CALGARY, Alberta — Show organizers at dmg events are calling the upcoming Global Energy Show Canada (GESC) “the most transformative event in the show’s history.” Taking place June 10-12, GESC will be a reflection of Canada’s energy sector as it faces a critical crossroads.
Nick Samain, Senior Vice President at show organizer dmg events, reported “a massive amount of interest,” as the industry shines a spotlight on what Canada’s energy mandate will be in coming years.
“That’s what the show is trying to answer,” he said. “A lot of the world would like to understand what role Canada is going to play as an energy producer over the next five, 10, 20 years.”
Much of the growth in the energy industry has been driven by global policy, including Canada’s relationship with the United States. “The impacts of the tariffs have spurned a domestic urge to grow the energy infrastructure here locally,” Samain said. “As it stands right now, the majority of the energy from Canada flows into the U.S., which is not going to change. But there is now a political will across the country to build out more energy infrastructure.”
AI is also having a huge impact on the energy sector. “If you go to do a search on ChatGPT, that needs to go to a data center, and AI searches use 10 times more energy than a typical Google search. Those AI centers need to be powered by electricity, so there’s a massive demand for infrastructure.”
As a result of these factors, the show has seen a surge in exhibitor bookings, with pre-registration trending ahead by 73% over last year. That has forced organizers to prepare more exhibition and conference areas to accommodate a larger audience at the BMO Centre in Calgary, where more than 30,000 attendees from more than 100 countries are expected to attend.
Close to a quarter of the 500 exhibitors will be from the U.S., along with a fifth of the total attendees — numbers that have held fairly steady, said Samain. “Interestingly, there has been a very little shift in delegates coming from the U.S.”
The event falls the week before the G7 Summit, which will also be held in Calgary, so show organizers are seeing a boost from that as well.
The planning of the educational program has also been impacted, as organizers waited to see the results of both the U.S. and Canadian elections. “We left a number of key panel and keynote positions open for longer, in anticipation that this year’s program was going to be unusually last-minute,” Samain said. “We still are expecting one or two major announcements at a global leader level, and we’re just three weeks out.”
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In addition, the organizers are facing a shift in the demographics of the attendees, and have created an entirely new conference within the conference for them, called Energy Influencers. Attendees will be a mix of industry professionals, entrepreneurs, and post-secondary students, and organizers expect a couple of thousand attendees.
The show floor will include the “Center Court,” a big circle right in the middle, with basketball hoops (the show will plant a tree for each basket) and a latte lounge, and will be a popular spot for networking.
“There is a generational wave that’s coming and a void in talent,” Samain said. “So we came up with the concept of being an energy influencer. The more young people we can get to come into the industry, those are the people who are going to change things from the inside out.”
Reach Nick Samain at nicksamain@dmgevents.com
