By: Pierre Giovenazzo
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2020 issue of BEEKeeping Your First Three Years
What a great experience! It all started in 2015 when we made our bid in Daejon, South Korea to host the 46th Apimondia in Montreal. I sincerely hope that all Canadian and international attendees appreciated traveling to beautiful Montreal and participating in the various activities of our Apimondia Montreal 2019.
From Sunday, September 8 to Friday, September 13, the City of Montreal and its wonderful Palais des congres was “buzzing” with beekeepers and beekeeping stakeholders from around the world. There were near 6000 participants from 134 countries. Our spectacular 5,250 SQM ApiExpo staged 241 companies and the World Bee Awards. Our outstanding scientific program lasted 4 days, in 4 main rooms with simultaneous translation French/English/Spanish in the main room. Our educational workshops and the technical tours were very popular with over 2000 participants. We can be very proud: our Canadian beekeeping industry hosted a very successful Apimondia Montreal 2019!
There were so many highlights during the Apimondia week and I wish to outline just a few. The opening ceremony presented a mixture of Canadian beekeeping with a twist of history from our indigenous culture. The “Jerry Cans” from Nunavut marked the beginning of our congress with traditional Inuit throat signing that touched our imagination and showed the vastness of Canada. ApiExpo 2019 was, without any doubt, the greatest ever seen at any Apimondia. It was very colourful, fun to walk though, and a great opportunity to see the immense diversity of the world beekeeping industry. Dr. Steve Pemal organized a spectacular scientific program. The variety of topics, the high quality of the keynote speakers, the oral presentations (320) and the posters (363) were exceptional. The Canadian beekeeping symposia where the highlight for beekeepers from around the world who came to learn about our industry. Our novel educational program was remarkable, each course was at maximum capacity and all received laudatory comments from students. We are sure that educational programs will become part of future Apimondia congresses. Each morning, 1500 participants entered the main room, to listen attentively to the keynote speaker. This set the tone of each day: a continuous “buzz” of scientific activity at the Palais des congres from 8 am to 9 pm! “Too many good presentations at the same time” was the usual comment!
This great world beekeeping celebration that we hosted in Montreal, Canada, was the result of many years of hard work and a tremendous team effort. The Canadian Honey Council (CHC) was the official host of Apimondia Montreal 2019 and the CHC board members were the soul of the event. They were provided kind and strong support to the backbone of the local organizing committee composed of Rod Scarlett, Steve Pemal and me. One of our best decisions was to hire a professional congress organizer, AIM group from Rome, Italy. With their expertise, we built the foundations of our congress and AIM was instrumental in managing all the logistics. As the congress approached many people helped us generously: Melissa Girard managed the World Bee Awards honey samples, Cynthia Scott-Dupree coordinated the workshops, Marilene Paillard coordinated the technical tours and Julie Ferland coordinated the volunteers. Their help was precious and I thank them for their excellent work. I also wish to point out that Steve Pernal recruited 28 scientific specialists to evaluate the submitted abstracts. Many of these scientists are members of the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists (CAPA). CAPA has supported the CHC since the beginning of our Apimondia Montreal 2019 venture and special thanks goes to all CAPA members.
Finally, I wish to thank Marienza Marguglio (AIM group) for her kindness and her unlimited availability to help us in all aspects of the congress. Many thanks to Steve Pernal, a bright mind and a very kind and generous person. And special thanks to Rod Scarlett, an outstanding organizer who worked his heart out to make everything perfect.
The next Apimondia will be in Ufa Russia, so put this now in your agenda! I wish our Russian friends great success with their 47th Apimondia Ufa 2021.
