FAQ

The Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat (CICS) is a neutral conference support organization which provides the administrative, logistical and technical services required for the planning and conduct of multilateral federal-provincial-territorial or provincial-territorial meetings of First Ministers, Ministers and Deputy Ministers. These meetings are held across Canada. Working with CICS is the best way to ensure the success of your event. We offer a wide range of services that can be tailored to meet your needs, from assisting with venue selection, to conference registration, secure document access and archiving, multi-media support, translation and simultaneous interpretation. With more than 40 years’ experience in planning and supporting intergovernmental conferences, we can help you identify the elements that will suit your event’s particular needs and provide whatever level of support you require before, during and even after your meeting. We look forward to working with you on your next event, whether it is an in-person meeting, a teleconference or a videoconference.

CICS services are available to any federal, provincial or territorial department that organizes an intergovernmental meeting as described above. The host government is responsible for the costs of conference space and hospitality events; CICS covers the cost of most other conference services. CICS is financed by both the Government of Canada (through parliamentary appropriations) and the provinces (through contributions).

Once a city has been selected for the event, one of your first tasks likely will be to find a venue (usually a hotel or congress/convention centre, sometimes a government-managed facility). CICS can help with this first step, to ensure that the venue and meeting spaces you are considering meet the dimensions, layout, availability and other requirements typical of the level and type of meetings supported by CICS.

A number of rooms are required for each meeting. The following table is a guide for the dimensions, locations and renting of rooms for Ministerial and Deputy Ministerial meetings. Additional requirements for other meetings (First Ministers) should be discussed with CICS. Please note that all conference rooms should be secure and allow access 24 hours a day.

To make your first contact with us as productive as possible, please:

• Read through the list of services provided by the CICS, and make a note of any questions you have;
• Gather as much information as you can about your meeting, using CICS’ planning checklist.

If your meeting falls within CICS’ mandate, and once you have read about our services and have gathered some basic information about your meeting, you are ready to contact CICS to discuss the support you require. If a date has not been confirmed yet for your event and you would like to enquire about CICS’ availability, be prepared to provide two or three specific dates or a short (one-week) timeframe you are considering, based on the known availability of participants including the chair or co-chairs of the meeting.

CICS provides its support on a first-come, first-served basis. In order for us to confirm our support and commit resources to your meeting, you will need to provide the following:

• A confirmed date
• A confirmed location (city and venue)
• Your contract with the venue (at least in draft form), which will serve to confirm that the meeting spaces you are reserving satisfy the dimensions, layout, availability and other requirements.

Please note that we unfortunately cannot tentatively or temporarily set aside dates and resources for your event pending confirmation of the above.

Once the Director confirms CICS’ support for your event, a Manager of Conference Services will be assigned to plan, organize, manage and oversee the coordination and delivery of all CICS support services to your event. Moving forward, the Manager is your main point of contact and is responsible for the overall management and supervision of a team of administrative, logistical, technical and language experts assembled according to the needs of your particular meeting.