Hosting a Tourism Infusion for Your Community: Live Q&A

Hello, welcome to the, uh, live— oh, it just plugged in. Hello, that was weird. Uh, welcome to, uh, tonight's live video. We are going to be talking about, um, how to start a tourism infusion in your community. Jocelyn will be joining me shortly. Um, if you're watching on Friday, May 29th, and it is around 8 o'clock Eastern, you are probably seeing this live. If it is not that time or day, you were watching a replay. Of it, but you can still comment, you can still do all the things. I see people from all over already in the live chat. We're going to talk a bit about what we did in Nanaimo, what we think worked, what we think didn't work, but mostly we're here to answer your questions. Throw these to me too, to answer your questions about what worked, what didn't work, what you want to do. And basically, a tourism infusion is just a a weekend where you can invite people to come to your community and maybe use it to recruit healthcare workers, maybe just use it for tourist dollars. Um, yeah, all that. Um, so welcome everyone. Thank you, Merrilee, so much for the 5 gifted memberships. That was very generous of you. So let's start by talking about what, uh, an infusion is first of all. And with that, I have brought my lovely assistant Jocelyn.

Hi everyone. Um, I— you've ever do that thing where you start to cut your bangs right before you have to do do something important and then mess it up a little? Not me. I don't know. Never happened to me. Um, okay, the question was, what's an infusion? So way back last year, um, Tod got this great idea for a sort of community and tourism-related in-person event. Um, and why is it called an infusion? Because it was called an invasion and we reconsidered.

Um, and we were lucky that Infusion sounds a lot like invasion, so it was an easy switch.

Yeah, and Infusion is also vaguely healthcare related, even though it didn't start that way. Um, and after that 2025 Infusion, Tod Maffin made kind of a little brief here's how you could do it sort of tool, and then, um, In a moment of clarity and maybe excitement, we decided to do it again in 2026. And in 2026, it was sort of how it was like healthcare infusion, which came out of the initial, the Naimo infusion, but also that spirit of a community event in person. That people can travel to to show their support, spend their money in a community, and just get to know individuals, the population, and hear from locals how great their city is.

So we've done two of them. We did the, the first one last year and then the second one this year a month ago. We are not going to organize the next one. Because it's exhausting. And yeah, exhausting. But we are talking to a community group in Nanaimo about turning that over to them, and they have some experience with that. However, what we have done for the last month is we've been working on a handbook for you and your community to basically copy the Nanaimo template and do with it as you please. You don't have to use any of it. You could use part of it. You can use all of it. You don't have to credit us. It's all available online for free. You don't even have to set up an account. You just go to— the fuck did I call it? Oh yeah, right, tourism. I bought a domain for it, tourisminfusion.org.

I love it. So I just blanked at the same time you blanked.

So tourisminfusion.org will take you to the handbook. It's extensive. It is in both official languages. We had actual Canadian French speakers translate it, so no AI was involved. And, um, and there are a couple of interviews with people who were there, and it covers everything from how do you talk to the media, how do you promote it, uh, how do you get a healthcare track of recruitment track on board, how do you convince the politicians to not speak forever, um, all of those things, uh, which are really important. So that is it, and I guess now we can just sort of take your questions if you if you're planning it. I will say that the only community we've heard of that, um, is planning sort of a version of it is Edmonton. Uh, they were planning a family photo, but I understand that fell through. Yeah, so, but they're still doing a week, um, more focused on healthcare workers. And we, we're a fan of, of anywhere in Canada, you know. I mean, as much as we would love them to come to Vancouver Island and love them to come to Nanaimo, I will be 99% as happy if they go anywhere in Canada.

We believe that there's a place for everyone in Canada that wants to find a place and find a new job, find a place to vacation. It doesn't all have to be Vancouver Island, and I think a fair number of Vancouver Islanders would like to not have everyone come here. Yeah, just to keep things in around the same population. So Um, for the first bit of this, at the very least, if not the whole thing, um, let's try and keep, uh, any questions you have on the, uh, Nanaimo infusion, making, uh, your— an infusion in your community, anything about how we did it, how it could be done in other places, that kind of thing.

Um, and this is what the site looks like. Nanaimo infusion— no, tourism infusion. Um, it's pretty extensive. You can see there's the video we're on right now. So it's got— let me go from this side so I'm not ruining it. Um, it's got lots and lots of content in there, and each one of these, of course, you can tap into. So, you know, if you're— if you want to go to the, uh, I don't know, the Working with Your Health Authority chapter, it's got all the information in there. Um, we've got a video, we've got photos of the postcards, it's in French and so on.

You should say most of the, um, sections are pretty short. It's not, it's not a big doorstopper book, excuse me. Um, shorter than a blog post if you're old enough to remember that.

Yeah. So, okay, so while we're waiting for, uh, for questions, can I just tell you that the Richmond Popcorn sent— people sent me and you don't know this yet, sent me butter chicken popcorn today.

Oh, it arrived!

And habanero maple bourbon popcorn.

Oh, I can't wait to try that. I have to say, someone— a couple— this is our third, uh, wedding invite. Yeah, I freaking love getting these. Obviously we can't go. I don't know where this is in the US somewhere, I think, uh, Germantown, Wisconsin. And much as we would love to, we can't, but It just tickles us to be—

because they won't let me cross the border anymore, I'm sure. Not while Trump's in office, not with all the stuff I've been doing.

So it's fun to, uh, to like celebrate your happy moments with you and from afar. Yeah.

So, um, yes, Minnesota, absolutely. Minnesota, I feel, should, should just get an immediate grant. So, uh, if you have any questions about the tourism infusion or how to start it in your community, now is the time to chat. Otherwise, it's been lovely and we will go on with our, with our evening. Um, and, uh, yeah. Oh, what do you think of the shirt, by the way?

Is that the one that was from, uh, a place in Cowichan Valley?

No, this is Mississauga, I think.

Um, uh, what an interesting idea, and at this particular time in Canada. Um, I— Tina, I'm not sure you were talking about the infusion, but I'm gonna answer you like you were. Um, you know, the infusion, um, event was one of Tod Maffin's great and crazy ideas, and I never thought it would be possible because, um, because you're a realist. Well, and in my line of work, we do a lot of in-person events, and we know how hard it's been to get people out of their houses since COVID and Maybe that's partly why it's different is that the initial infusions were aimed at Americans. And I think generally they are, although we got more Canadians than the previous, like in '26 than we did in '25. But I really think that it's a unique time where people really desire community. Excuse me, I've got some of my hair in my mouth. It's a time when it's— things are scary, and being able to go visit a city or a town where members of that city or town have gathered together to make it— to tell you all about their amazing place so that you'll want to go. It's like you get a whole bunch of strangers who are your tour guides, and it's not that You know, you're not buying a package tour or anything like that, but they're telling you what you should see, giving you all the insider info, and forming kind of a bond before you get there. And it makes for a whole different kind of experience for the traveler.

Um, so Susan asked, how many people do you think need to pull off a tourism infusion? I think it depends on how big you expect it to get. Um, But I would say 3 or 4 at the most. Like, it's not that many you need. It would be very helpful for you to get on board someone in your community who has a social media presence and like a large one and get them to start talking it up because that's where you're gonna get most of your, of your people from these days. And, and then you need someone who's good at like talking to local organizations, Chamber of Commerce maybe, or the tourism people in your community or the city. Um, but the first year it was just us.

It was literally just like 2 of us and maybe a couple of volunteers, but about halfway through, who honestly did an amazing job. And no, not to undermine what they said, but like what they did, but we initially initiated it and got it started, and then it was like, oh my God, what have we done? Yeah.

Um, and, and last— and, and that first year there were about 350 people that came. Uh, that was, uh, and then last year, or like this most recent one, there was about 1,000 people of which about 700 were American visitors.

But we would have been happy with 20 or 40, honestly, which would have had an appreciable effect. All those people, the additional hotels, bookings, um, dinners, lunches and restaurants, you know, I, that would have mattered too. And it really, it also depends on what you're trying to accomplish. And generally speaking, the tourism handbook is really— or the infusion handbook is really more about, um, the type that we did, which was inviting people to your community to— for tourism and for kind of a taste of the community.

Yeah.

And so that didn't really matter if there were a small, small amount. Um, but I also think crucial to your team that helps put it on is having at least one person who knows a lot of the local government and agencies that, like, like Tod said, tourism and like the local bid or business— not better. And like, what's it called? The, the business chamber of commerce.

And like, someone in the— someone ideally in the city or your town administration who can be a champion for you because That's a good question. When we first did the first one, like, I don't know how to do any of this stuff. I didn't know you had to buy insurance to rent the park. I didn't know we had to rent the park. I didn't know anything and largely still don't. But having someone in the city who's a champion of it, who believes in the project, is a really valuable asset to have. Yeah.

And knows who to talk to about what, that kind of thing. Yeah, that's a hilarious joke, Catherine.

So let's just— let me just tell you briefly what the— I know, I will. Okay, uh, let me just tell you briefly the, the what the Tourism Infusion Handbook, uh, contains. Uh, again, it's tourisminfusion.org. Um, it's just a web page with chapters. You don't have to— it doesn't cost anything. You don't have to sign in. You don't have to create an account or anything. So the first section talks about the realistic timelines that are involved, when you would want to start planning who you need on your, on your group. We talk about the red lanyards, which we used, which I used to have here, how they work, why that's really helpful. The Adopt a Visitor program, all the information about that is in there. Roughly how much you would want to budget for it. We talked about the website and the Discord. There's a whole section just on that. The healthcare track, promoting your infusion, and then a big section on the day itself. So setup and logistics, the info tables, how the conversation tags work, what happens if it rains, and then there's even a section about what you do after the infusion. So it's a big resource. It's at tourisminfusion.org, and it's released to the Creative Commons, which means that we still technically hold the copyright to it, but it is released to the public to use as you wish. Um, was there a good question you said?

Yeah, Susan asked, what was there anything that you would have left out from what you would leave out from the event? Um, I don't know if the only thing I can think of is that, um, we, I think we realized after we needed some people, um, uh, this isn't leaving out really, but I we needed some people who were going to be able to communicate with each other in case something came up. And then the group this year was so big, it was really hard to find each other. And, um, I, I wouldn't leave out that many people, obviously, but, um, I don't know, I— we did a dinner the night before, which was kind of tiring. Like, it was amazing and beautiful, and I'm so glad we did it, but maybe the timing And the dinner was— the dinner was a sort of a welcome and thank you dinner to our new US healthcare workers who chose jobs in Nanaimo. And about half of them were already living here and just started their jobs, and the other half were soon to be here, um, and just visiting for the infusion. And it was just an extraordinary moment of I don't know, it was very fulfilling to see our hard work on the healthcare infusion, uh, working, and to thank them for taking the leap at leaving their country behind. Um, but it was like putting it together and having it like the night before. It also kind of overlapped with, um, some of the more casual time to connect with people coming for the infusion. And so we like left the park like a half hour before the dinner so that we could get to the restaurant. And, um, I don't know, it just would have been a little less hectic. But still, I don't regret doing the dinner. I just— yeah, we had limited time in which to jam everything together so that the people coming for the infus— the Nanaimo infusion could come, and who were invited to the dinner could do both.

The thing that I thought was most successful this year, and we didn't do this last year because last year we didn't know how many people would come, like, even though We put up this voluntary RSVP form. There's a whole section in the handbook just on that. And people were saying that like, like 200, 300, 400, 300 people said that they would come. We didn't believe it till we pulled into the park, right? You and me and Kelly, our friend, and we pulled in and it was packed and it's like, okay, that's, that's a real thing. So we didn't do a lot of— I don't know why it keeps turning my levels down. It— we didn't do a lot of sort of like on in the park, on the— we just had a couple of comments. Um, some politicians wanted to say some things, as politicians do, and then we took the photo. By the way, get a drone. Get someone in your city who owns a drone.

Uh, that's way easier than, than trying to get someone on a ladder. Friend tried to get up on a ladder the first year and got a good shot, but it wasn't as good as it was difficult and Without him, it wouldn't have been nearly as good.

Yeah. So, and the thing that I, that I think we, that was most successful, where I was going with that, is the info tables. So these were, uh, there were 5 tables there that were meant for people who had come here, not just to be tourists, but because they were looking at moving to the community. And remember, that's going to be a subset of the tourists. So the Tourism Infusion is meant to bring tourist dollars to your community and have, you know, people shopping in your stores and eating in your restaurants and staying in your campgrounds. But there's going to be hopefully a component of healthcare workers or other workers. You have to be healthcare.

We need teachers, we need laborers, we need, you know, that's what the tables were for because they spread out beyond. Like, we heard that the school districts, um, gave away quite a few, um, like info packets and job descriptions and stuff. So So there's clearly more roles to be filled.

And those tables were immigration, and at the immigration table we had two registered Canadian immigration consultants. Schools, and at that table we had the head of recruiting, I think, or the student liaison for the local university, and a representative from the school district. We had housing, we had a realtor and a real estate lawyer. We had healthcare jobs. That was our, our, um, uh, health authority had a couple of people. Now they actually had about 20 people there, or 12 people, but only 2 people at the table. They would just kind of triage people over here. Oh, you want to be a nurse? Go talk to her. You want to be a doctor? Go talk to her.

I had people in like matching shirts so they were easy to find, which was really useful.

And what was the 5th table? Oh, the queer community. We had someone from the local Pride community there. If you decide to do the info tables, and this is well documented in the handbook, which again, if you're just joining us, is that Tourism Enthusiast fusion.org. Um, when you begin to promote this, you will certainly discover, like we did, that everybody wants a table. The curling club wants a table. The, the, the Knitters Guild wanted a table. The local band— like, everyone wants.

And all for good reason. Like, I think a lot of them just wanted to support, but as soon as we started talking about tables at the event, everybody wanted to do it, which is funny to me because I feel like Like, my organization just got an invite by a service club to host— to bring a table with us. We're an organization of disabled people, FYI. Um, to bring a table and chairs with us, um, to be at, at an event in the same park. And it made me laugh because I was like, I don't know that we have the, the people or the time to do that. Um, but people felt like it was really important to them at the infusion, and I think the only feedback we heard about the tables was they needed to be a little further apart to allow for traffic and circulation.

And it was quite loud because of the volume of people there. But, um, and shade. And shade. Yeah. Um, so you want to keep the number of actual tables down so that people aren't overwhelmed. You, you would hate to have 30 tables, give one to every community group, and then someone to leave and go back and say, Wait, there was a jobs table? I didn't even see it. Right. You got to keep the important things. Housing, housing, immigration, jobs, and the other one that I forgot.

This is you focusing on foreign workers.

Yeah.

So can I say, Kelsey, I love your— from players to stayers. Love it.

So for those people who really, you know, the photography club really wants a table, that's where the conversation tags came in. We described them in the handbook, again tourisminfusion.org, and they're name tags. They're like, "Hello, my name is" name tags, except instead of writing your name, you write what you're interested in talking about. So we had people walking around that said bowling league and someone that said bird photography. And I saw people stop and go, "Oh, are you into curling too? Where are you from?" And that was really, that was really cool.

We had hoped that those stickers would also help us understand how many people came out, but ultimately not every— like, that was another thing. There was only one table for those stickers.

Excuse me.

Um, and so there wasn't room enough for everybody. If we really wanted everyone to have one, we would have had to put a couple of tables along the entrance points to the park, I think. But no matter, I think we got rid of all but maybe 200, and some people used 2. So it was fine. It did give us a bit of an idea. We use honestly, like, yeah, sorry.

Um, there's an example of someone at the table. There's the table sign there.

Um, there was something else. I love this conversation going on about accessibility and Parksville and how great the beaches are. I do also love Parksville Beach, and many communities up and down the island have mobi mats, which are wheelable pathways across the sand. Um, so yeah, it is pretty great here.

Um, you guys want to see something funny? Some guy showed up with the shirt. I'm gonna show you the shirt.

He gave us two of them. It made us laugh.

Um, Susan asks, how many healthcare workers do you think came from the healthcare infusion? It's past 50.

Yeah, so we, um, The Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation CEO Barney, Barney, um, said recently in a— it was quoted in a news article that, um, I think there was 59. Oh God, maybe I shouldn't quote him if I don't remember. Um, by our count, the folks who come through Nanaimo specifically is 39. Um, but we are the Vancouver Island mostly. Yeah, a lot of them are nurses. Um, and the, uh, and the health— the, like, Vancouver Island, we've— there's 2, uh, NPs in Campbell River now. There, um, I think there's 2 committed to Port Alberni. Um, there's 2 doctors in Victoria and a bunch of nurses and nurse practitioners Um, there are 2 nurses I know of who went to Saanich Peninsula Hospital, so it is over 50.

Apparently, the, um, Barney, the, the CEO of the Hospital Foundation, said that 19%, I think was the number, 19%, basically 1 in 5 nurses in the ER in Nanaimo are American and are here because of the healthcare infusion. 1 in 5 is great. Like, what When we started this, our number was 1. If we could get— if we could add 1 more nurse, and that's the goal I think you, you should go for as well. Because you think about if you could get 1 nurse in your community, especially if you're a small community, you get 1 ER nurse in that hospital. Think about how shifts work. Think about how evening shifts work, right? Like, there are communities up and down this island where if the nurse is sick that nurse has to decide, like, is he going to call in and say, well, I'm sick, I can't come in, knowing that the ER will close that night because, because he can't come in. So totally, yeah. So don't, don't try to— don't be like, if we don't get 20, it's not a success. One doctor, one pediatrician makes it— one, one doctor, I think was Barney was telling me, I did a podcast thing with him, I think he was telling me that like doctors, the, the panels that doctors can take on are somewhere between 800 and 1,000 patients. One doctor. I know, I thought that was awfully high too.

That's it. If you mean primary care, yeah, primary care is lower. It's like 200.

No, no, that's what I said. I said it's got to be around 300.

He might be talking about something else, like, I don't know.

Anyway, but he assume it's 200. One doctor comes into your community and suddenly 200 people are off the waiting list. Like 200 people from your community, and apparently it's more.

And I gotta say, like, we are so thankful to have attracted so many nurses and other healthcare professionals to Nanaimo. But, um, at this point now, we're so excited whenever someone comes through the Healthcare Infusion, um, server and they go to a community that's like a little further afield, little, a little more remote. And to know that two primary care nurse practitioners are in— are, well, one is there in Campbell River now, and there's one I think coming by August 1st for Campbell River. That is so exciting. Like, nurse practitioners do primary care. They can play a role similar to a family doctor. They can refill your prescriptions. They can 'Look at your kid who's sick.' Like, that is a huge impact on people's life and the life of that community, making it more viable for people to stay there. And that to me is such a success.

Someone in the chat is talking about volunteer groups requiring police checks. Um, obviously if you're going to do this in your community, check with the city what, what they require. Um, we didn't require any of that. Um, we basically— we— yeah, that's— well, like, we— I don't know what, what defines a group, right?

I mean, like, we're not a society.

Yeah, we're not an official organization.

Have to do with if you're like a BC society or a charitable organization. They're not actually that hard to do anymore, but it requires the infrastructure of the nonprofit or the charity in order to do those criminal record checks. Because if you're going to do it online, then one of the staff, one of the people in that organization has to see you in person and check your ID. And we aren't doing that. Like, we're not. And we were never planning for this to be a nonprofit. But someone had a question.

Oh, don't I?

Can you scroll up back?

I don't know if it'll—

you said somebody said something about, could if we aren't doing the infusion again, then the Nanaimo infusion again next year, Could Americans just come and volunteer with— and that might be what the question about the criminal record checks is about. And Nanaimo is always going to be here. And if you didn't get a chance to come last year and you want to come, come anytime. The server with all the information about what to see is still up. If we do decide to close it, we'll make sure everyone knows first.

And that website is nanaimoinfusion.ca.

And it has— and Tod made a guide to visiting Nanaimo, which has all of that information in it. And I highly recommend Nanaimo is beautiful and it is an awesome visit from like, like mostly from end of April to like end of October, but it's still great in the winter. It's just rainier. And I would encourage you to come and mention that you came because you couldn't come to the infusion last year, and people will know what that is and they'll be thrilled to see you.

Susan asks, did your municipality contribute to the infusion financially? Um, no. So the first year we did it, um, the city—

directly, that's right.

Yeah, the first year we did it, um, you know, the city didn't know what to do with us. We didn't know what to do with us because, you know, I had to call the city and say, hi, so, uh, I got a YouTube channel and I made a video and now like 1,000 people say they're good, they might come, it might be a few hundred, I don't know what to do. And so they processed me through the usual process, which is, you know, they heard community group wants to rent the park and I heard— and what I was trying to do was, hey city, we're gonna bring hundreds of tourists here, can you partner with us? And the, the two didn't— the do not compute. Not that we didn't have support. The mayor has been so supportive. Everyone in City Hall has been so supportive. Um, but legally they have some restraint. So they asked if we could— they said, you know, I have to buy insurance. And I was very hesitant to do that because, you know, insurance only covers— I don't know, someone dies there, insurance only covers up to your coverage limit, and then they come after our house, you know. So I didn't want to do that, and the city didn't want to make it their own event. So Um, basically, this is kind of funny. The mayor just kind of like— he didn't actually cover the mic, but it felt like he did.

And he kind of did.

And he's like, just show up, like, just use the park, just you and your friends, just go have, you know.

And with the understanding that we did not have exclusive use. If you— in, in a public park like that, nobody does anyways. You can rent or book certain, um, assets in the park, like the gazebo where the, um, the mics and the speakers are, or could— can be, um, and the, uh, the— and like the plaza. But yeah, we didn't even have that anyway. Like, we shared it with the Thai Tiger group, who are lovely.

So for the second year, we decided to do it correctly. Uh, we rented the park, we paid for that. It was about $160. In the handbook, tourisminfusion.org, you— there's a section called budget that spells out exactly what we paid for everything. Uh, the park was $160 or so, the insurance was like $400, um, we rented tables, that was about $100, um, we fronted the money ourselves, um, mostly through membership. So like, for instance, you can be a member of my YouTube channel, uh, right now, and some people are in here. Marilee is in here, um, I saw a couple of other people. PJ is in here. Um, and those are members. So, and that brings money to us. So that helps pay for it. I will say though that, and it ended up being, you know, like somewhere around $2,000, $1,500 or something like that. Um, which was paid for by merch and all this stuff that I do. Some lady came up to us just as I was about to announce, just as I was about to go out and say nice words about, you know, welcoming everyone. And she gave me a card and she said, this is a little bit of money to help out. And I gave it back to her and I said, we really— we're okay, you know, we're— thank you, but it's okay. Um, and she said, no, please, it's already— the check, it's a, it's a bank check, it's already done, I can't put it back in. I'm like, okay, so I, um, so I took it and shoved it in my back pocket. I didn't look at it for a couple of days, and I pulled it out and it was a check for $2,000.

Um, so the universe Got us back.

And with a name that I could not make out. I've tried Googling to thank this lady. I don't— I could not find her. So it was, it was amazing. It was a little bit more than what we actually spent. So that money, along with the merch sales money, uh, that day got donated to the Nanaimo Hospital Foundation.

The, um, one thing to think about is that, um, like my organization does a lot of in-person events related to— like, the, the org I work for, not related to The Infusion, um, does a lot of in-person events. And it's very common that events in public parks or community centers want proof of insurance to— in case somebody got hurt, even at a barbecue. Um, and if they— because if you get hurt, you might sue And this is a way to protect the city's interests and assets. And it's also a way to protect your own. But it also means keep it uncomplicated because the more complexity you add in, like, I don't know if you're going to do a 3-on-3 basketball tournament as part of it or something like that, that adds to the insurance cost.

So this is the page on the website about the budget. So again, tourisminfusion.org. It's in both official languages. You don't need an account. You just go to that website and start using it. Read it all. It's all available for free. Um, and I guess I think we're wrapping up soon because I don't see a lot of more questions and I'm exhausted. We're both exhausted. Um, it's been a tiring week. Um, I guess all I want to say is, um, first of all, thank you to the supporting members of my community who pay $7 a month to help us work on these crazy Canada projects. We have one coming up called Dear Canada that I think you'll like. And but most importantly, you guys, you can do this. You can do this in your community. It doesn't— oh, this is, this is Churro.

Just for some, like, just for the likes and shares.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Just for the algorithm. This, this takes a couple of people. Um, and, and enthusiasm. That's, it's really it, you know. You just get someone on social media, talk to the media, get people talking about it. And even if you only quote unquote get 20 people, that's 20 people in your community spending money. And maybe some of them are healthcare workers. I'll bet a lot are going to be because there's a lot of people there. Of that, if you go to map.nanaimoinfusion.ca, you'll see the map of everyone who came from the US. Those people who booked who actually came. The blue dots— actually, let me just pull it up on my phone. The blue dots are groups that had healthcare workers with them. And let me show you how many blue dots there were. Ow! Um, sorry, our internet has been a little— it's been a little strange. Do you see all the blue dots? These—

this is—

this is accurate data of where people in the U.S. came from. And these blue dots are healthcare workers, and you can zoom in, right? So you zoom in to like this area and you tap— what is that? Nebraska. That's somewhere in Nebraska. That is— so you can actually see. So that, that was an actual one person coming group has a healthcare worker. So, um, and there's, there's information in the handbook on how to generate that map, even the prompt you use and how to publish it on the web and stuff like that.

So, um, what is the game count now for the kids?

The game? Oh yeah, so we, so we did a live, um, these high school kids in London, Ontario have made this great satirical game called American Dictator. Um, when we did our live last week, I hadn't done a video about it yet, we just talked about it and showed it, and they had 80 sales 80 orders just from our live. Um, then I did a video about it, and 3 hours after the video was published, they had sold 450 of them. And 24 hours after the video was published, they had sold 1,600 copies of their board game. Um, so if you want to see it, it's called American Dictator. You can go to it, you can get to it by going to b.link slash Dictator. I'll type it in here.

It's even more actually one of the amazing because it's mods.

Can you type it in? Uh, mods, can you type it in? b.link/dictator. Yeah, it's all— it's—

but it's professionally printed, like it's not handwritten, but it's like all the pieces are assembled by them. There's this clip in Tod's video about it of them using an automatic money counter to count the paper money for the game because it's a bit Monopoly-like.

Yeah.

Because you have to put the same amount of bills, paper bills in each game, right? I was thinking to myself, like, why in the world are we— are they doing that? Because you only get 2 $500 bills. And then I was like, of course, there's far more than that in the actual game because it's made by up to 6 people. So anyway, they, they're making them at their kitchen table and it's And it's high quality. It comes in a neat little pizza box, which arguably is easier to store and keep stuff in than the usual, like, big ones that you have to kind of— yeah, break the suction to get the lid off. Yeah, it's so cute. And I— of, of all the things we've done since all this stuff took off, I— it's so satisfying to, um, share cool things Canadians are doing and encourage and see Canadians jump on board and enjoy it themselves in return. Just like this game, just like the PEI fudge. Like, just amazing.

Yeah. So I think we're going to end it there because I'm exhausted. You just wrapped up work. You probably still have to go back to work, I assume.

No, I'm going to get on my bike. Everyone, wait. Ready? One, ready? Okay, world, I'll join me. We're giving Todd a hug. Oh, are you gonna join me in giving Todd a hug?

Oh, thank you.

You can share, share your, uh, hearts if you're giving Todd a hug. How long do we have to hold this before they give you hearts?

Not—

there you go.

Thanks, everyone. Um, so yeah, so, uh, we're gonna take a couple days off because it's a weekend, and then early next week I have a major merch announcement. We are adding for the first time a new line. Oh yeah, and I think you're gonna like it. I was just out on the beach with the marketing people taking photographs of it. Um, it is— I won't give it away. If you're a member, by the way, you will have already heard because we— every week members, like supporting members, get a behind-the-scenes video from me, and I talked about it and showed it, so they have an advanced look at it. Um, but it was designed by an artist. Here in Nanaimo. It's not AI. I'm really proud of it. I think you'll like it. So thank you. Don't forget, the handbook is at tourisminfusion.org. If you want to see the website for the infusion, the public-facing one that the attendees did, that's at nanaimoinfusion.ca. And, uh, and thank you for being there.

Thanks everyone.

Okay, bye-bye.