Case Study: Global Affairs Canada’s Summits Management Office achieves secure, real-time coordination of the 2018 G7 Presidency with BlackBerry AtHoc

To Securely Coordinate the 2018 G7 Presidency, Global Affairs Canada’s Summits Management Office (SMO) Turned to BlackBerry AtHoc

Global Affairs Canada’s Summit Integrated Command Center (SICC) faced a major communications challenge coordinating the 2018 G7 Presidency: tracking minute-by-minute VIP movements and synchronizing more than 400 staff across multiple federal partners while replacing slow, fragmented radio and phone workflows used in prior summits. The 2018 program was far more complex than 2010, with many simultaneous ministerials and a need to fully integrate partners such as the RCMP into a single, reliable communications framework.

The SICC piloted and then deployed BlackBerry AtHoc to provide secure, two-way messaging, geo-tagging and GPS tracking, prepopulated templates, and automatic logging across three operations centers. The platform enabled real‑time coordination (including a rapid response during a Toronto terror incident), reduced reliance on radios, improved nationwide visibility and agility, ensured secure delivery, and significantly cut manual logging work—leading to unanimous adoption by the team.

Global Affairs Canada’s Summits Management Office

Michel Bouvier

Chief of Operations