This text is part of the special brochure Business Tourism

Post-pandemic video conferencing fatigue will have greatly benefited the Palais des congrès de Montréal in 2022.

“This year our events are much bigger. They take up 30% more space. This is because the delegates have a genuine desire to see each other and discuss in person. It’s very intense,” says Christian Ruel, Vice President of Finance and Administration of the Palais des congrès de Montréal.

For Montreal, 2022 is a good year for the number of events, 286 by the end of the year, although Christian Ruel acknowledges that Montreal has not yet fully recovered its pre-pandemic rhythm of 330 events in the good years. “But a year ago, remember, it was omicron. We hardly get out. »

From May to September, Montreal welcomed 207,000 visitors and delegates and hosted some very large events: 10,400 delegates to the International Dental Days, 5,900 “Lions” to the International Congress of Lions Clubs, 47,200 and 29,400 delegates respectively to the two comic and anime Festivals, Comiccon and Otakuthon. Benefits, totaling more than $162 million, vary widely from one event to another. The 7,000 delegates of the 24th^e The International AIDS Conference booked 19,600 nights, or nearly 20% of the total.

Another post-pandemic effect: many events are organized very quickly. It was recently announced that the UN Conference on Biodiversity (COP 15) will be held in Montreal in early December. “After Nairobi in June [où s’est tenue une session de travail en prévision de la COP 15], the Canadian government volunteered and very quickly attached the threads. »

For the fifth consecutive year, the Union of International Associations 2021 rankings ranked Montreal as the top destination for international conventions on the continent. “I’m still fascinated to see how we overtake New York, Toronto and Vancouver year after year. This is due to the quality of the Palais, but also to Montreal’s positioning, which better showcases its assets. »

pole position

Regarding the organization of events in Montreal, the big novelty is called POLE, for “Event Rental Optimization Program”. It aims to encourage the creation of recurring international events by contributing to the funding, organization and communication for a few years.

The first project, realized very quickly in June 2022, is called Entertain-AI, an original idea that brings together the two Montreal ecosystems of artificial intelligence and entertainment. The first edition incl 350 participants from 200 organizations came to hear 80 speakers. “We want to build events that are Montreal-focused, that create economic and intellectual activity, and that will fly by themselves. »

The other novelty is the policy of eco-conditionality. It consists of offering a rent reduction of up to 10% to organizations that take concrete actions towards sustainable development, such as:

“It’s another tool in our trunk,” says Christian Ruel. This initiative is a complement to others that have been established over the years, such as B. the carbon neutrality of the building, the offsetting of greenhouse gases by planting trees, the city agriculture laboratory and the generalization of recycling and composting throughout the site. “Sustainable development is now a must in the policies of organizations that have to demonstrate their actions to their members. »

Play to your strengths

The Palais des congrès de Montréal continues to do well despite the labor shortage that forces it to use more temporary employment agencies. The difficulties in recruiting receptionists are now affecting information technology and audiovisual production, two booming sectors that draw from the same pool as the Palais. “We’ve never experienced a service disruption, but it requires us to ‘stay on the ball’. »

Several new functions introduced by the Palace a few years ago continue to work well, including that of “Ambassadors”. These are Quebec scholars working to attract the international conferences of organizations of which they are members to Montreal. The palace held a contest to reward her and offered three prizes totaling $10,000.

Christian Ruel explains that the Palais team continues to strengthen the Events Lab. This flexible structure, launched in 2019, relies on a dozen local companies selected to offer event organizers a personalized service, whether optimizing the location of the accommodation or organizing scenographic events.

This year the palace recruited two new partners. Lifeline is a provider of portable charging stations for mobile phone and tablet batteries. “It is very needed, we have to offer more. The other is called Aglaé, a box that offers a unique concept of event scenography based on plant luminescence. “We benefit greatly from our collaboration with MT Lab, a tourism innovation incubator that is a real incubator. »

This featured content was created by the featured releases team of Have to, Marketing related. The elaboration of Have to did not participate.

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