It was a massive year for events in Winnipeg.
We hosted our largest-ever event while so many national and international conferences returned or made their first appearance in the city.
On top of these successes, we’ve also continued to create new marketing content that is sure to keep you streaming, plus there’s plenty of things to look forward to in 2024 and beyond.
Here are some 2023 highlights
Notable citywide events
We were honoured to host so many citywide conventions, sports and business events in 2023, many of which will leave a lasting impression in Winnipeg via legacy impacts, new initiatives, and funding announcements.
2023 World Police & Fire Games – From July 28 to August 6 Winnipeg staged its largest-ever sporting event, as more than 8,500 athletes, officials, friends and family made their way to the centre of the continent to compete and watch over 60 sporting events spread across the city’s diverse sports and special event venues.
Athletes from all over the world who have attended this event in the past have described the Winnipeg games as “the best organized” they’ve seen, all while citing how great the city’s 2,800 volunteers have been, along with how much there is to see and do here. The games brought in more than $20 million into the local economy, including over 20-thousand room nights.
2023 Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) - To quote ITAC’s motto, “Indigenous tourism is reconciliation in action.” Nowhere was this more apparent than in Winnipeg from March 8-10, when 1,100 delegates came together from all over the world at the RBC Convention Centre to promote, share, educated and help create even more authentic Indigenous tourism experiences.
It was the largest Indigenous conference in the world this year, bringing in more than $1.3 million into the local economy. The province also announced during the conference an additional $450,000 in support for Indigenous tourism for Manitoba, our province which already has approximately 150 Indigenous-owned and operated tourism businesses that have created 1,000 jobs and contributed around $600 million to Manitoba’s GDP.
To learn more about the many authentic Indigenous tourism experiences available in Winnipeg, check out or guide from June.
2023 Student Youth Travel Association (SYTA) Annual Conference – With so many incredible educational and inspirational experiences to be found (check out our new video below!), Winnipeg loves and specializes in hosting student groups. Thus, it was only fitting for 2023 that we were the host for SYTA’s annual conference, which brought representatives from the global student and youth travel market to the city so be inspired.
More than 700 delegates attended SYTA 2023, which featured VIP speakers like Mark Messier while showcasing our one-of-a-kind venues and experiences like the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Journey to Churchill at Assiniboine Park Zoo and Folklorama. During SYTA 2023, the Tourism Winnipeg team also organized eight city tours for delegates that showcased numerous Team Winnipeg partners. While reflecting on the conference, SYTA CEO Carylann Assante said, "the staff at Tourism Winnipeg and Travel Manitoba were exceptional to work with in preparing our delegates for travel to Winnipeg." With more than 2,200 room nights, and over $1.5 million generated, SYTA’s 2023 Winnipeg conference will only improve our already outstanding student-oriented experiences.
At a glance, more citywides included the Wealth Builder University Inc. 2023 Annual Convention, which was just hosted in November featuring 5,000 delegates, 7,000 room nights and more than $16.7-million in local expenditures; the Western Retail Lumber Association’s 2023 WRLA Buying Show – its second in two years (with one more to come in 2024) with 2,500 delegates and $2.85-million in value; Volleyball Canada’s 2023 14U Volleyball Canada National Championships (1200 athletes, fans and family, with 1710 room nights); and the World Science Fiction Society’s 2023 North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC; aka Pemmicon) which brought in 1,000 delegates from across the cosmos.
For that last one, we would like to emphasis the cosmos because we personally think our successful bid video –– which utilized the Avro Car at the Western Aviation Museum of Western Canada –– was out of this world!
Keep streaming Winnipeg+
Speaking of campaigns that reach for the stars.... or better yet, campaigns featuring our very own stars… 2023 was another banner year for our team’s creativity as we launched Winnipeg+.
Not satisfied with simply offering the best business events venues in Canada, we created a roster of hot new shows on Winnipeg+ to celebrate the local convention experience. This premium –– yet free! –– streaming service features all the content you crave from the centre of Canada, starring business development managers like Lynnea Adrian and Maria Paletta whom you can see compete to showcase The Leaf in Selling Winnipeg: Season 2.
The current lineup on Winnipeg+ also includes Modern Marvels of Manitoba, where you can Join polymath Graham Hanstead as he unveils the contemporary architectural landscape of Manitoba, including all of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights' 10 event spaces and what they'll mean for your next event.
As to early reviews of the program, Poonam Ruparelia, the event planner for Canada Health Infoway raves, “we chose the Canadian Museum for Human Rights for our offsite event as a result of Winnipeg’s presentation on Modern Marvels at MPI the EVENT in May 2023.”
While Modern Marvels of Manitoba has a real History Channel sort of feel, HGTV fans will dig Venue Hunters International. This fun and lively showcase of the city’s enticing offsite venues features our business development manager Sarah Robinson, who brings prospective clients to Winnipeg’s diverse venues. Much like the show, at our actual office the work of Robinson was integral in bringing SYTA 2023 to town, showcasing how our "reality tv" indeed reflects or reality here at Tourism Winnipeg.
Thus far, this “streaming service” campaign has proved a hit. Along with direct bookings like the above, Winnipeg+ has garnered plenty of views online and much fanfare on LinkedIn. When the Professional Convention Management Association sent it to its members this year it was watched by 1,300+ members. Surely that’s more streams than Hulu’s How I Met Your Father –– and unlike that failed, star-studded sitcom, we promise Winnipeg+’s current crop will all get a second season (and perhaps even a third of Selling Winnipeg).
Coming Soon
The Winnipeg events story continues to be written, and we can’t wait to add so many more citywides to our script in 2024. Looking forward we’re excited to soon welcome large events like the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival at Assiniboine Park, which is part of their 2024 expansion.
Convention season in earnest kicks off in February, when both AFOA Canada’s 22nd Annual Conference and the Canadian Rheumatology Association’s 2024 CRA Annual Scientific Meeting bring more than 1,000 delegates each to the RBC Convention Centre. In fact, Winnipeg seems to be just what the doctor ordered in the next few years, with the Canadian Association of General Surgeons, the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada, the Canadian Public Health Association, and the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians all bringing large annual conferences here.
Thousands more will come to the city for Chemical Institute of Canada’s 2024 Canadian Society of Chemistry Conference and Exhibition, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ (CUPE) 2024 National Sector Council Conference too.
Plus, there’s so much more in store which we can reveal in due time.
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On behalf of all our staff here at Tourism Winnipeg –– from our business development managers to our marketing team, our Team Winnipeg members, and of course, our countless volunteers that this city is known for –– we wish you all the best this holiday season.
We can’t wait to reconnect in 2024!
Cheers!
