Canada co-operation points the way to new model of working together

The convention centers of Canada Conference was an example of what partnership between associations can bring to members, says AIPC ECO Sven Bossu. AIPC and Convention Centers of Canada (CCoC) formed an alliance when the Covid crisis started and continue to deepen their relationship, to their mutual benefit. particularly in terms of content and networking for their members. CCoC took us to Edmonton for their 2022 Annual Conference, bringing together the senior leadership of the full community of Canadian convention centres – from Vancouver to Toronto and everything in between. Executive director, Barry Smith, pulled together an amazing programme, covering everything from technology to security and was kind enough to invite me, too. Back in 2020, Barry Smith and myself – we knew each other from a previous life – were both confronted with members being shut down as a result of the pandemic and decided to create an alliance whereby a dual membership was created. For AIPC this offered an unique opportunity to engage – albeit digitally – with the full Canadian community and CCoC obtained access to AIPC’s global research and resources. In 2021 – almost by miracle – I was able to attend the face-to-face annual conference CCoC organised. Similar to AIPC, they made a point of having a physical gathering, despite the fact that attendance figures would be drastically lower than normal (AIPC actually had 50 attendees in 2021, compared to 160 in 2019). At that moment, we agreed that we would make a point of attending each other’s Annual Conference, both to make our alliance ‘visible’ and to allow for exchanging ideas on the actual programme. The impact was almost instant. Because only a limited number of Canadian venues were able to make it to the AIPC Annual Conference (travel restrictions, budget, etc.), we brought some of the speakers to Edmonton, where their global views complemented perfectly with the speakers focusing on Canadian business reality. Vice-versa, I saw some amazing Canadian speakers who will be joining one of the AIPC summits in the next months. In 2023, we will most likely bring this exchange of knowhow to a different level and we are currently exploring possibilities of a joint educational programme, co-creation of a talent programme, etc. Similar to value demonstrated by the collaboration between global associations like UFI, ICCA and AIPC, this shows there is similar value in local and global associations working together and delivering maximal value to their respective members. It allows to develop models of collaboration which can be copied/pasted/improved to other countries and regions. In that aspect, AIPC is delighted that we just obtained support from the South African National Convention Bureau to organise our first ever face-to-face AIPC Africa Summit in February next year, just before Meetings Africa. There will be no maple syrup or snow, but I’m sure we’ll have the pleasure of working with persons and organisations sharing the same purpose as our Canadian friends and the full AIPC community: namely delivering unique experiences by operational excellence.