Fast Facts

The Vancouver Convention Centre offers one of the most innovative, beautiful and greenest settings for your next event.

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History

  • Built on the original Pier B-C on Vancouver's Waterfront, the Vancouver Convention Centre first served as the Canada Pavilion for the World's Fair Expo in 1986. Since then, we've grown to become recognized as one of the leading convention centres in the world
Ownership Employees
  • 70 PavCo employees plus six official suppliers with a further work force of 291 full-time equivalents (FTE)
Revenue
  • $215 million economic activity (Fiscal 2010)
Official Suppliers Awards

Events

  • 350+ events attracted 225,000 delegates (fiscal 2010)
  • First official international event: World Culinary Arts Festival
  • Largest event: XI International Conference on AIDS (15,000 delegates)
  • Smallest event: Meeting between Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton
  • Most unusual start time: Three Tenors Gala (at midnight)
Notable
  • After the Aga Khan's 1992 visit, 123 single shoes were left behind
  • One recorded marriage proposal in Exhibit Hall A
  • Due to a lack of capacity, a client event was held off site at nearby Bowen Island and we rented a ferry in lieu of space!
  • To accommodate a 12,000 person event (Federation Dentaire Internationle), we successfully converted the parking garage into an exhibit hall
Food Facts
  • Unique "scratch kitchen" utilizes fresh, local products
  • Exclusively serves British Columbia VQA quality wines
  • Average servings per year include 583,680 cups of coffee and 7 tons of beef
  • At the World Buddhist convention, 18,000 meals were served in three days
Environmental Policy
  • Recycling: recycles an average of 180,000 kilograms of materials annually, nearly half of the total volume of waste generated
  • Food & Beverage: avoids canned goods, disposable utensils and dishes, and donates leftover food to local charities
Energy Conservation
  • Designated a Power Smart Convention Centre by BC Hydro
  • Awarded "GO GREEN" certificate from the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) for industry-approved, environmental best practices in building management
  • Expansion: Living roof, seawater heating and cooling, on-site water treatment and fish habitat built into the foundation of the West Building make it one of the "greenest" convention centres in the world