The impact of the meetings, incentive, conference and exhibition (MICE) industry on the Canadian economy has always been significant, relating to short-term delegate expenditure and long-term job growth and economic development. These types of business events are also an ideal way to counteract seasonality because international business events take place throughout the year, ensuring a…
In what is claimed to be a first for the meetings and events industry, Business Events Montreal has just launched its Guaranteed Success Pledge. So confident is the city that planners will reach their attendance target numbers, that it will honour its financial commitment for the anticipated number if they don’t. From Boardroom…
Calgary has seen steady growth in life sciences and healthcare, with research clusters spread across the city and a vibrant ecosystem of over 200 companies in the sector, both start-up and mature. Association conferences in the field have seen the potential impact their meetings can have in Calgary, and have consequently been piling up. From Boardroom…
With a record-breaking 3,580 attendees registered, the recent World Sleep 2019 in Vancouver was the largest sleep meeting ever held. Organised by the World and the Canadian Sleep Societies, the event featured a learning and awareness stream free to attend for the general public, Sleep Expo 2019. Photo: Kristopher Grunert. From AMI Intellectual Capitals…
With successful sectors like life sciences, technology, agribusiness, aerospace, clean technology, natural resources and advanced manufacturing, Canada is becoming an increasingly “alluring” destination for global meetings and events. Planners can reach into local industry and academia to shape their meeting agendas, grow their attendances and create legacies. From Boardroom…
The Palais des congrès de Montréal is opening its CITE Event Innovation and Technology Centre, in order to help organisers with reinventing the experience they offer through the expertise of local startups. A dozen firms have joined or will be joining the centre, ultimately in a full-scale co-working space. From Boardroom…
Ottawa Tourism and The Hague Convention Bureau have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will bring the two cities’ convention offerings closer together over the coming years. The agreement was initially discussed five years ago at the ICCA Congress in Antalya, and both organisations have since then sought ways to cooperate. From Meetings International…
The World Small Animal Veterinary Association has held its 44th World Congress in Toronto, at the same time marking its 60th anniversary. Over 2,200 vets from 80 countries attended around 50 streams. One legacy is a list of essential medicines that should always be available in any veterinary pharmacy. From Association Meetings International…
The Iceberg is now identifying and celebrating the greater mass of hard-to-see business events legacies that lie hidden beneath the surface in a new podcast “Below the Waterline”. In the second of a series featuring significant meetings industry players, Iceberg founder James Latham catches up with the IMEX Group’s formidable CEO, Carina Bauer. IMEX…
Victoria is one of Canada’s most picturesque destinations for conferences. The oldest city in the Pacific Northwest is also a leader in ocean science, so a great spot to host conferences in the field. On the doorstep of the Pacific Ocean, Victoria boasts over a hundred sector-related organisations. Photo: Brandon Godfrey. From Meetings International…
PCMA, the Professional Convention Management Association, has just published its annual “Best in Show” list. The ten stories include using art therapy at a haematology event, a heart rhythm meeting dropping registration fees for self-paying attendees from lower income countries, and a biomedical event letting students earn credit towards attendance costs by staffing the meeting. From PCMA…
Edmonton Convention Centre (formerly the Shaw Conference Centre) in Alberta, Canada, is one of North America’s top performing convention centres. It hosts over half a million guests annually and generates more than $30 million in economic impact. The culinary offering is a big part of the venue’s appeal, and between Edmonton’s two convention centres (Edmonton Convention…
Toulouse, Montreal, Singapore, along with Seattle, South East England and Bengalaru in India, are all destinations with clusters of innovation in aerospace. Where knowledge collects, so do associated meetings, so these hubs of expertise in this exciting sector are also attracting significant international events. From Association Meetings International…
The Quebec City Convention Centre has hailed an “outstanding” year in which it hosted 210 events, among them 71 conferences, and over 216,000 delegates. Quebec City Ambassadors, many of whom are research professors at Université Laval, helped land eleven of the eighteen international conferences held at the centre in 2018–2019. From Association Meetings International…
Calgary will be welcoming 5,000 oil and gas professionals when it hosts the World Petroleum Congress in 2023. The city won a vote of the World Petroleum Council in St Petersburg, edging out fellow finalist Baku, by just 21 votes to 20. Calgary stands to earn $65 million from the event. From Association Meetings International…
The Palais des congrès de Montréal has put together a Sustainability Innovation Committee made up of experts from institutions including ten Quebec universities. The group’s purpose will be to facilitate sharing academic research in the field, and to identify research partnership opportunities between the venue and sustainability organisations. From Boardroom…
Five Canadian convention bureaux recently attended London Tech Week’s AI Summit at ExCeL. Their aim was to attract tech-related business events across to their own destinations, along with the inward investment that follows. Among them was Virginie De Visscher, Director of Business Development for Economic Sectors, Business Events Canada (third left). From Association Meetings International…
The Women Deliver conference has just brought 8,000 world leaders, advocates, academics, activists and journalists from over 150 countries into the Vancouver Convention Centre. The meeting aims to influence policy makers and politicians, and to drive investment into the lives of girls and women. Photo: Jon Benjamin Photography. From editor’s blog at Meetings & Incentive Travel…
The most progressive destinations worldwide are positioning themselves as thought leaders in specific advanced industries to engage meeting and event organizers active in those industries. Rather than selling a city based solely on its infrastructure, access and capacity, destination marketing and management organizations (DMMOs) are also promoting their most significant clusters in STEM sectors to…
Collision 2019 is ostensibly a startup show, with nearly 1,100 fledgling companies, 26,000 attendees, and conference tracks for pitching venture capitalists called “Growth Summit,” “MoneyConf,” and, simply, “PITCH.” But another conference theme quietly linked the VC guys in slick suits, with the fintech startups, AI companies and data scientists: fixing the world. From Digital Trends…
The Palais des congrès de Montréal has announced that it is joining the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As well as making daily efforts to reduce its environmental footprint, the venue has also become one of the first centres in the Americas to say its building will be going carbon neutral. From Boardroom…
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