Home to some of the world’s northernmost cities, Canada contains vast wilderness and tech hubs in equal measure, organisers can tap into Canada’s growing expertise in cleantech and AI, with access to the vistas of The Great White North.
Montréal
Montréal’s pedigree in advanced tech is clear. The UN Office for Global Artificial Intelligence ranked Montréal fourth in the world and first in North America for cities excelling in AI. Analysis by the Financial Times placed Montréal first in cities across North America best positioned for AI investment, topping San Francisco and New York.
A combination of talent, low operating costs and an abundance of research institutes like ‘Mila’ make the city a high-performing AI hub. It was thanks in part to a Canadian research paper that our current AI revolution exists at all. Researchers at the University of Toronto ran neural network tests on high-resolution images in 2012, propelling the study of AI forward.
Much of this pioneering work is still done in Montréal today. Joelle Pineau, Meta’s vice-president of AI research and global industry icon, is headquartered there, at McGill University. Yoshua Bengio, scientific director at Mila, was given the Turing Award (the ‘Nobel Prize of computing’) in 2018 for his work on deep learning.
Despite not having the size or funding of major USA universities like Stanford, Canada consistently outperforms in AI and machine learning. Students and researchers flock to Montréal to be taught by some of the world’s leading deep-tech experts.
Montréal’s expertise is reflected in the wealth of AI and machine learning events hosted there: ALL IN – the largest AI-centred gathering in Canada, hosted at the Palais des congrès de Montréal E-AI – partnered with the Palais, E-AI unites the AI and entertainment industries World Summit AI Americas – America’s leading AI summit, officially partnered with Mila, with both Bengio and Pineau speaking at the 2024 event in the Palais des congrès de Montréal
Healthcare is another sector in which Montréal specialises. The city has hosted events like the 24th International AIDS Conference in 2022, attracting 7,000 delegates, and the International Council of Nurses Congress in 2023 with 4,900 participants.
The impact of these events is vast. Major association events attract thousands of high-spending delegates, contributing to the $311m in economic impact generated by the 290 events hosted at the Palais. In 2022, the 15th United Nations Biodiversity Conference alone generated $151m in total economic impact.
Calgary
In events and in history, Calgary is a story of energy. In 1914, two entrepreneurs stumbled upon natural gas bubbling up from the ground in the town of Okotoks. This discovery birthed a booming oil and gas industry that turned Calgary into Canada’s energy capital.
Over 100 years later, Calgary events are still capitalising on that reputation. In 2023, Calgary’s BMO Centre hosted two of the world’s biggest and most prestigious energy events. In June, it held the Global Energy Show, attracting 30,000 attendees, then in September it hosted the 24th World Petroleum Congress, with over 15,000 in attendance.
Now, however, Calgary is building an energy reputation in a new way. While the two major oil and gas events of 2023 suggest Calgary is doubling down on its fossil fuel fame, in fact, the reverse is true. Calgary’s World Petroleum Congress was held under the title ‘Energy Transition – Path to Net Zero’, and the city is embarking upon this path as a whole.
Increasingly, the destination is detaching from its petroleum dependency, investing into sectors like renewable energy, healthcare, communications and more. In 2023 and 2024, Calgary hosted Canada’s biggest renewable energy conference – Electricity Transformation Canada – with both events running at the BMO Centre, the largest convention centre in Calgary. 2024’s event brought together over 2,600 attendees and 125 expert speakers, making it the largest edition to date.
Beyond energy, Calgary has also held Canada’s largest marketing conference – SocialWest. Pulling in over 850 digital marketing professionals, the event has been held at numerous locations across the city, with 2025’s venue booked for the CTCC – Calgary TELUS Convention Centre (the oldest of its kind in Canada).
Calgary major venues
Calgary TELUS Convention Center – Canada’s oldest convention venue, CTCC was opened in 1974 (celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024). The venue measures 11,300sqm in event space, and is the city’s best-connected convention centre with over 1,100 nearby hotel rooms spread across three four-star hotels. It is also connected to a world-class museum and performing arts campus, both of which are accessible via the +15 Skywalk Network.
In keeping with Calgary’s plan to move beyond oil and gas dependency, sustainability is an area of keen interest for the venue. CTCC reports that it aims to meet the City of Calgary “aggressive goals”, by reducing water-use activities, installing air curtains to trap heat and reducing overall power usage by adding variable frequency drives.
In 1979 the CTCC held Canada’s first million-dollar fundraiser. In need of financial support, the Calgary and District Foundation set its sights on inviting 1,000 of the city’s elites, at $1,000 per plate, to achieve its goal. In what became a who’s who of Calgary, the dinner surpassed its goal, raising $2 million dollars ($8 million in 2024 dollars), an astonishing feat for 1979.
BMO Center – located in Stampede Park, home of the world’s largest outdoor rodeo, the BMO centre spans 93,000sqm of event space.
On the doorstep of wilderness
Alberta is widely recognised to be one of the most stunning provinces in Canada. Calgary sits on the doorstep of that scenic beauty. Within two hours’ drive from the city, visitors can reach Lake Louise, Moraine Lake and the mountain town of Banff. The lakes surrounding Calgary provide some of the most famous mountain vistas in the world – something delegates can experience on ‘bleisure’ trips.
Ottawa
The Canadian capital is a city of talent. Ottawa contains the highest concentration of tech talent in North America, as well as the highest average level of education anywhere in Canada. The events industry here is built around this intellectual heritage, with Ottawan events revolving around cleantech (sustainable tech), software, defence and health science.
Each year, the city hosts the Cleantech Export Summit, bringing together experts and entrepreneurs from across Canada that are active in exporting sustainable technology (primarily to the USA). In a ranking by the Cleantech Group of 100 companies that are making a difference in global cleantech, Canada held 13 spots. Many of these companies attend Ottawa’s Cleantech Export Summit, showcasing technologies like sustainable metal extraction, compressed air energy storage, cloud-based lithium batteries, advanced ventilation and more.
Other cleantech events in the calendar include the Cleantech Community Meetup 2024 at ‘innovation centre’ Bayview Yards and the Sustainable Finance Forum 2024 at the Rogers Centre. The government is actively supporting this sector, and has committed CAD$20bn over the next six years to invest into cleantech businesses.
Other key sectors that host major events in Ottawa are:
Health science
Annual Ottawa Conference – held at the Rogers Centre, the event focuses on medical education and practice.
Law Enforcement and Public Health conference – an event centred around the intersection of law enforcement and public health, hosted at the University of Ottawa.
Information and communication tech
AWS Symposium Ottawa 2025 – organised by Amazon Web Services, the event will cover topics from cloud computing and cybersecurity to data analytics and genAI, at the Rogers Centre.
iTech Ottawa 2024 – also hosted at the Rogers Centre, iTech is touted as Canada’s leading IT infrastructure and cloud event.
New plans for Ottawa
AC Hotels by Marriott Ottawa is set to open three new hotels in the coming years. The first, AC Marriott Ottawa, will be at 201 Rideau Street, equipped with 159 guest rooms and apartment rentals on the top floors. In meeting space, there will be five rooms totaling 390sqm, each with floor-to-ceiling windows.
The Moxy Marriott will open its doors in spring 2025, on York Street directly behind AC Marriott Ottawa. Luxury establishment Renaissance Ottawa is scheduled to start operating in autumn 2027.
Also in the pipeline are plans to recover food from a nine-day hockey tournament, the 2025 World Junior Championships, to distribute among locals in need. This initiative comes as part of a partnership with La Tablée des Chefs, Hockey Canada and Lionhearts to divert food destined for landfill into the wider community. As of December 2024, 60,000 meals have been recovered with an excess of 10,000kg of food
