Overview
The City of Whitehorse recently hosted CBC’s Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada.
What started out as plans for a day-long celebration of hockey turned into over 60 events that spanned four days with hockey games, clinics, cultural performances, radio and television broadcasts, grade-school presentations and a regular season WHL game that all captured the spirit of Yukoners' hockey passion.
Former NHL players including Trevor Linden, Lanny McDonald and Brad May joined well-known CBC personalities such as Ron MacLean, Don Cherry, Kelly Hrudey and Scott Oake to take part in the festivities.
History
Hockey Day in Canada is an annual CBC special broadcast to celebrate the game in Canada that includes features all afternoon, leading up to a tripleheader of NHL action featuring the six Canadian teams.
Lead commentators, Don Cherry and Ron MacLean broadcast from a different Canadian city or town each year. The day also includes live segments from smaller communities right across the country and features panel discussions on issues facing "Canada's game" at both the minor and pro levels.
The first edition of Hockey Day in Canada was held in Toronto in February of 2000. Scotiabank came on board as the title sponsor for the 11th annual event, which was held in Whitehorse on February 12th, 2011. The NHL schedule included the Edmonton Oilers hosting the Ottawa Senators, the Toronto Maple Leafs visiting the Montreal Canadiens and the Vancouver Canucks welcoming the Calgary Flames.
Our role
In cooperation with a group of 30-plus planning volunteers, Outside the Cube was there to help stage and promote Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada – including events at the Yukon Arts Centre, MacBride Museum, Takhini Arena, Canada Games Centre, Shipyards Park and the S.S. Klondike.
As head of the Media Committee, OTC provided communications and media support for Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada throughout the week. Communication channels included radio and newspaper ads, press conferences and contests, as well as an event website, Facebook page and Twitter account.
We also provided overall event direction, organizing the business luncheon and Gala Banquet, and managed the production of the Official Souvenir Program.
OTC worked with organizers to accredit over 40 media to cover the celebrations and our team was responsible for regular updates to social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter. This accounted for a total of 217 Facebook wall posts, 62,058 Facebook post views and 101 tweets. CBC estimates over 30 hours of national broadcast coverage captured Whitehorse as the host city of the 11th annual Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada.