Media Releases

Thursday, February 21, 2019

Whistler welcomes back Keystone Symposia to the Whistler Conference Centre February 24 – 28

Whistler, B.C. – Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology returns to the Whistler Conference Centre February 24 – 28, 2019. After holding its first Whistler conference in 2001, Keystone Symposia has continued to include Whistler among its roster of mountain destinations for the past 18 years.

“We are thrilled to welcome back Keystone Symposia and its delegates,” says Preston Miller, director of conference sales and services at Tourism Whistler. “It’s great to see groups return to Whistler to leverage the power of Whistler’s remarkable location in the Coast Mountains and the endless team building activities that truly allow our guests to collaborate and connect with one another.”

Headquartered in Silverthorne, Colorado, Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that convenes open, peer-reviewed conferences across a broad range of life science topics. The organization’s first Whistler event this year, actually a pair of joint conferences, will focus on Long Noncoding RNAs and RNA-Protein Interactions. Two additional events will follow in March – joint conferences on Diabetes and Kidney Disease, and a conference on Cancer Immunotherapy.

“Keystone Symposia aims to connect scientists and provide them with a place to exchange information, present research, and collaborate with colleagues,” says Linda Hrycaj, senior director of strategic planning at Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology. “With more than half of our conferences held across mountain destinations, Whistler has remained a natural choice for us year over year.”

Fresh thinking comes naturally in Whistler so it is no surprise conferences and groups frequently return to the resort. Whistler’s stunning landscape, bucket-list appeal, pedestrian-only village and genuine, down-to-earth mountain culture make it a unique and unforgettable choice. Groups can ski the world’s best slopes, cycle over 40km of paved trails, spend an afternoon on the greens, or ride a snowmobile into the backcountry.

Meeting planners can visit Tourism Whistler’s website at www.whistler.com/meetings to learn more about the variety of meeting opportunities in Whistler. The resort offers 5,400 rooms for accommodation and the Whistler Conference Centre has 65,000 square-feet of meeting space with multiple set-up options, while the resort offers more than 150,000 square feet of conference space in a variety of venues. Off-site meetings can also be easily arranged. Meeting options are available at all budget levels.

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Whistler is Canada's premier year-round leisure and meeting destination located in the Coast Mountains 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Consistently rated the top ski resort in North America, Whistler was the Host Mountain Resort of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The resort offers an extensive range of accommodations totaling 10,000 bedrooms among 24 hotels as well as townhomes, condos, B&Bs and chalets. Whistler also boasts more than 100 restaurants and bars, 200 retail shops, 25 spas and countless activity options from world-renowned skiing and snowboarding, mountain biking and golf, to hiking, rock climbing, and watersports. The Resort Municipality of Whistler is home to a diverse community of more than 10,000 permanent residents.

Tourism Whistler is the member-based marketing and sales organization representing Whistler, operating the Whistler Conference Centre, Whistler Golf Club, Whistler Visitor Centre, as well as 1.800.944.7853 and whistler.com - Whistler's official source for visitor bookings and information. As the convention and visitors bureau for the Resort Municipality of Whistler, Tourism Whistler represents more than 7,000 members who own, manage and operate properties or businesses on resort lands including hotels, restaurants, activity operators and retail shops.

Media can visit whistler.com/media for Whistler facts, media releases, story starters, local personality profiles and access to images and B-roll.

Broadcasters: Whistler now has the capability to take you live with our enhanced fibre network. The significantly expanded network of more than 200 kilometres of fibre optic cabling throughout the resort allows instant transmission of HD signals to any location at any time. Details on how to access, and book the fibre are available on our media site.

Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, has been conducting internationally renowned, open scientific conferences since its founding as UCLA Symposia in 1972 and has been headquartered in Summit County, Colorado, USA since 1990. Over the years, it has greatly expanded its conference portfolio and now holds conferences globally on up to six continents. 

It will convene 59 conferences in the 2018-2019 season, the majority of which will take place between January and April 2019, on topics ranging from cancer, immunology and infectious disease to neuroscience and genomics. Registration fees are supplemented by financial support from corporate, foundation and individual donors as well as government grants. Donors also make possible scholarships for students and postdoctoral fellows, as well as travel grants for early-career investigators. In addition to convening conferences, Keystone Symposia is also exploring ways to leverage cutting-edge technologies to promote scientific communication, diversity and training. Its Virtual Keystone Symposia offerings of epanels, online talks and virtual conference recaps (available at virtual.keystonesymposia.org) serve to broaden scientific discourse and access globally.

More information on the organization and its conferences can be found at www.keystonesymposia.org and www.keystonesymposia.org/meetings, respectively.

Media Contacts

Tourism Whistler

Michelle Fernandes
Coordinator, Communications
T: 604.938.2726
E: mfernandes@tourismwhistler.com

Bree Eagles
Coordinator, Travel Media
T: 604.938.2718
E: beagles@tourismwhistler.com

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