For your faithful social scribe, there can be no better place on earth in which to live than our beloved city. Sure, if I had a ton of dough, I would love to spend summers in the south of France and winters in Phuket, but  end of the day, there’s no place like home.

Our beloved city was ranked number one in 2013 on the Overall Best Places to Live index. We receive more sunshine than any major Canadian city (2,400 hours a year). We have no sales tax (for now!). And we welcomed more than 7.3 million visitors in 2014 and our guests spent more than $1.6 billion. There’s no doubt these last many months have been more than economically challenging for many, but this year could well see record numbers of tourists flocking to our fair city- a boon to business coffers, to be sure.

A great way to start out the new year and get into a positive vibe is by attending Tourism Calgary’s Annual Open House. This year, hundreds of guests gathered at the Grey Eagle Casino for an evening of food, drink, celebration and networking. That two Air Canada tickets were given as the door prize added greatly to the evening’s cache.

Among those in attendance were: Tourism Calgary president and CEO Cindy Ady with board chair Rod McKay, board colleague Jeff Robinson, Shelley Zucht-Shorter and Casssandra McAuley, director, stakeholder engagement and destination development; Mark Nichols, director of sales and marketing, Hilton Garden Inn; Dave Sclanders, executive director, Calgary Meetings and Conventions; Luke Azevedo, Calgary Economic Development Commissioner, Film, Television and Creative Industries; Air Canada’s Serge Corbeil, Caroline Johnson and Chase Myhill; MLA Richard Gotfried; Calgary Airport Authority’s Mammen Tharakan; CTV’s Donavon Fuessel, Brigette Rothe and Bob Sumner; Miss Canada 2014, Angie Shilliday; Delta Lodge’s Lona Johnson; CBI’s Catherine Brownlee; Strategic Group COO Randy Ferguson; Postmedia’s Leanne Northwood and Mike Slimm; Homeplace Ranch’s Mac Makenny; Fairmont Palliser director of sales and marketing, David Woodward; WestJet’s Robert Palmer; Nexus Exhibits’ Milena Radkovic and Kristal Ball; Inland Audio Visual’s Brian Ymbang; Stampede Royalty- 2017 Queen Meagan Peters and Princesses Brittany Lloyd and Lizzie Ryman; Winsport’s Judy Black; James Starlight; Bruce Starlight Jr.; Faith Starlight; Bison Starlight; Terrance Starlight; Charm Fox; Leo Starlight; and Wild Manywounds.

-Calgary Herald