Canada’s brightest minds are providing true value for business events. One of Canada’s greatest offerings remains undiscovered by many. When people think of Canada, their minds may conjure images of pristine mountainous landscapes, some most famously friendly people in the world or perhaps simply a bottle of maple syrup. And while, yes, Canada is blessed with unparalleled natural beauty and an incredibly welcoming population – some of whom might enjoy a drizzle of syrup here and there – Canada has a lot more to offer. This vast country is home to some of the globe’s most visionary minds, and they are more than willing to share their groundbreaking ideas with the world. In this article, we’ll look at how Canada’s leading thinkers and intellectual offerings are changing the landscape of their sectors and attracting – and benefitting – international business events.
Canada’s intellectual prowess
Canada is a powerhouse across numerous arenas of work, but particularly in six key sectors: agribusiness, advanced manufacturing, technology, life sciences, natural resources, and finance and insurance (F&I). In the technology sector, for example, Canadian destinations are flourishing. In 2023, CBRE reported that Calgary, the Waterloo Region and Québec City were among those with the highest growth in their “Tech Talent Scorecard Ranking”. Meanwhile, in the F&I sector, Toronto remains North America’s second-largest financial hub, after New York City, and is home to over 600 fintech firms, 10,000 financial services companies and over 320,000 financial services professionals. For those in the natural resources sector, Canada provides great value as a cleantech powerhouse. The country is the world’s second-largest producer of hydroelectricity and Vancouver, known for its natural beauty, is home to the world’s largest hydrogen fuel cell industry – with a 16% global market share. These examples are just a surface-level view of why Canada should be viewed as a global leader in these sectors, and the others identified above. If you’re looking to host impactful and inspiring business events, this provides a fantastic opportunity.
Ottawa
The Canadian Visionaries Network
In each of the areas above, there are Canadian academic, industry and association leaders undertaking pioneering work and driving their sector forward. Event organisers can leverage this wealth of knowledge capital to enhance their agendas by hearing from these experts as keynote speakers, touring their state-of-the-art facilities and/or engaging in business to business exchanges with the organisations leading their field. To raise awareness of this, Destination Canada recently developed the Canadian Visionaries Network (CVN) as a vehicle for telling the stories of Canada’s thought leaders. The CVN aims to showcase Canada’s intellectual capital offerings and to connect people from around the world with the inspiring ideas and experiences of these influential innovators.
Meet the Visionaries
Rather than simply describe the CVN, we thought it would be best to introduce several of its members – to give you a better idea of the calibre of expertise available in Canada.
Professor Lara Mahal
Based in Edmonton, Alberta, Prof. Mahal was the recipient of a prestigious Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC), in Glycomics, in 2019. The highly competitive CERC Program supports world-renowned researchers – and their teams – and offers universities award values of either CAD $8m (USD $6m) or $4m over eight years for them to establish ambitious research programs at Canadian universities. Prof. Mahal’s work focuses on system-based approaches to understand the complex sugars that encode the information governing our health.
Michael Tremblay
President and CEO of Invest Ottawa, Bayview Yards and Area X.O, Micheal Tremblay oversees some of the world’s most cutting-edge innovations. Area X.O, launched in 2020, is a “futureplex of innovation and collaboration”. Established and managed by Invest Ottawa, the 185- acre test facility is home to one of the most advanced communication test infrastructures in the world and collaborates with global leaders in defence and security. Meanwhile, Bayview Yards is a dynamic hub that helps start-ups and scale-ups develop and thrive. Tremblay and the entire team at Invest Ottawa are extremely valuable resources for organisations looking to host insightful events in this arena.
Meryl Afrika
Previously the president of the Canadian Association of Urban Financial Professionals, Meryl Afrika currently sits on the board of directors for Pitch Better – a non-profit that deploys market research to enable underrepresented female founders to develop their businesses. Afrika is a leader within the Black community and continually champions diversity and inclusion within corporate Canada. In 2021, she co-founded BlackTies, with the aim of elevating and amplifying Black talent across the globe. Aside from this admirable work, Afrika is a financial services professional with over 10 years’ experience in the payments space.
Dr. Ryan D’Arcy
Having published over 260 academic works and attracted more than $85m in competitive research and innovation funding, Dr. Ryan Darcy is a leading mind within the neuroscience community. He is the president and chief science Oofficer of HealthTech Connex, a biotechnology company based in the Metro Vancouver area of British Columbia, and is a three-time TEDX speaker. His work with events, however, is not limited to delivering impactful addresses. In 2014, Dr. D’Arcy helped to bring the International Conference on Biomagnetism – the world’s premier conference on neuroscience and biomagnetism mapping on the brain – to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Toronto
Scratching the surface
Many of Canada’s brightest minds have helped draw events to the country, and many more have been leveraged by visiting organisations to enhance their meeting’s agenda – with their deep knowledge of their sector. And while the CVN is a fantastic resource for an organisation looking to learn more about Canada’s intellectual riches, many Canadian destinations have their own local ambassador programs that can act as one-stop-shops for organisations looking to tap into a city’s innovation ecosystem. These initiatives – like the MIND Partnership in Vancouver, the Local Champion Program in Calgary or The Legacy Project in Saskatoon – allow visiting corporations and associations to easily connect with the right people to help make their next event unforgettable.
Get in touch
To learn more about the Canadian Visionary Network, how Canada’s sector expertise can benefit your event, or anything else about hosting events in Canada – reach out to Destination Canada’s Business Events team. Contact: Robert McCreight, director of Government and Industry Relations, Business Events, Destination Canada Email: mccreight.robert@destinationcanada.com Phone: +1-343-202-2042 Or learn more at: businesseventscanada.ca
