Toronto Travel Massive Turns 3 with the ROM

Here at Toronto Travel Massive HQ we happen to think all of our events are pretty fantastic but there is one event each year that is a little extra special to us. Our birthday! That’s right, we turned 3 years old this year and we got to celebrate with our good friends at the Royal Ontario Museum.

The Royal Ontario Museum is one of Toronto’s best things to do when you visit this eclectic city. For those of us who live in Toronto, the ROM holds a special place in our hearts. It’s where we once came as kids during annual March Break holidays and as students to learn about ancient tales and interesting history from a time well before us. For starters, when you enter the front doors the first thing to greet you is the skeleton of a dinosaur!

Amanda Lee is the Publicist for the Royal Ontario Museum and a huge part of the Travel Massive community in Toronto. Amanda happens to be one of the original TTMers from August 2010. In September 2010, Toronto Travel Massive officially launched on the rooftop patio at the Crocodile Rock. Back then, TTM was made up of only ten people. Today, TTM events see as many as 100 people each month and has over 800+ fans on the Facebook page!  Three years later, TTM now partners with some of the top leading travel brands in the world like Google, Travelocity, and Travel+Escape. In June, we even had the opportunity to join forces with Tourism Toronto, Expedia, and Afar Magazine at TBEX Toronto!

Through our journey Amanda is still a massive supporter of travel and travel bloggers in T.O. She did a spectacular job helping us celebrate our 3rd anniversary and we couldn’t feel more special on our birthday! Thank you Amanda for giving TTMers exclusive access to our favourite museum for the entire night, including private tours of the newly opened Mesopotamia exhibit!

The Mesopotamia exhibit showcases more than 170 objects from the collections of the British Museum, the ROM and other North American institutions under one roof. It explores more than 3,000 years of ancient artifacts which consequently have a major influence on who we are and how we do things today. That’s because the people of Mesopotamia are believed to have invented or developed the first form of writing called cuneiform. This script was used to communicate messages with one another. One of the earliest writing tools was the handmade stone tablet for schooling where teachers would write on one side and students on the other. As travel writers, we were amazed at the incredible history behind our own profession and what we do everyday. Whether it’s writing or blogging, the Mesopotamia society is still an influential part of how we communicate with our readers today. The exhibit’s main curator, Clemens Reichs, was also on hand to give us a closer look.

The highlight of the night however may have been dessert. Amanda and her team at the ROM surprised TTM with one of the most delicious and unique cakes, to congratulate us on our 3 years – in cuneiform!

Some of the original ladies of Toronto Travel Massive – @JourneyWoman, @solotraveler, @BreatheDreamGo, @Taggio and @LeeAmandaJ

A few new members of TTM also walked away with unique prizes from the ROM and even a spa package from the Ritz Carlton in Toronto!  A MASSIVE thank you to the Royal Ontario Museum for making our 3rd milestone a memorable one!

The Mesopotamia exhibit runs until January 2014 at the Royal Ontario Museum. Follow #ROMmeso on Twitter for all the updates or you can book your tickets online!