A magician in Whistler. Three hundred and twenty guests, Chateau Whistler.

Corporate retreats, conference receptions and private mountain events all run the same format: close-up magic worked through the room during cocktails or a reception, and a stage show if the evening calls for one. Travel from Vancouver is built into one all-in quote, never billed as a separate line item.

Most Whistler bookings are conference hotels. A convention reception at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler for Suncor and Petro-Canada ran across three days for roughly 320 guests, worked as roaming close-up magic through a room that never stopped moving. That is the format the mountain calls for most often, because a conference crowd arrives in waves rather than sitting down together.

Governance Professionals of Canada took a long time to decide. They were hesitant, they went quiet, and then they booked me for their 30th anniversary at the Chateau — a black-and-white gala, 275 guests, close-up from five and the stage show at half past eight. It was their twenty-sixth conference and I knew that going in, which is the sort of thing that makes you want to be good. The photograph at the top of this page is from that night.

The Westin is the one I think about. Their own staff threw themselves a magic-themed party — a hotel deciding that magic was the theme, then hiring a magician for it — 250 people over two nights. I brought my family up for it. Management comped our breakfast because of it, and somebody found my son a little Westin bear to take home. I did not ask for either, and it is the clearest signal I have ever had that a room was happy.