Photo Walks, Tours, Training and Events for
Community and Corporate Groups 2024

Photo walk at University of Toronto, 2020

Toronto street photography near Union Station and CN Tower

Welcome to the program page for Tdot Shots and Iconic Toronto. We host educational & creative events in the city of Toronto. Individuals can register and groups can book private events.

Our main features and benefits:

  • Choice of Photo Walk, Walking Tour or a combination activity
  • Professional facilitation by Mike Simpson, Toronto-based designer / educator
  • Planning and consultation to make your event amazing, from time and place, to route and must see landmarks
  • Strong attention to detail about culture, history, architecture and the arts, and your business or community background
  • Photo walk elements include tips for beginners, suggestions to participants on gear and techniques
  • Genuine Toronto arts and culture experience attendees will talk about online and to their friends and colleagues

This pricing and feature schedule is for organizations and corporations. If you are simply looking to register yourself for one of our public events visit tdot.com/events.

Event Pricing and Features

Join us as we create exciting events throughout 2024. We specialize in event planning from meetups and photo walks to tours, workshops and training. We can provide additional promotion via our social media and websites.

Choose from a Standard or Deluxe event with Tdot Shots and facilitator Mike Simpson.
The minimum charge for Standard event collaboration is $150 for community groups and $300 for corporate (to cover planning, participant registration and admin).

Our most popular plan, Deluxe, provides promotion via our social media and websites. We have an audience of 20k+ users on social and thousands of visitors monthly to our websites. Pricing for Deluxe is available after we discuss customization of your event program.

Deluxe (we promote)

  • Full event planning by Tdot Shots
  • Survey and consultation with client
  • Event web page with ticket info / RSVP
  • Registration of participants
  • Communication with guests / updates for event day
  • Promotion on Tdot Shots Events site (tdot.com/events)
  • Digital marketing via Tdot Shots social and website (@tdot_shots / tdotshots.com
  • Follow up post or story on our social and blog post on our main website (optional, prior to event)
  • Report to client, with summary; provide participant sign-up list

Standard (you promote)

  • Full event planning by Tdot Shots
  • Survey and consultation with client
  • Event web page with ticket info / RSVP
  • Registration and tracking of participants
  • Communication with guests / updates for event day
  • Promotion on Tdot Shots Events site (tdot.com/events)

FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions

You should know…

Do you need help with promotion to the public in Greater Toronto? Our posts and sites reach thousands of Toronto area creatives on a weekly basis. Up your event reach by partnering with us. We can create a custom event for you. We offer basic packages called “Standard,” and more advanced programs we refer to as “Deluxe.”

The difference generally is that while we take care of event planning, creating a registration page, and leading the event (our facilitator is Mike Simpson), the Standard package leaves the promotion up to you and your team. If you are hiring us for our Deluxe package, we will co-promote with you. Publishing to our Instagram and Facebook posts and stories, along with the website listing and blog post, will ensure many people hear about your event and the buzz will encourage quite a few to sign up. This helps spread the word about your current event and build interest for your future endeavours.

Our events registration plugin allows for free registration, referred to as an RSVP, or paid ticketing. in either case anyone who registers will receive a confirmation email with event details. Events can have a participant limit or be open to an unlimited number of registrations. For free events we tend to make it unlimited. For paid events like workshops we cap it at 10-20 guests for reasons of comfort and quality.

It is not a requirement to have online registration for free events – but it allows organizers to contact participants in the event there is a time or route change, or inclement weather.

In our experience a number of people who register for a free event will simply not show up. If you have 80 people registered you are more likely to get 40-50. That’s still a good turnout for a free event 🙂

If you are booking a private event for your group then all the promotion of the event can take place internally, on your Intranet or newsletter or wherever you do internal communication. If you are a community group you can publicize your event anywhere you like.

Keep in mind that, though it may seem counterintuitive, the quality of the event can increase with fewer participants, so over promotion is discouraged. A photo walk is great with 30 guests. They can wander while keeping up with the group. 60 participants changes the dynamic. It’s entirely up to you but keeping promo minimal is often ideal.

Private and paid events will require creating a guest list and (optional) ticket purchase, and some events are specifically targeted to a specific kind of group such as architecture and public art enthusiasts or street and landscape photographers.

We offer workshops to satisfy the demand for fun, hands-on training with experts. These experiences have a limit (generally 15-20) and often have a fee ($10 is typical). Up to 8% of the ticket price may be paid to payment processors like Stripe. Your private event can configured to your group and particular needs.

Walking tours are open to anyone from individuals to small groups. Contact Mike for information about tours across Toronto.

Interested in leading a workshop? We offer a generous split to the co-leader (Mike will join you) and we can also offer the creation of an online discussion page so participants can ask questions and network prior to the event.

All our events take place in central or downtown Toronto. Usually events take place near public transit like subway stations. Often are events are outdoors and accessible – though we sometimes take a route inside a building or across rougher terrain (ex. Photo walk in a park).

Some have asked if our events are only for photographers or if kids and dogs are welcome. First off, you don’t need a professional camera. Bring a smartphone or compact camera – or borrow a DSLR or mirrorless for better results. Attendees at our events range from semi-rpo to complete newbies. We tend to offer tips and share what we learn with each other so beginners will always learn something new.

Families are welcome. On street photography or architecture walks in the downtown we find that you should keep your wits about you so kids may be harder to manage. When it comes to dogs or young children it may be ideal to bring them only to events in large parks or natural spaces where they can roam.

Generally all are welcome – just use your common sense, bring your enthusiasm and curiosity and we’ll all have a good time and get some shots we can be proud of.

Gallery

We present a few images from our events held around Greater Toronto.

U of T aka University of Toronto

The U of T’s St. George campus is a crowd pleaser offering many beautiful buildings and landmarks along with fascinating historical elements and architectural details.

Photo Contest 2023 – we held an awards meetup for winners and finalists

Photos by the contest winners and our friend @justsyantan

Photo walks 2020 and 2021 – during the pandemic we led groups to U of T, graffiti Alley and City Place. This is collage from summer of that year. We walked with social distancing and encouraged the use of masks.

Note that we encouraged masking and social distancing. Respect for community and participants is paramount.

Credits

All photos by Mike Simpson and Tdot Shots except feature image by Donna Chong.