Canada's Top Culinary Marketing Team

Kyle Connaughton - SingleThread 2023

Kyle Connaughton @ Major Tom
SingleThread Farm 3 Michelin Stars 2022
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awardee

Founded in 2008, IDMG specializes in strategic culinary marketing, custom content and event planning, and final execution. From offices in Calgary and Toronto, we design and implement customized marketing programs for clients in Canada and the United States. It’s what we do, and it’s what we love.

Wonderful things happen when pleasure sensors are triggered by superb taste experiences. What better way to make an enduring impression than inviting friends, customers, colleagues or associates to a remarkable meal with the world’s most recognizable culinary talent? From large corporate events to intimate gatherings, we deliver unforgettable culinary experiences featuring the world’s top chefs, sommeliers, wine makers and more.

If all this tastes good to you, let’s sit down and work out a “menu” designed to get you the results you want.

OUR PARTNERS

Services: what we offer.

It’s simple: we curate the most distinct and memorable culinary and winery events coast to coast across Canada. Our years of experience and 1000 successful dining events mean we know and work alomgside the best chefs from North America and around the world for each client activation. Big or small, we can host intimate gatherings or large scale corporate-backed events (such as our Visa Infinite Dining & Wine Country series).

Chefs we work with.

In our 15 years in business and over 1000 events organized, there’s not too many chefs we haven’t worked with.
Here are some of the amazing—and talented—friends we’ve made along the way.

Gallery

Meet the team.

Our dedicated team of event curators specialize in creating the most unique and memorable culinary experiences. Each team member comes with many years of event marketing and a wealth of management skills under their belts.

  • Paul Alsop

    Managing Director

  • Don House

    Managing Director

  • Paula Kane

    Creative Director

  • Irena Knorr

    Culinary Program Director

Bios & contact.

  • Managing Director

    As a Managing Director and co-owner of Integrated Digital Media Group (IDMG Culinary Marketing), Paul creates unique and innovative culinary experiences, activations and programs in Canada and the United States. Paul was the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for ScoreGolf Media and the program founder and Executive Director of Links for Women, a division of ScoreGolf and a driving force in the development of women’s golf. He has deep experience in sponsorhip and business development, and is a former executive at Molson Sports & Entertainment and Playdium Entertainment Corporation. At IDMG, Paul works with North America’s leading chefs to design unique and on-trend culinary events for global Fortune 500 brands, and is in charge of talent recruitment and business development for the ground-breaking TV series Four Senses on AMI. Paul collaborates with the world’s leading wine regions to design engaging consumer activations that bring together top food and wine personalities. He is the co-founder and publisher of the Ontario Culinary Adventure Guide and publisher of Toronto’s CityBites magazine. He was graduated from Bishop’s University in Business Administration and from George Brown College in Sport and Event Market.

    Email Paul

  • Managing Director

    As a Managing Director and co-owner of Integrated Digital Media Group, Don has a primary focus on culinary marketing activations that bring consumers together with food and wine brands in an informative and accessible style. Don has designed culinary marketing efforts that support Canada’s International Trade and Investment, having produced events in San Francisco and Hong Kong for British Columbia Wines, the Office of International Trade and Investment of the British Columbia Government, and the Consulate General of Canada. He was a founder and past Vice President of Redpoint Media Group and publisher of its Avenue and Wine Access magazines. He created the Canadian Wine Annual, Canada’s most comprehensive guide to the Canadian wine industry. Don has more than 15 years of governance experience and is currently the Chairman of the Alberta Culinary Tourism Alliance. He is past Chair of the Art Gallery of Calgary and Alberta Publishers Association.

    Email Don

  • Creative Director

    As IDMG’s Creative Director, Paula is responsible for all creative, marketing, and social media for the culinary programs IDMG executes for its clients. From a background in advertising, Paula has forged a career that combines her love of good food with her expertise in executing and marketing highly successful culinary events. She managed the Savour Wine & Food Festival in Calgary for six years and was Creative Director for the Salut Wine Festival in Calgary and Toronto. She received a scholarship from the James Beard Foundation to attend Le Cordon Bleu Paris, from which she was graduated in 2009. She is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art & Design, has completed the International Sommelier Guild Wine Fundamentals (Level one) and completed the Hautes Etudes du Goût program in gastronomy from which she was awarded a Masters degree from the University of Reims in Champagne, France.

    Email Paula

  • Culinary Program Director

    A graduate of the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Commerce, Irena Knorr started her career in advertising before focusing on event management for a number of arts organizations including The Art Gallery of Calgary and Contemporary Calgary. It was through her role organizing the Gallery's annual Iron Chef-inspired fundraiser where Irena experienced her first taste of the world of culinary events, leading her to pursue a new direction into culinary and wine tourism. Highly skilled in event management and activation, logistics, and sponsor relations, Irena’s role with IDMG as a Culinary Program Director includes planning and implementing strategic culinary, wine and lifestyle programs for IDMG clients such as Visa, TD, Downtown Calgary and Wines of British Columbia.

    Email Irena