Smart Meetings

Its valleys nurture vineyards; its inner mountains, the Canadian Rockies, hide ski resorts and dramatic summit vistas. And its largest city, pristine Vancouver, bustles with a vigor that enthralls visitors from all around
the world.
No wonder Vancouver will host the Winter Olympics, February 12–28, 2010. It’s as if the huge international winter-sports event were designed specifically for B.C. The Olympics will bring a million visitors to the province, and just about all of them will go home raving about the beauty, sophistication and convenience of what they experienced.
    For meeting professionals, B.C., particularly the Vancouver-Victoria-Whistler region in the province’s southwest corner, offers so many opportunities to produce memorable meetings. Want international sophistication? The idea practically defines Vancouver. How about the elegance of an English high tea and the architectural beauty of B.C.’s provincial capital buildings? Victoria’s your spot. Or perhaps your group favors the athletic and natural.
You can’t go wrong in scenic Whistler, which will host the alpine events during the coming 2010 Olympics.

VANCOUVER t
To help you visualize it, combine the ship-
dotted bay of San Diego, the movie-town glamour of Los Angeles, the Euro-style sophistication of San Francisco, the water-hugging hub of Seattle, plus a bridge or two taken
from Sydney, Australia, and that’s Vancouver
in a nutshell.
Not only is the city Canada’s busiest port, but it’s also the busiest city in the country for film and television work. Oh, and there’s a huge Chinatown overflowing with Canada’s best Asian food, a sepia-toned old neighborhood called Gastown and ski runs on neighboring Grouse Mountain that you can see from downtown.
In Vancouver, the compelling pull of the indoors and the outdoors yanks your body in two directions at once. Within the city’s distinctive, charming neighborhoods, you want to be simultaneously walking outdoors and shopping indoors. The Vancouver Convention & Visitors Bureau
(tourismvancouver.com) can help you balance all the competing charms
of the city.
For meeting planners, however, the parallel charms pack a wallop. Jonelle Glosch is executive/special assistant to the president at Evidence Based Research in Vienna, Va. Although she has organized plenty of meetings for her company in Washington, D.C., and neighboring big cities, “Vancouver,” she says, “has an international flavor that our attendees couldn’t get enough of. Not just the food—Vancouver has some of the best Asian food in North America—but also the museums, the shops, and even the hotels. There’s a jazz festival in summer, but there seems to be music all the time.”
Glosch is not alone in her praise. For the third year in a row, readers of Condé Nast Traveler voted Vancouver “Best City in the Americas” in the magazine’s annual Readers’ Choice Awards.

VANCOUVER CONVENTION AND EXHIBITION CENTRE
Meeting-space opportunities in Vancouver begin with the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre (VCEC; vcec.ca.com.), which
will host an estimated 10,000 media from around the world during
the Winter Games in its role as the Combined Main Media Centre.
The Centre is undergoing a $615-million (CDN) expansion, scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2008. (The facility remains open during construction, and building noise is not expected to impact any
ongoing meetings.)
The investment will significantly increase the Centre’s exhibition and meeting space: existing exhibition coverage will expand from 91,000 sq. ft. to 316,000, and existing meeting space will grow from 25,000 sq. ft. to 85,500. The number of meeting rooms will increase, too, from 20 to 73. The facility’s Signature Ballroom will be transformed from a 17,000-square-foot space to a 72,800-square-foot great room. Moreover, the Centre has already significantly refocused its catering approach as part of its Happy Earth program. Menus now focus primarily on certified organic, free-range and wild foods. Additionally, the Centre’s commitment to environmental practices includes avoiding disposable plates and cutlery in food and beverage service, donating leftover food to local charities, earning a Powersmart Convention Centre designation through BCHydro and a Go Green award from the Building Owners and Managers Association. The Centre’s extensive recycling program saw almost half of the total waste produced last year recycled.

EVENT VENUES AND ACTIVITIES
For a taste of true Vancouver, connect your meeting’s attendees with the Museum of Anthropology (moa.ubc.ca/visitor/rentals.php) at the University of British Columbia (UBC). The museum houses one of the world’s finest collections of Northwest Coast First Nations art in a spectacular building overlooking the Strait of Georgia and the North Shore Mountains. An outdoor salmon barbecue there can accommodate up to 1,000 people, while an exclusive cocktail reception for groups of up to 100 people can be hosted in the museum’s lobby.
While there, encourage them to wander through Sty-Wet-Tan, the Great Hall in UBC’s First Nations Longhouse (longhouse.ubc.ca), a dramatic 3,000-square-foot, multipurpose structure with four house posts and two supporting roof beams carved by noted Northwest Coast artists. It’s also suitable for meetings, cultural events and catered luncheons for groups of up to 300.
Or organize a morning run through Stanley Park (city.Vancouver.bc.-ca/Parks/parks/Stanley), 1,000 acres of hybrid British-Canadian parkland on a finger of Vancouver land poking into English Bay.
Grouse Mountain  (grousemountain.com), just across lacy Lions Gate Bridge from Stanley Park and downtown Vancouver, offers several truly unique meeting spaces 3,700 feet above sea level: the Timber Room, Observatory and Attitudes Bistro for groups of up to 500. Ask for special group prices for the tram ride to the top of the mountain.

RICHMOND t
Perhaps the key clue about the Vancouver area’s allure is this: even Vancouver’s airport suburb is beautiful. Called Richmond, it is where you’ll find the striking Gateway Theatre (gatewaytheatre.com), home to one of the largest acting companies in Canada. There’s also the Richmond Art Gallery (richmondart-gallery.org) as well as the Richmond Museum located within the Richmond Cultural Centre (richmond.ca).
It’s a culturally diverse and geographically unique community, 20 minutes close to downtown Vancouver and just 25 minutes north of the U.S. border. Development of the city’s downtown core continues; part of the growth is the  construction of the speed-skating oval for the Winter Games.
Steveston Village, home to Canada’s largest commercial fishing fleet, is also a quaint harborside community rich in fishing and cannery history. You can stroll along Fisherman’s Wharf, which is served by several restaurants and food stands. In the main village, galleries feature locally made arts and several more restaurants offer Greek, Italian and casual menus.  
Also in Steveston are the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site (pc.gc.ca/-georgiacannery) and the Britannia Heritage Shipyard, which presents concerts on the dock all summer. It’s the site of the Richmond Maritime Festival in August. The London Heritage Farms and Steveston Museum are likewise in the area (all: richmond.ca).
Richmond’s Vancouver International Airport (YVR) is also participating in the whole region’s program of extensive upgrading and expansion in anticipation of the coming Olympics. Tourism Richmond (tourismrichmond.com) welcomes meetings professionals with help in planning, the selection of venues and suppliers, with human resources and more.

MEETING VENUES
Hotels of every size and economy crowd the periphery of Vancouver International like bleachers at a ballpark. Indeed, more than 23 hotels are literally just a couple or three minutes away from YVR, many with meeting and event space.
Richmond is also where you’ll find the
River Rock Casino Resort, covering nine acres and the largest casino in British
Columbia. It offers a variety of conference
and meeting rooms, including the Casino’s 950-seat show lounge.

VICTORIA AND VANCOUVER ISLAND t
Narrow stone streets, alleys lined by cottages and “shoppes,” and a quiet harbor ruled by a queen—an empress, actually—and that’s Victoria. It’s arguably the most charming city in North America, certainly the most charming on the West Coast (sorry, San Francisco).     Shining with British pride, it’s a city where people love bagpipes, pubs, shepherd’s pie and knobby, wooly fisherman’s sweaters. But don’t let the British-centricity take your attention away from the city’s diverse population, which is perhaps most apparent in Victoria’s super-abundant restaurants. In fact, the city has more restaurants per capita than any other city in North America save for San Francisco.
“What I love so much about Victoria is that it’s unique,” comments Leanne Calderwood, an independent meeting professional with Four Seasons Events in Calgary, Alberta. “Everything’s right at your fingertips. And I was surprised by how much culture is there,” she remarks. “It’s a government town, the capital of the province, so it’s got all this beautiful old Canadian government architecture, with the copper-roofed stone buildings. Yet it’s like a small town too; there are a lot of neighborhoods and places within places. You can spend all day touring the beautiful Inner Harbor.”
Victoria has the mildest climate in Canada, so year-round outdoor activities are part of the city’s and island’s life and culture. In fact, golfing and gardening are practically religions for the faithful.
The ocean is also integral to life on Vancou-ver Island and, to truly experience Victoria, getting out on the water is highly recommended. Boating, sailing, fishing, canoeing, diving and whale-watching adventures abound.
But you haven’t truly experienced Victoria and the island unless you’ve toured your group through the Royal British Columbia Mus-eum (royalbcmuseum.bc.ca) in Victoria to see a sliver of its amazing collection of more than 7 million historic and cultural artifacts detailing the human and natural history of the province. Butchart Gardens (butchartgardens.com), an official National Historic Site on Vancouver Island north of Victoria, is world-famous for its collection of thousands of rhododendrons, among other plants and trees. And Hatley Park and Castle (hatleypark-.com), an Edwardian estate on 565 acres, offers meeting professionals the opportunity to organize team-building activities with the assistance of the park’s staff.
And then there’s tea time. If Victorians and islanders expand their spirits outside, their collective sacred moment is indoors at the Fairmont Empress Hotel when British High Tea occurs. It’s been a tradition in the hotel’s opulent Tea Lobby for 95 years.
The hotel, opened in 1908 on Victoria’s Inner Harbor, is a landmark. Actually, it’s beyond landmark status: For many years the Empress did not even have a sign above the front entrance. The strong emotions the hotel evoked in Victorians, its guests and protectors shows in a statement made by an irate gentleman, as workers raised the sign above the front entrance: “Anyone who doesn’t know this is the Empress shouldn’t be staying here.”
For more information about the local delights, Tourism Victoria (tourismvictoria-.com) is a responsive resource.

MEETING AND EVENT VENUES
Adjacent to the Empress is the Victoria Conference Centre (victoriaconference.com), which has 40,000 sq. ft. of indoor meeting space and an additional 8,000 sq. ft. of courtyard space. The courtyard, which can be protected with a transportable clear-span glass-panel system, features a beautiful fountain and planters boxes.
The Westin Bear Mountain Golf Resort & Spa (bearmountain.ca), 20 minutes north of Victoria (or “up-island,” as locals say), offers 6,000 sq. ft. of conference space within its new 160,000-square-foot clubhouse. Later this year, the resort will open a second Jack and Steve Nicklaus-designed 18-hole course.
The Royal BC Museum provides a unique opportunity to host an event amid a forest of totem poles; tableware includes First Peoples’ blankets. The museum also accommodates groups in its longhouse for native storytelling and performance exhibitions.

WHISTLER t
Located about 80 miles north of Vancouver, Whistler and Whistler/Blackcomb Mountains Ski Resort create one of the finest and most beautiful winter-sports areas on the continent.
With 8,171 acres of accessible terrain and 5,280 vertical feet of skiing and riding, Whistler Blackcomb (whistlerblackcomb-.com) is one of the largest ski and snowboard areas in North America and has the longest ski season in Canada, running from late November to early June annually. There’s even summer glacier skiing from early June through early August.
Winter isn’t Whistler’s only season, however: warmer-weather activities include mountain biking, hiking, fly-fishing, sailing, rock climbing, canoeing and kayaking, and of course, golf. There are guided walking tours and, for the adventurous, fly-in hiking trips in Whist-ler’s dramatic mountainscape.
    The first people to arrive in the area knew it was special: the Pemberton Valley was often a way point for First Nation trading routes between the Squamish and Lil’wat nations, as it was rich with wildlife and resources. Later, the area was an important stop for miners and other adventurers headed north into the Yukon and Alaska. The resort still carries a whiff of the romance of the wild.
  With such a rich history, it’s no surprise that Whistler holds dozens of cultural events year-round, from music festivals and a film festival to the Canadian National BBQ Cham-pionships. Cornucopia, celebrated every November, is British Columbia’s major wine and food event.

MEETING AND EVENT VENUES
The TELUS Whistler Conference Centre (whistlermeetings.com/wcc/wcc.asp) can accommodate up to 3,000 attendees in
65,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, including 14 breakout rooms. The Grand Foyer can hold
up to 4,258, and the facility also includes a 300-seat amphitheater and 740-square-foot business center.
This fall, the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre will open directly across from the Fairmont Chateau Whistler. Celebrating the history and culture of the First Nation tribes, the facility will cover 25,000 sq. ft., with an additional 6,000 sq. ft. in a separate Eco-
Tour building. There will also be a tra-
ditional longhouse and a restaurant serving First Nations menus.  
Overall, it’s just about impossible to go wrong anywhere in British Columbia. It’s becoming a favorite of American as well as Canadian meeting professionals, who have known about B.C.’s allure for a long time and perhaps secretly resist revealing its charms and opportunities. Still, enthusiasm for the province cannot be hidden. Jean Harper, human resources director for Alberta Envirofuels in Edmonton, Alberta—and her company’s principal meeting organizer—sums up her experience with a big company retreat in B.C.: “Everyone loved it. Everyone.”  

Steve Bjerklie is a freelance journalist who writes regularly for The Economist and Smart Meetings, as well as several other publications. Back to Top

Getting There

VANCOUVER AND RICHMOND: Vancouver International Airport (YVR; yvr.ca) is served by more than 35 airlines, including virtually all of the major U.S. transporters, all Canadian airlines and several international airlines. Located about 20 minutes from downtown Vancouver, there is the usual taxi and bus shuttle service. By 2009, the airport will have a Canada Line rapid transit link to the city.

VICTORIA: Victoria International Airport (YYJ; victoriaairport.com) is served from the U.S. by Horizon Air (Alaska Airlines) and Delta. Air Canada and Pacific Coastal fly direct within Canada. Floatplane service between Vancouver and Victoria is offered by West Coast Air (westcoastair.com) as well as Harbour Air (harbour-air.com). Kenmore Air (kenmoreair.com) flies floatplanes from Seattle. Ferry service operated by Victoria Clipper (victoriaclipper.com) links Victoria with Seattle, and Washington State Ferries (wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/) connect from nearby Anacortes. BC Ferries and Coho Ferry (bcferries.bc.ca) make runs between Victoria and Vancouver and Victoria and Port Angeles, respectively.

WHISTLER: Whistler is approximately 80 miles north of downtown Vancouver. West Coast Air (westcoastair.com) offers floatplane service connecting Victoria and Whistler from early June through September. Bus charters to Whistler from downtown Vancouver and Vancouver International Airport are also available. In May, the Whistler Mountaineer (whistlermountaineer.com) will begin daily train service to Whistler from Vancouver through October 14. Back to Top

Not To Be Missed

IN VANCOUVER
  Stanley Park
  Granville Island
  The Museum of Anthropology
IN RICHMOND
  Steveston Village
IN VICTORIA AND VANCOUVER ISLAND
  The Royal British Columbia Museum
 Butchart Gardens
  Hatley Park and Castle
IN WHISTLER
  Whistler   Blackcomb
  Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre Back to Top