There is always an incredible amount of planning activity involved with a prestigious event such as Canada-e-Connect.

Site tours of the hotel property and function space are always a welcome opportunity for colleagues to meet one another to discuss myriad conference program details, from ensuring optimal delegate seating arrangements and audio/visual, to planning exquisite culinary offerings.

I was recently invited to participate on a site tour of the conference host hotel, the Fairmont Waterfront, along with conference chair Jens Thraenhart, and other key members of the Canada-e-Connect conference planning team and the Canadian Tourism Commission.

Hosted by Tiffany Tibbits, hotel conference services manager and liason for the CEC program, the tour enabled much lively discussion around countless elements that will help ensure the program truly is the premier event of its kind in Canada.

The Fairmont Waterfront is a beautiful hotel property with a stellar location, and has been consistently recognized by Conde Naste Traveler in their annual “Gold List”.

The Gold List, an annual readers’ choice poll names the best hotels, resorts and cruise lines around the world, rating them on criteria including location, service and guestrooms.

Canada-e-Connect delegates may qualify for a group rate of $159 (single/double), but reservations have to be booked before October 11, 2007–only five weeks away. Click here for more information about the Fairmont Waterfront on the Canada-e-Connect website.

A year ago I had never heard the term “zeitgeist”. In case you haven’t heard it either, it’s a German word that means “…the spirit of the time; the taste and outlook characteristic of a period or generation”.

Today’s e-marketing zeitgeist is marked with rapid change, ultra-transparency and a new(-ish) voice: the voice of the consumer. Customers are forming alliances and communities all over the internet to share information and expertise. It has become virtually impossible to contest the power of individual voices when disseminated through popular online travel related communities.

There are dozens of examples of travel community spaces that are proving to be both popular and valuable when searching and researching travel. And since I love participating in many travel related communities, I though it would be fun to create a micro-version of a social media “zeitgeist” for the Canada-e-Connect conference host hotel; the Fairmont Waterfront.

I’m local to Vancouver (and I used to work for Fairmont) so I know this hotel very well. I could list all the accolades and awards that the property has received, but one opinion doesn’t much capture the spirit of zeitgeist!

Click over to our Fairmont Waterfront Zeitgeist to see what guests are saying about the Waterfront Hotel through guest submitted images of the property and the latest reviews of the hotel on Tripadvisor.

As I find more online dialogue about the hotel, I’ll add it to the page.