JPdL is a Montréal-based combination professional conference organizer and destination management company that was launched by Jean-Paul de Lavison 40-odd years ago, at a particularly challenging time in the Québec economy — but de Lavison loves a good challenge. After over a decade working at six hotels in five countries, where he witnessed the events industry firsthand, he felt compelled to start his own firm to improve on competitors’ offerings.
Turning challenges into victories
What started as a one-man-show in 1982, at the nadir of an economic downturn, slowly grew into the 60-person, cross-Canada organization it is today thanks to what de Lavison describes as an “aggressive attitude” to building relationships.
JPdL has been an active member of Tourisme Montréal for 40 years, and that’s just one of the many international organizations the company is active in. In North America there’s PCMA and MPI, while internationally there’s ICCA, IAPCO, FICP and more. “We invest quite a bit of time and money in these organisations, not to mention in industry trade shows like IMEX America and Europe, as well as IBTM,” says de Lavison.
It’s by meeting the right people, knowing the industry intimately and adapting with their clients that JPdL attracts repeat business.
Canadian quality, international scope
“For the first 30 years, 95% of our business was from international events coming into Montréal,” says de Lavison. Slowly but surely, those clients began asking for their assistance in organizing events in other parts of Canada, and soon, other parts of the world. Now about 75% of their business is in Canada, while 25% is international.
Among JPdL’s upcoming events, there’s the European Geological Society Convention in Prague this July for 4,400 people, and the World Electric Vehicle Association Symposium next year in the US. For de Lavison, it’s extra special when clients from elsewhere hire JPdL to organize events on their own home soil, because it speaks to his firm’s unique selling points: flexibility, modesty and adaptability, regardless of location.
“We evolve with our clients,” he says. “We’re innovators, always trying new things. Change is scary as a rule, but if you’re not thinking two steps ahead, the industry will leave you in the dust.”
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