our team
michelle dunn, principal & Founder
Michelle Dunn has amassed an impressive reputation and an award-winning media relations track record over her 20-year public relations career in tourism and hospitality working with travel, culinary, lifestyle, news and meetings & events media. Known for being a strategic thinker, she has leadership experience in media and public relations, brand building, event planning, corporate and internal communications, social media, crisis communications and community relations.
Michelle has led the communications for award-winning brands such as Rocky Mountaineer (luxury trains with rolling restaurants), Tourism Richmond (Destination Marketing Organization) and Delta Hotels (Corporate Office for 40 hotels) where she consistently surpassed projected brand awareness targets. Her Tourism Richmond experience included working with the city’s 25 brand name hotels (Fairmont, River Rock, Westin, Marriott, Hilton, Sheraton), hundreds of restaurants, as well as all festivals and attractions. By 2015, Richmond’s year-to-date hotel occupancy was the highest in Canada for the second year in a row. She was also a lead in developing www.365daysofdining.com, an innovative year-long food-focused influencer campaign which won a Canadian Tourism Award for Social Media Campaign of the Year. A career highlight was serving on the Tourism Consortium Media Relations Committee for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
Her SISU PR agency has worked with brands such as The Shipyards District BIA, Taku Resort Quadra Island, Vancouver’s North Shore Tourism Association, The Polygon Gallery’s Holiday Shop, Shipyards Friday Night Market, Executive Hotels, East Seals BC & Yukon, Tourism Richmond, Helene Clarkson Design, Fall For Local Market and Backpack Buddies Charity.
She holds a B.A. in English and French from the University of Toronto and a certificate in Public Relations from Humber College. Driven by integrity, passion and her own Finnish SISU, Michelle is a polished public relations professional whose fun approach will ensure that your journey to PR success is a pleasurable one.
cate simpson, culinary & EVENT consultant
A born and bred Vancouverite, Cate Simpson has spent her career working with renowned culinary and hospitality brands in British Columbia. She brings a wealth of operations knowledge with a strong food, beverage and service background from years working in front of house management with restaurants and hotels such as Four Seasons Hotels, Fairmont and the Relais & Chateaux property, Hastings House. This professional experienced communicator has represented restaurants such as Earls Kitchen + Bar (North America) launching new restaurants for them in Ontario, Alberta, Miami, Boston, Chicago, Washington, DC and Orlando. She has worked with Vice President Al Gore on the launch of his book, An Inconvenient Truth, and has project managed the creation of four cookbooks, all of them national best sellers. Locally she helped brand Chef Rob Feenie and his restaurants Lumiere and Feenie’s, as well as a number of iconic restaurants in Vancouver.
Cate specializes in media relations, media training, crisis communications, press tours, large scale events, and project manages culinary photography/videography, food styling and social media. This past year she generated over 18 million dollars in positive advertising equivalency value for her clients. Cate is involved with a number of charities and is a board member of the BC Chefs’ Table Society and Les Dames d’Escoffier, a leadership and philanthropic culinary organization composed of women.