Montreal is just as easy to get to by plane as New Orleans. (For those of us living in major East Coast cities, there are more direct flights into Montreal than New Orleans.)
If you're worried about Visas. Work permits are not required for foreign attendees, exhibitors, financial sponsors, delegates, or coordinators of a trade show held in Canada.
If you're worried about the sponsors bringing gear, there are a number of options.
- TapeOpCon can apply for "border-to-show" status and have all shipments to the convention cleared at the convention site. A customs agent will be posted at the convention site.
- TapeOpCon can hire a customs broker (shipping agent) to clear all shipments from the individual exhibitors. The shipping agent will walk all the shipments thru the CCRA (Canada's Customs agency).
- Each exhibitor can hire a shipping agent individually.
- Any equipment that is carried on the plane or packed in checked luggage can go thru regular airport customs.
The important thing here is that any equipment sent to the convention that comes directly back to the US after the convention will NOT be subject to duty. Anything that remains in Canada after the convention will be subject to 7% tax. The CCRA may ask for a deposit (equal to the tax) that will be refunded when the equipment returns to the US.
The CCRA is very much accustomed to dealing with goods going to and coming back from conventions in Canada. They're very friendly (despite being French Canadians!!!
). And they understand the importance of bringing business $$$ to their country.
Heck, they're so business-friendly that the convention gets a tax-refund for almost all convention-related fees if 75% of the participants are not residents of Canada. How cool is that!
How do I know all this? As part of the music performance that I prod/eng'ed, I shipped about $50,000 worth of music and recording gear in six LARGE racks/cases to Montreal and back. It took me about 4 hours to fill out all the paperwork. The shipment took 4 days door to door from Boston to McGill. No taxes were paid, and all refunds were given in a timely manner.
Check out the
official guide to bringing a convention to Canada from Canada Border Services Agency for more details on work permits, shipping, customs, taxes, rebates, etc.
And I'm sure McGill's event coordinator can also make suggestions as McGill has hosted many international trade shows in the past (including the ones I've attended).
ICBW, but my gut feeling is that any additional funds/hassle required to bring TapeOpCon to Canada will be offset by the savings of doing it there instead of in a major US city.
