Tap into The Knowledge Collective for your next Montréal event
Planning an event? We’ve got the local experts for you.
More than ever, Business Events Montréal is dedicated to attracting international events to Montréal. The Knowledge Collective, a collaboration with the Palais des congrès de Montréal, aka Montréal’s convention centre, is a platform that enables us to leverage our local experts to attract international business events. They allow us to bring the world’s most important conferences, conventions and events to the city.
Montréal is fertile ground for international meetings
Montréal has ranked first in international association meetings in North America for nine years in a row now according to the ICCA, and for the eighth consecutive year has also topped the UIA annual list of cities in the Americas for hosting international association meetings.
The Palais des congrès de Montréal and Business Events Montréal are proud of the success of 2025 in terms of business tourism: the 477 events held in the metropolis drew more than 1 million visitors and generated an estimated $438 million in economic spinoffs for Montréal and the province of Québec.
It’s clear that Montréal is:
- a city renowned for its dynamic and thriving centres of expertise
- a creative and safe metropolis that’s a great place to live
- a multicultural, welcoming and bilingual haven
Montréal is a metropolis packed with knowledge
With world-renowned higher education institutions all active in research and innovation, Montréal is a global city of knowledge, with special expertise in sectors including life sciences, artificial intelligence and engineering. The pool of local experts is both wide and deep.
The city has more than 1,500 institutions active in R&D and 200 research centres in a large array of disciplines. The city ranks first in Canada for university research funding and is indeed the largest university research hub in Canada, with 14 institutions of higher education, including four major universities and 10 affiliated schools:
- McGill University
- Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
- Concordia University
- Université de Montréal (UdeM)
The Knowledge Collective is your source of local expertise
The Knowledge Collective is a network of experts, professors, specialists of their field, each with a finger planted firmly on their sector’s pulse. With access to a wide range of free tools and resources, it’s an initiative designed to enable local champions to attract an international event to Montréal by simplifying the bidding process.
We offer support at every stage of the project:
- Feasibility study services
- Bid preparation and submission
- Help with scouting visits
- Financial aid (when applicable)
- Montréal is selected: Help with logistics and promotion of your event.
The Knowledge Collective aims to unite the local community from our key sectors to attract international business events that generate economic, societal and intellectual benefits for everyone. In other words, a lasting legacy.
Celebrating that legacy since 1985
Business Events Montréal was once again a major partner of the Palais des congrès Ambassadors Gala, which highlights the accomplishments of specialists in their fields whose commitment to the international promotion of Montréal has had concrete and laudable impact.
At the 2026 Ambassadors Gala, which took place on April 1st, we were happy to highlight 25 ambassadors including these local luminaries:
- Daria C. Boffito, Full Professor in Chemical Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal — brought the 4th International Process Intensification Conference (IPIC4)
- Amin Hammad, Full Professor at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering — brought the 42nd International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction
- Sivakumaran Nadarajah, Professor at McGill University, head of the Computational Aerodynamics Group — brought the 15th International Conference on Spectral and High Order Methods
- Dr. Marie-Ève Robinson, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at McGill University — brought the 12th International Conference on Children’s Bone Health
- Pavel Trofimovich, Professor of Applied Linguistics at Concordia University — brought the 16th Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching (PSLLT) Conference
Congratulations to them and to all ambassadors.