There are many things that bring joy to the AV Alliance family: great conversations, great food, great wine, great fun, and great people who will inspire you and leave you with something to think about. And, of course, spending time with friends, old and new. Needless to say, we found all of this “oot and aboot” in Vancouver, Canada, and then some!
It is often claimed that Vancouver is one of the best (albeit certainly not the cheapest) places in the world to live in, and it is of little surprise that this bustling seaport in the province of British Columbia attracts people from all over the world, with a whopping 49.3 % of its residents not being native English speakers, and 47.8 % being native speakers of neither English nor French*. While its metropolitan downtown resembles to major North American cities in its architecture, Vancouver and its quaint suburbs, leafy parks, and busy harbours are surrounded by nature at its stunning best.
Traditionally the AV Alliance gathers its members and sponsoring partners twice a year: for our Annual General Meeting and a more relaxed and informal Get Together, each time in a different location around the world and hosted by a local member company. The aim of our meetings is to strengthen the interpersonal connections within our global network and help build long-lasting personal and business relationships.
At the AV Alliance AGM in Cape Town back in April we announced Vancouver as the location of our annual Get Together, which took place on the 25-28 of September 2024. We were fortunate to be hosted by not just one, but two of our local member companies: Stagevision LP (registered in the AV Alliance in Vancouver and Toronto) and Proshow Audiovisual (registered in Calgary, but their head offices being in Vancouver). We always love and encourage a strong partnership between our members, which is one of the main pillars of the AV Alliance network, and the collaboration between our to local members was the perfect example of working together to achieve stunning results and pull off the perfect event.
The AV Alliance, September 2024
The AV Alliance, September 2024
Contrary to our previous events, following a spectacular welcome dinner at Parq Vancouver’s fabulous The Victor restaurant on the 25th of September, we kicked off the Get Together with our social day on the 26th. However, instead of easing ourselves gently into the flow of things (and nursing a massive jet lag for many) we started the morning with a hike on what locals affectionately call the “Stairmaster of Nature”, the Grouse Grind trail up Vancouver’s Grouse Mountain. While we could not enjoy the views of the city that day due to the weather – as those who opted to take the Skyride cable car instead of the hike quickly found out – we spent an unforgettable morning up in the clouds, learning about the local wildlife (including Grouse Mountain’s famous grizzlies, Grinder and Coola).
After a hearty lunch and a quick change of clothes for the hikers, we headed to the stunning Capilano Suspension Bridge Park to elevate our heart rates during an afternoon of exploring the park’s many bridges and sights and soak in its Tolkien-esque atmosphere. We closed the adventure-filled day with an exquisite dinner at one of Vancouver’s top restaurants, Five Sails.
The fairy lights of Capilano Suspension Bridge Park
The AV Alliance enjoying a splendid fine dining experience at Five Sails
Our meeting day on Friday the 27th of September took place at the Vancouver Convention Centre on the downtown waterfront with a dramatic mountain backdrop. Boasting a total 466,500 ft2 (43,340 m2) of flexible meeting, exhibition, ballroom and plenary space, the VCC is also the world’s only LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certified convention centre, and the only two-time winner of the International Association of Congress Centres’ (AIPC) APEX award for “World’s Best Convention Centre”. Its architecture and design, as well its functionality and outstanding staff made it a spectacular venue in every aspect, if we do say so ourselves – remember, our members have seen and worked with hundreds of convention centers collectively around the world, they know exactly what distinguishes the VCC as one of the best they have ever been in. And, may we add, never have we visited a meeting venue that had views quite as breathtaking as this one.
Proshow Audiovisual is the official AV supplier of the Vancouver Convention Center, and together with Stagevision they took care of the AV setup of our event, with the support of some of our esteemed sponsoring partners, such as Elation and AV-Drop. For this meeting we were joined by 75 of our members and partners, and for some of our recent additions to the AV Alliance network, like ACROPRO from Taiwan, Tecnoconference from Italy, and Crescent Event Productions in Charlotte, NC in the US, it was also the first ever time at one of our meetings, so it was a pleasure to be able to spend time with their representatives and form new friendships.
Apart from exciting updates and news from our sponsoring partners Barco, Disguise, Elation Lighting, Panasonic Connect, AV-Drop, ROE Visual, IntelliEvent, Theatrixx Technologies, and Unique Business Systems, we also introduced a new element to our Get Together with the Showcase Forum, where the AV Alliance members are given the opportunity to showcase their own products or services, innovative business ideas, and unique solutions they believe may be of interest and value to their peers within our global network. This time we had the pleasure to hear from Josh Nissim and Leif-Erik Wilhelm from satis&fy, who presented the company’s newly developed kinetixLED system, and knw., and AI-based software that measures and optimizes audience sentiment and engagement. Matt Emerson from AVFX showcased their proprietary presentation management solution PresenterHubTM, Zsolt Kassai from Special Effects Ltd. spoke about Immersive Surfing and Gamification, and Oliver Lembke from Limelight Veranstaltungstechnik, who introduced their brand new automated online RFP system in development.
Meeting Day in the Vancouver Convention Centre
Laura Güimil, JJ Anderson, Ormilla Vengersammy, and Malcolm Ross representing the EAOC
In addition to the above, we took time to present to our members updates on the AV Alliance’s Education, Advancement, and Outreach Committee (EAOC), and more specificly the most recent development of our network’s global training program, the AV Alliance Academy. This segment featured short presentations by AV Alliance Board Member Laura Güimil (2MG.NET), ETP/LMG‘s Director of Academic Programs Ormilla Vengersammy, as well as EAOC members JJ Anderson (Conference Services) and Malcolm Ross (Proshow Audiovisual). Finally, we had the pleasure of welcoming AV Alliance Friend Alex Ostermaier – who attended his 20th consecutive AVA meeting in Vancouver – to the stage to talk about the possibilities of ISO 20121 Event Sustainability Certification on a network level.
As a closing to our meeting day, we had invited coach and facilitator Alain Lagger as keynote speaker. Alain is a former police officer – at 16 he was the youngest ever officer on the Dutch police force – who, after a traumatic experience, resigned from the force and embarked on a life-changing journey of healing himself and others through global community work. Alain draws on his many personal and professional experiences to show how and why connecting through compassion is the key to success in any endeavor, actively engaging his audiences in connection exercises that are both eye-opening and life-altering. In his speaking engagements, as in all of his endeavors, Alain’s goal is to bridge the “us-them” divide and give people the tools and the inspiration to connect to one another in a harmonious and productive flow state. In his inspiring keynote, Alain helped us explore how deep human connections can unlock our fullest potential through fostering empathy and driving innovation.
Keynote speaker Alain Lagger with AV Alliance Chairman Peter Muller and Eva Rozsa
After this incredible trip to Vancouver, Canada, the AV Alliance is excited to head to Osaka, Japan in April 2025 for our Annual General Meeting hosted by our local member Takenaka, as well as a visit to the EXPO Osaka 2025 that promises to be one for the books.
We would like to thank from the bottom of our hearts our fantastic hosts, Proshow Audiovisual President Tim Lang and CEO Matt Hussack, Stagevision’s President Bryce Engelman, as well as Jilian Lang, Tyler-Rae Molloy, Ben Laurence, Karl Erickson, Todd Skinner, Celina Rudolf, and everyone on the Proshow – Vancouver Convention Center team and the entire technical crew for their outstanding work in briging this event to life, and also their exceptional AV support throughout our meeting.