In 2002, Montréal hosted 87 international conferences, ranking it second amongst North and South American cities for number of events, just behind Washington but ahead of New York, Buenos Aires, Toronto and Vancouver.

Montréal's popularity with conference goers is in part due to the quality of its facilities, all ideally suited to international requirements. Besides some twenty-odd locations suitable for major conventions, the downtown has two large conference centres: the Palais des congrès and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) conference centre. Recently expanded and redecorated, the Palais des congrès has 65 meeting rooms and can accommodate more than 20,000 people. The ICAO head office has two immense conference rooms equipped in accordance with UN standards and designed specifically to meet the needs of international organizations. These centres offer participants every conceivable cutting-edge information technology, multimedia and telecommunications service from teleconferencing to Web broadcasting, including simultaneous interpretation.

To accommodate conference-goers, the Montréal area has a vast array of reasonably priced hotels. In all, there are more than 25,000 rooms, many of which are located near the conference centres.

The reputation for research excellence enjoyed by Montréal contributes to making it an ideal place for holding international conventions. With its four universities, its specialty colleges, its laboratories and its renowned research centres, Montréal provides critical mass in a variety of specialty fields such as political and social sciences, health sciences, ethics and customary, civil and international law.