As the World Cup approaches Vancouver, trade groups are gearing up to turn soccer fandom into business opportunities. The goal is to entice investors to take a break from the field and talk business alongside the FIFA event at B.C. Place from June 13 to July 7.
It is expected that among the thousands of soccer fans descending upon Vancouver for this summer's World Cup, there will be captains of industry, high-ranking corporate executives, and institutional investors in town for the games. Officials at Metro Vancouver, along with provincial and federal counterparts, are working to identify who might be at which game and who is sitting with whom.
The chance to engage these high-profile individuals has prompted a coordinated effort. "It's interesting with FIFA as it is attracting leaders from all over the world, who happen to be soccer fans, who happen to be high-profile or CEO or C-suite individuals," said Jacquie Griffiths, president of Invest Vancouver. Invest Vancouver is Metro's regional economic development service, which works to attract investment for creating jobs.
"It is very much a team effort, with the federal government working closely with Invest In Canada, as well as with the province, with ourselves and with our management board, to get the intelligence we need on who will be making their way into the Metro Vancouver region at this time, so that ideally we can convince them to carve off some time to tell them more about the region and everything that we have to offer when it comes to business opportunities," said Griffiths.
A recent Metro report described the approach as "compressing multi-year relationship building into a time-limited window in a local venue" with the hope of moving from creating awareness in potential investors to having them actively considering investments. With federal funding of just over $300,000, Invest Vancouver aims to use exposure from the World Cup to generate 80 qualified investment leads, convert them into as many as 10 investment projects, and create up to 300 new jobs in the next three years.
In late May, during the Web Summit, which brought thousands of tech entrepreneurs, investors, and industry leaders to Vancouver, Invest Vancouver hosted "curated, small-group tours" designed to showcase how the region's leading academic institutions and industry partners turn research, talent, and innovation into investment opportunities. Similarly, during the World Cup, Invest Vancouver will host themed tours for different sectors, including life sciences, critical minerals, artificial intelligence, and quantum, said Griffiths.
"It may be that they need more information on our post-secondary institutions. It may be that they need more information as it relates to land and availability. They may be looking at what talent-development programs we have," she added.
