Business Events Montréal is thrilled to announce a win: the inaugural three editions of Everything in Sport Women’s Edition North America, a ground-breaking emerging sporting congress, will take place in Montréal in 2024, 2025 and 2026. With a mandate to transform how women’s sports are viewed, first in North America, then the world, this congress is the start of something great — and it’s happening in Montréal.
The challenges faced by pro women’s sport
It was made clear in the 2022 Rally Report that women’s sports struggle for a place at the professional table.
Sadly, among the 35,000 hours of broadcasted sports in 2014, only 4% featured women’s sport. More recently, 85% of respondents of a Léger survey stated they were lacking female role models and ambassadors in positions of power in the sport world.
The uncomfortable reality is that the current system is flawed: it’s failing to provide girls and women with access to safe, quality sport as participants and as leaders. “Sport has the power to unite and inspire us,” reads the report. “For girls, women and gender-diverse people, sport can be transformative, but only when they have equitable opportunities to engage in quality, safe sport.”
It’s time to make a change.
The scene is set in Montréal
The global women’s sport landscape is ripe for investment, and Montréal is buying in. The Canadian professional women’s sport market of today is estimated to be worth $150-200 million. That sounds like a lot, but with the overall sport market valued at $512 billion in 2023, it’s a drop in the ocean.
Women’s sport awaits significant development. Luckily, key Canadian target groups are starting to invest in professional women’s sport and fan interest is high. Events like Everything in Sport Women’s Edition North America will help give the industry the kickoff it needs, with Montréal at its epicentre — and the power to influence the industry first in North America, then the world.
About Everything in Sport
Everything In Sport (EIS) brings together high-level executives and decision makers from sport and business around the world to meet, network and create business relationships.
Their aim in Montréal is to create an environment for world leaders in the professional women’s sports world to exchange visions and change the way things are currently done. Over the next three years, each of the events will include between 500 and 1,000 attendees, with an estimated 87% of them at Director level or above.
Because their goal is to deliver global opportunities for all sectors within sport and the sporting business world, EIS is committed to ensuring that everyone is welcome and valued and that their perspectives are heard and respected. The Women’s Edition in particular was conceived to help break the glass ceiling and increase female participation in sport. EIS’s mandate is to raise awareness and engage sport for social change.
Strong female leadership
Montréal boasts standard-setting sports facilities, famously enthusiastic fans and a deep love of sport.
Thanks to initiatives such as HEC Montréal’s women’s leadership space within their Sport Management Hub, there’s a local movement to promote gender equity and the advancement of women in decision-making positions within the Quebec sports industry. La Lancée, Fitspirit and Égale Action are all organizations that aims directly at the betterment of girls’ and women’s experience in sport, while the Bank of Montréal has recently joined forces with CF Montréal to assist female students aiming at pro careers in soccer.
Women in sport leadership in Québec include France-Margaret Bélanger, President of the CH Group, managers of the Montréal Canadiens; Annie Larouche, VP of Operations for L’Alliance de Montréal; Isabelle Ducharme, general director of Sport Québec; and in the government, Pascale St-Onge (Minister of Sports of Canada) and Isabelle Charest (Quebec’s Ministre responsable du Sport, du Loisir et du Plein air).
Events that celebrate female excellence
Montréal now has a fresh professional women’s hockey team called the Force, picking up where Les Canadiennes left off. The city also plays host to many world-class professional women’s sport events:
- National Bank Open – Women’s Division (bi-annually)
- Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship – Golf Canada (2027)
- U Sports Canadian Women’s Hockey Championships (2023)
- CWBL Women’s National Championship – Wheelchair Basketball (2023)
- FIBA 3x3 – Women’s Series Montreal – 3x3 Basketball (2023)
- Canadian Women’s Hockey League (2019)
It’s fertile ground that makes it ideal for Everything in Sport Women’s Edition North America. Here’s to a fruitful future.
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