POPCORN Conferences

POPCORN Conference 2026
POPCORN Conference 2025
POPCORN Conference 2024
POPCORN Conference 2023

POPCORN Conference 2026

The 2026 POPCORN conference took place in vibrant Calgary from May 28–29, 2026, bringing together attendees from coast to coast.

Some key highlights from the 2026 conference are:

  • Two Keynotes:

    • From Research to Decision-Making: What Have I Learned? (Dr. Caroline Quach-Thanh)

    • The PENTA Network: Past, Present, and Future (Dr. Carlo Giaquinto)

  • PE Training Series: Highlights & Lessons Learned (Isra Amsdr, Cedar Davidson, Abby McCluskey, Caroline Jose)

  • Land Acknowledgement and Revisiting EDI+I & Pediatric Research (Drs. Patty Li, Ananya Banerjee & Amy Shawanda)

  • POPCORN Updates and Next Steps (Dr. Olivier Drouin)

  • Updates on:

    • Immunization and Infectious Disease Treatment (Dr. Shaun Morris & Dr. Jesse Papenburg)

    • AMR Surveillance and BOBBi (Dr. Manish Sadarangani)

    • BUTTER and MAIZE (Dr. Shelly Bolotin)

    • GEMINI and Vital (Dr. Peter Gill)

    • Indirect Consequences – Health Administrative Projects (Dr. Nadia Roumeliotis)

    • Longterm Outcomes Project (Sofia Panziera & Daniel Farrar)

Photos from the 2026 POPCORN Conference

  • Presentations on:

    • Overview of Current Projects from Member Networks - IMPaCT, CCCTG, PIRN, PERC, perinatal (Dr. Manish Sadarangani, Dr. Patricia Fontela, Dr. Peter Gill, Andrea Eaton & Dr. Isabelle Boucoiran)

    • Baseline Characteristics and Disease Severity of SARS-Cov-2 Positive and Negative Youth: A Descriptive Analysis from the POPCORN COVID-19 Prospective Cohort Study (Carlee Feinstein)

    • Observed Disparities in Hospital Length of Stay for Pediatric Respiratory Illnesses: Secondary Analysis of the POPCORN COVID-19 Cohort (Branden Bonham)

    • Substance use hospitalizations in Canadian youth 12-20 from 2016-2023 (Dr. Matt Carwana)

  • Abstract Presentations (Hala Obeid, Laura Best, Blandine (Xiaoqing) Dang, Daniel Farrar, Haowen (Kari) Guo, Ruchika Gupta, Laura Humez; moderated by Dr. Peter Gill)

The Impact of Coming Together & What People are Saying

Testimonials

Amazing conference!

The ability to have the EC, GC and other important meetings in person was SO VALUABLE. The invited talk by PENTA was super helpful.

Meeting people in person! High quality presentations. The talk with Dre Quach was very inspiring. 

Having a virtual breakout session was great!

Olivier's leadership and clear intention to improve transparency, create shared strategic goals, and ongoing efforts to engage member networks in decisions and collaborations going forward. 

Everything was so great! Looking forward to next year.

The presentations from the individual collaborating networks were very informative and helpful in understanding the web of connectedness.

Very well organized, days were well structured, with different types of content and presentations throughout, the schedule was well adhered to, accommodations and venue were great, food & coffee were good and always available, and the presentations were pretty interesting! It was a fun environment and easy to speak with everyone in attendance, very welcoming and accessible.

It was valuable to network with other members and exciting to the research and operations as a whole.

The opportunity to network and see people we only normally see online.

All were great! Special thanks to Marilou for her great work! She is such a sweetheart!

Meeting collaborators in person and having discussions in person was fantastic! I also love meeting new faces within the POPCORN network!