Watson goes to Hollywood, with stop at the Emerald City

Mayor Jim Watson is heading to Los Angeles next week to put a spotlight on Ottawa as a great filmmaking city with a stop at Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle to learn about the retail giant’s operations.

The city announced on Thursday that the mayor will fly to California on Monday, a day after the Emmy Awards, and attend a reception celebrating Canadian Emmy nominees.

On Tuesday, Watson and a small Ottawa delegation will attend an industry dinner hosted by James Villeneuve, Canada’s consul general in L.A. Watson will rub shoulders with film and television leaders and business development contacts.

Watson and Michael Crockatt, the CEO and president of Ottawa Tourism, are scheduled to attend the World Tourism Cities Federation Summit on Wednesday, with the mayor speaking at a forum where he’ll talk about lessons learned during the Ottawa 2017 celebrations.

Watson is also scheduled to meet with Beijing Mayor Chen Jining and the head of the tourism commission for the Chinese capital.

Ottawa and Beijing have had a “sister city” agreement since 1999.

Ottawa film commissioner Bruce Harvey and Kelly Daize, Invest Ottawa’s market director for the Americas, are also part of the Ottawa delegation.

Watson will fly to Seattle on Thursday to tour the Amazon headquarters since Ottawa is interested in the company’s search for a city in which to build a second, huge headquarters.

“My tour of the Amazon campus in Seattle will hopefully let me see what Amazon needs and what they will be looking to achieve with their second headquarters,” Watson said in a written statement. “I look forward to this opportunity to tour the campus and gain insight from the consul and senior trade commissioner in Seattle.”

The city has put together an Amazon task force to explore what it would take to put Ottawa in contention for the Amazon facility.