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Bringing the Canadian industry together,
not only for the purpose of a joint convention, but to create
a forum where the industry issues could be addressed on
an ongoing basis has been a priority for more than a decade.
The process began with the formation of the Leisure Lifestyle
Marketing Group, which incorporated the campgrounds, dealers,
manufacturers, suppliers, and Provincial as well as Federal
parks staff, who shared the common goal of working toward
a more efficient and professional RV and camping industry
in Canada.
 The
Leisure Lifestyle Marketing Group was one of the most successful
efforts ever undertaken by the RV industry as a whole, and
it paved the way for the formation of the Go RVing Canada
Committee.
Roger said, "I think that it is worth noting
that the Canadian group, the Leisure Lifestyle Marketing
people, were the first to launch an industry-wide marketing
effort for the camping lifestyle... and the Americans came
later on with the Go RVing America campaign.
When the Leisure Lifestyle Marketing Group
was transformed into Go RVing Canada, we were able to benefit
from shared creative materials, so that the North American
promotion of the concept would be universal as far as media
exposure was concerned. The recognition of the campaign
has been increasing steadily, with very significant market
influence of a most positive nature. (Page
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During the past two months, the Canadian
RV industry has been surveyed for input on the 2001 convention.
Many people forwarded completed surveys, with 82% of the
people responding planning to attend the convention. Follow-up
surveys will focus on specific program areas to help organize
the most informative program possible.
The organizing committee is working on a
series of programs to assist dealers who will be travelling
to Quebec City from all parts of Canada. The first convention
will be in Quebec City in 2001, with B.C. scheduled to host
the convention in 2002. Subsequent conventions will alternate
between Eastern and Western Canadian locations.
Reaction to the venue in Quebec City has
been very positive, especially from dealers in western Canada,
who have expressed great interest in travelling to Quebec.
Quebec City has a great deal to offer visitors, from an
historic as well as an entertainment perspective. While
many of the Canadians in the RV industry have been to Toronto
or Montreal, surprisingly few have visited Quebec, and this
definitely adds to the appeal of the convention.
The convention will include a range of information
sessions specifically geared for the Canadian RV industry,
and participants will be able to bring back to their campgrounds
and dealerships a wealth of information to enhance their
businesses. Major keynote speakers and entertainment will
top off the convention on a calibre beyond what we have
seen in Canada in many years.
All of the sessions slated for Convention
2001 will be offered in both French and English, as will
the workshops. This will be handled through a series of
parallel presentations, with one language offered in the
morning, and the other in the afternoon.
(Page Top)
While all of the participants will benefit
from this enhanced level of cooperation, the most positive
reaction to date has come from the campground operators,
who rarely have the opportunity to participate in programs
beyond the scope of the campground associations.
Reaction has been extremely positive to
the convention from a very wide range of dealers and campground
operators. The Convention 2001 is structured to provide
Canadian information, specifically geared to our local and
regional market conditions. While many Canadians attend
the international conventions, they tend to view the information
available in the international venue as helpful in the overall
perspective, but in many instances not applicable to the
Canadian experience.
Attendance at the international conventions
is not expected to be affected by the Canadian convention.
In the past, representatives from the provincial RVDA organizations
have attended the international events, with a small number
of the individual dealers attending as well. Surveys indicate
that the dealers attending the major international events
will continue to do so. The Canadian convention is expected
to draw many more dealers, who would attend to learn more
about doing RV business in Canada. Quebec City 2001 will
be a totally different concept from the international events.
As the convention alternates between eastern and western
locations, the majority of Canadian dealers and RV industry
members will have the opportunity to sit in a Canadian location
to learn more about the Canadian industry.
In future years, we expect that some of
the provincial associations will work with the national
body to correlate their own annual meetings in conjunction
with the national convention. This will provide much better
facilities and encourage greater levels of participation
than we have seen at the individual regional conventions.
In the next few weeks, committee meetings
will expand the plan for the convention, and RV Lifestyle
DEALER NEWS will have additional information to report in
the next issue, slated for publication in September.
In the interim, any industry members with
suggestions for convention 2001 programs should contact
Don Mockford at CRVA, who will be coordinating the information
concerning the Quebec City convention. Don can be reached
at 416 971 7800, or crva@crva.ca. (Page
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