Introduction

Vancouver, British Columbia is a global destination for conferences and meeting events. In 2022, Vancouver hosted 18 conferences citywide, which attracted approximately 50,000 attendees from around the world. These conferences are important events that have benefits for the individual participants, the hosting associations, the sectors represented, the city, the region, the nation, and for other countries around the world. Some of the general benefits of conferences held in Vancouver are clear—such as encouraging economic development and supporting the development of key local industries including agritech, the green economy, and life sciences. Yet the range of different short-term and long-term impacts that occur due to these events have not been studied in-depth. As a result, key knowledge that can help justify, retain, and attract conferences to Vancouver remain unanswered, such as: what are the short-term and long-term benefits of local conferences? How do the benefits of a globally rotating and returning conference compare? And what lessons can inform future studies of conference outcomes in Vancouver and other destinations?