Over 10,000 participants from 169 countries came together last fall at the Palais des Congrès de Montréal to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference. As a host city, Montréal has what it takes to stage such seminal events, as well as numerous other international-calibre meetings, conferences, tradeshows and conventions initiated by IOs established in Montréal or elsewhere in the world.

The following examples attest to the wide variety of event formats and themes that continually attract to Montréal internationally renowned authorities in their respective fields:

› IATA will welcome nearly 1,500 senior management officials from various airline companies, pilots and engineers at the IATA OPS Forum, a conference and tradeshow that will take place at the Palais des Congrès (April 2007).

› The International Secretariat for Water (ISW), in collaboration with the World Bank Institute, held an international workshop on the fundamental issue of contracting out drinking water and sanitation services (October 2006).

› The International Political Science Association (IPSA) organized a symposium entitled Cultural Diversity, Identities and Globalization at Concordia University. The guest of honour was Clément Duhaime, administrator of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF, October 2006).