Meetings and Conventions PEI: Driving economic growth and tourism on Prince Edward Island
Destination management organization offers expert services for each step of planning a business event
Business events in Prince Edward Island brought $23.5 million in economic impact to the province last year, giving a big boost to tourism across Canada’s ‘Food Island’ during the shoulder season of the spring and fall.
Much of this impact has been made possible through a dedicated team of seven people at Meetings and Conventions PEI, a destination management organization.
“Our mandate is to find meeting planners and clients nationally, internationally, regionally and locally to host their groups on our destination of Prince Edward Island. We attend trade shows across Canada and internationally and talk to planners about hosting their groups on PEI,” says Susan Freeman, executive director at Meetings and Conventions PEI.
The non-profit organization works with close to 200 partners across Prince Edward Island such as hotels, meeting venues, restaurants, experience providers, transportation providers, and others. Their goal is to find the perfect fit for each visiting group, whether it’s offsite dining, unique tours, speakers, entertainment and more.
“We then organize a familiarization tour if they show interest which means we take them around to our partners on Prince Edward Island. They usually stay three nights and get to know what Prince Edward Island has to offer by experiencing it for themselves,” adds Freeman.
Meetings & Conventions PEI’s professional team does all the legwork to help make a lasting impression.
“If they show further interest, we get a request for proposals from them and we send it to our partners across PEI. They then send their proposals back to us and we put together a bid document so that we can hopefully win the piece of business for Prince Edward Island,” says Freeman.
The smallest province in Canada, Prince Edward Island is popular for its seafood and agriculture industry, spectacular coastal drives, hiking and cycling trails, pristine shores and pastoral fields.
“Prince Edward Island is considered a bucket list destination. People want to come here … So, it really helps our tourism economy across Prince Edward Island,” adds Freeman.
The organization has been working on the Island for about 30 years. According to Freeman, ever since the Convention Centre was built in 2014, the number of attendees has increased.
“Between 2019-2023, 20,000 to 25,000 attendees were observed to participate in conferences hosted by us,” says Freeman.
The team has organized multiple business events, including international conferences and national associations. Last year, The Canadian Association of Principals, The Canadian Federation of Agriculture and many more hosted their conferences in PEI, with the help of M&C PEI’s team.
Last May, M&C PEI hosted the Physical and Health Education Canada National Conference. It was co-hosted by the national association for physical and health education professionals. It observed a participation of 500 attendees across Canada and was a three-day event held at Convention Centre and Delta Hotels by Marriott Prince Edward.
“I was the social and entertainment lead for the conference. So, my job was to be the liaison between the Physical Education Association and
PEI because the association is based out of Ottawa,” says Laura Lindsay, a physical education teacher, athletic director at Colonel Gray High School and an executive member of the PEI Physical Education Association.
“I’d spoken to Susan Freeman at Meetings and Conventions PEI, and we had initially met during the first round of planning. It added a bit of a professionalism to planning the conference because we had Susan’s expert opinions and she was able to share a lot of information about how conferences happen at PEI,” adds Lindsay.
“She told us that they can provide a lot of things like attending (to) the delegates at the airport, arranging transportation (and) signage downtown. There were a lot of things that we weren’t aware of, and she was able to share with us. They helped us with arranging restaurants, venues, planning from a social and entertainment perspective,” adds Lindsay.
According to Lindsay, M&C PEI helped streamline the process for her which otherwise would have taken a long time without their support.
“We received incredibly positive feedback from the delegates. The conference didn’t happen for four years due to COVID, so people were excited to be back together. PEI is an attractive destination for people, and they had extended their stay after the conference. Delegates loved attending the socials, food, entertainment and venue,” adds Lindsay.