who they are today. For example, Dwight Drummond, a well know local journalist can share his insights to how he became successful despite growing up on Jane Finch, or how Knaan persevered to make his creative pursuits come alive although he grew up in a rough neighbourhood in Rexdale, and there are many other great stories that need to be shared with creative’s in the rough in order to inspire them to make their ideas become a reality.

17. Create a global leaders award

This will be a globally recognized and respected award. Other than local global leaders, global citizens will be invited from all over the world along with international jury members. Toronto will be the primary city that honours great global beings. For example Apple’s brand honours those who think differently and Nike brand honours great athletes.

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Appendices

Resources and bibliography: People and paper

People

Many people across the region shared their insights and perspectives with us. We spoke to artists, philosophers, writers, homeless person, students, politicians, business leaders, professors, NGOS’s, basically anyone that lives in the city. This is a list as we are able to compose; however there are many more that are unknown ordinary citizens that provided valuable insights, many thanks to all.

In alphabetical order:

• Adam Giambrone, Chair, TTC

• Adil Dhalla, Co-Founder, My City Lives

• Alan Broadbent, CEO, Avana Capital Corp

• Anne M. Sado, President, George Brown College

• Alana-Mars, Signeration

• Brian Zeiler-Kligman, Director of Policy, BOT

• Carl Knipfel, Manager of Marketing, City of Toronto

• Daryl Copeland, Diplomat, DFAIT

• David Crombie, past Toronto Mayor

• David Macfarlane, writer

• Dr. John R. Evans, Chair Emeritus, Mars

• Dr. Greg Baeker, President, Authenticity

• Fraser Mann, Partner, Miller Thompson and Associates

• Glen Murray, MPP, City of Toronto

• George Stroumboulopoulos, TV show host, CBC

• James B. Milway, Executive Director, Institute for Competiveness and Prosperity

• Jamil Mardukhi, Design Engineer of CN Tower

• Janet L. Ecker, President, TFSA

• Jean-Marc Hachey, Author, The Big Book on Living and Working Overseas

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• Jeannette Hanna, Vice President, Trajectory

• Jian Gomeshi, Radio show host, CBC Q

• Jo-Ann Davis, President, Canadian International Council

• Joe Martin, Director of Canadian Business History, U of T

• Joe Mihevic, City Councilor, City of Toronto

• Joel Peters, Senior Vice President, Toronto Tourism

• John Monahan, Executive Director, Mosaic Institute

• Josh Hjartarson, Policy Director, The Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation

• Julia Deans, CEO, Toronto City Summit Alliance

• Kam Rathee, Special Advisor, Blakes

• Kathy, Researcher, Diversity Institute Ryerson

• Kevin Stolarick, Associate Director, Martin Prosperity Institute

• Lorna Jean Edmonds, Assistant, Vice President, International Relations, U of T

• Lou Milrad, President, GTMA

• Lucas Malaspina, independent designer/strategist

• Mark Sarner, President, Manifest Com

• Marta O’Brian, Professor of Architecture History, U of T

• Mayor Miller, City of Toronto

• Michael Adams, author, Unlikely Utopia

• Michelle Noble, Director of Marketing, Water Front

• Mr. Toronto, comedian, “Everybody Hates Toronto”

• Nick Lewis, Senior Advisor, City of Toronto

• Nick Noorani, Founder of Immigrant Magazine

• Peter Evans, Advisor, Mars

• Rahul Bhardwaj, CEO, TCF

• Rana Sarkar, President, CIB-C

• Ratna Omidvar, President, Maytree Foundation

• Red Wilson, CEO, Bell Canada

• Richard Florida, Executive Director, Martin Prosperity

• Rocco Rossi, Running for Toronto Mayor

• Roger Keil, Author, Changing Toronto

• Ruth Lewkowics, Director of Marketing, TRRA

• Stephen Chait, Director of Economic Development, Markham

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• Terrie O’Leary, Executive Vice President, Invest Toronto

• Tonya Surman, Executive Director, SIC

• Umberto, Chin International

• Wendy Cukier, Associate Dean, Ryerson

• Wendy Gold-Opencity projects

• And many others, sorry if we missed your name, we also spoke to hundreds of anonymous citizens.

Books, guidebooks

• Anholt, Simon. Places. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. • Cukier, Wendy. Diverse City Counts. Toronto: The Diversity

Institute, 2010. • Hendley, Nate. Toronto Book of Everything. MacIntyre

Purcell Publishing Inc., 2009. • Macfarlane, David. Toronto: A City Becoming. Toronto: Key

Porter Books, 2008. • McBridge, Jason. Utopia towards a New Toronto. Toronto:

Coach House Books 2006. • TCSA. The Greater Toronto Leadership Project: Accelerating

Prosperity. Toronto: Diverse City, 2009. • Toronto Branding Project. Brand Architecture, 2004. • Kao, John. Innovation Nation: Free Press, 2007. • BOT. City Region Report. Toronto: BOT, 2010.

• Placebrands. City Branding. Amsterdam, 2009. • Hildereth, Jeremy. "Place Branding at Arms Length."

Palgrave, 2010. • CIC. Open Canada. Toronto, 2010. Web. 03 June 2010 • Potter, Evan. Branding Canada. Ottawa: U of Ottawa, 2009.

Articles and Websites • “BlogTO”.Toronto, 2010. http://www.blogto.com/ . • City of Toronto, Living in Toronto.

http://www.toronto.ca/residents/index.htm. • City of Toronto, Visiting Toronto.

http://www.toronto.ca/visitors/index.htm. • Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance, Top Ten GTMA

Services, 2010. http://www.greatertoronto.org/top-10-gtma-services.html.

• "Place Branding". Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_branding>.

• Toronto Board of Trade, Essential resources for business, 2010.http://www.bot.com/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Business_Resources.

• "Toronto Life". Toronto Life Publishing Company. http://www.torontolife.com/.

• Toronto Region Research Alliance, Toronto Region at a Glance, 2010. http://www.trra.ca/en/region/Ataglance.asp.

• "Toronto Unlimited”. City of Toronto, 2005. http://www.torontounlimited.ca/.

• "Tourism Toronto". Toronto Convention and Visitors Association. http://www.seetorontonow.com/.

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