I put up a long post that answered that question in that thread which is apparently now gone. In a nutshell Mike has combined incall and outcall operations in a manner that no top Montreal agency has ever done, and by doing so he has greatly expanded his client base. He has a great incall location and it is well operated and convenient. I was very comfortable going there. I have used his incall and outcall ops but I think most of his clients are either incall only or outcall only based on my conversations with them at GG1, GG2, and GG3.
The parties probably helped him, but IMHO if your agency sucks to begin with, a party will not be enough to help it. The key to the success of GG is the execution of its business model. Other outcall agencies tried incall ops and never did it as well as GG does. That is the simple reason why GG won that poll handily, when you do incall and outcall well you double the amount of your clients. Other agencies tried to do it and they fucked up. Mike has not fucked it up, he has executed it as it should be done. Location is a big key, I believe.
Regarding Eleganza, I agree with JJ that for a 5 year stretch John was DA MAN in Montreal and it was due to his recruiting. John also had a great agency party that I attended on September 15, 2007 at a downtown restaurant. It was right up there with GG1 and GG2, but GG3 was the best agency party of all time in Montreal history and I have been to a great majority of them in the past 10 years. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that GG3 was the best of the GG parties and all other agency parties I have been to.