Bring your meeting to Toronto,
where cultures and ideas
already gather
When your field’s international gathering comes to one of the world’s most diverse cities, your delegates arrive somewhere that already feels open, and you join the network of leaders who bring these moments home. It starts with someone local willing to make the case. That could be you.
Hosting a congress is more than winning a bid. It’s about bringing your sector’s leaders together in one place.
What lasts goes beyond the meeting: stronger connections with peers and institutions, greater recognition in your field, and the opportunity to celebrate your contribution at the Leaders Circle Recognition Celebration.
A partnership, with you at the front
You bring the standing in your sector. We bring a team that knows how international congress bids are won.
Leading a conference bid means leading the academic expertise. Depending on the association’s guidelines, you judge whether an opportunity is worth pursuing, bring your institution and your peers to the table, shape the academic theme the proposal is built on, contribute to the bid proposal, and speak for Toronto when the case is made. Leaders Circle assists with the strategy and researches the case for the city, and Destination Toronto compiles the bid proposal, coordinates letters of support from government, and more.
Once a conference is won, its ambassadors may be eligible for the Leaders Circle Research Grant, up to $50,000 for a project aligned with the conference’s focus. Beyond the grant, ambassadors join a standing network of sector leaders and are celebrated among their peers at the Leaders Circle Recognition Celebration.
The world’s gatherings come to Toronto, led by people like you.
Leaders across the arts, culture, and civil
society have brought their international
gatherings here
Leaders Circle has helped bring cultural and civil-society gatherings to Toronto, with more on the way. Recent meetings include One Harp World and the 21st World Council Meeting of the World Alliance of Young Men’s Christian Associations.
In their words
“YMCA World Council was a huge success!”
In their words
“A key focus of One Harp World is to create opportunities for promising young artists from diverse backgrounds to connect in person with career arts professionals, hone their professional skills, build community, and explore the world of leadership and entrepreneurship in the arts.”
One of the world's most diverse cities
For a cultural or civil-society gathering, the host city is part of the message. It tells your delegates, wherever they come from, that they belong in the room. The Toronto region is one of the most diverse cities in the world with roughly half its residents were born outside Canada, and more than 190 languages are spoken across the region.
A delegate of any background, faith, or language arrives to find a community already here. The city also carries a deep arts and culture scene and the standing of Canada’s largest city. Toronto is also a major international gateway, with the connections and capacity a global delegation requires, which matters most when your delegates travel from every part of the world.
Questions cultural and arts leaders ask
Yes. There is no fee to take part as an ambassador, and no charge for the work that goes into a bid, the strategy, the bid services, and the destination expertise. For organizations working on tight budgets, that support is what makes hosting possible, and where eligible, there is help in the earliest stages so cost is not a barrier to starting.
These gatherings move between cities, and each is won through a bid to the organization that owns it. The bid needs a local host to make the case, often through your own organization or association, working with a team that prepares it. In Toronto, Leaders Circle brings the strategy and guidance, Destination Toronto delivers the bid services, and you provide the standing that comes from being active in your community. There is no fee to take part.
Toronto is one of the most diverse cities in the world, which matters for a gathering about the wider world, its delegates arrive somewhere that already reflects the communities they come from. Recent and upcoming meetings here include One Harp World and the World Council Meeting of the World Alliance of Young Men’s Christian Associations.
Ambassadors join a standing network of cultural and civil-society leaders across Toronto, take part in Leaders Circle workshops, and are celebrated among their peers at the Leaders Circle Recognition Celebration. For many, the network across the sector is what lasts.