The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Canada's conference industry is facing a surging demand for event spaces as business travel increases, but as is the case with many industries, staffing shortages are proving to be a problem. The Globe's Jimmy Huang writes that after three years of curtailed in-person events during the pandemic, conference centres say they are being inundated with requests for trade shows and other large meetings -- both local events and international business conferences. "Most of my members right now are struggling to keep up," said Barry Smith at Convention Centres of Canada. "Their organizations were not decimated but really hurt by the pandemic. They had to lay off staff." Airlines and hotel operators have experienced a resurgence of business travel since the government lifted travel restrictions. "In prepandemic, it was common to see a significant amount of day trips, whereas now WestJet is seeing our business travel guests take longer trips," Amanda Ierfino at WestJet Airlines, said in a statement to The Globe. Corporate travel volumes across Canada have reached 70 per cent to 80 per cent of prepandemic levels, according to WestJet.