On January 29-30, 2010, more than 450 professionals and students from over 25 different cities gathered at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver for the first Pacific Northwest Economic Conference (PNEC)—the largest student-led business conference on regional economics ever hosted in North America. PNEC was founded and led by Jack Leung, a first-year Sauder student, under the mentorship of five Vancouver professionals, including Sauder MBA professor, Dr. Ilan Vertinsky.

Nearly 20 American and Canadian universities were represented, including the University of Toronto, Concordia University, and the University of Washington. Students, professionals, and leading experts from both the private and public sectors, had an exclusive opportunity to discuss how the Pacific Northwest region could leverage its unique characteristics to participate in the global economy.

PNEC boasts a list of 24 speakers, including Michael Heeney (Bing Thom Architects), Eric Engstrom (City of Portland), Edmond Luke (Fasken Martineau), Stephen Brown (Chamber of Shipping of British Columbia) and Hagan Ainsworth (MacLaren McCann). David Gillen, Sauder’s YVR Professor of Transportation Policy, took part in the conference’s Ending Roundtable Keynote.

“The conference was remarkably well organized, the speakers that I heard were interesting and informative and the people who volunteered did so with professionalism and personality,” commented Doug Taylor from Pacific Business Intelligence Limited.