Priska Even-Hen, Paola Toussaint, Martine St-Pierre, Cassandra Auguste-Rene of Its Time Event Management, Kris Bellefontaine of Makatew Workshop, Tatiana Amisial, Barbara Alexis-Tettey, Sheyna Antoine and Sagine Edouard of Its Time Event Management celebrate after the award ceremony at the Think Ottawa Gala at the Rogers Centre in Ottawa on Feb. 12, 2026. Photo by Tia MacPherson for OBJ.
Ottawa highlighted its growing reputation as an international meeting destination during the 2026 Think Ottawa Gala on Feb. 12, where civic leaders were recognized for attracting major conferences and sporting events to the capital.
Backed by Ottawa Tourism, Invest Ottawa, and the Rogers Centre Ottawa, the program honoured organizers credited with bringing nearly 30,000 visitors to the city in 2025 and generating economic activity for local hotels, restaurants and venues.
This year’s recipients were:
Leo Doyle, Ontario Cup, Ontario Basketball Association 2025
Phyllis Bergmans, Canadian Ringette Championships 2025
Richard Johnston, Canadian Track and Field Championship 2025
Matei Radulescu, 30th International Colloquium on the Dynamics of Explosions and Reactive Systems (ICDERS) 2025
Dr. Ian Castillo and Dr. Sam Suppiah, International Tritium Conference on Tritium Science and Technology 2025
Judith Nassuna, Global Nursing Summit 2025
Timothy Lethbridge, IEEE-ICSE 2025 (International Conference on Software Engineering) / ACM
David Michelson, IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and North American Radio Science Meeting 2025
