The International Convention of AA
By Joe C.
“The Language of the Heart.” This is our theme in Vancouver for this iteration of the International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous, July 3rd to 6th, 2025. As this article is posted, it’s not too late to attend. So far, 40,000 have registered for the quinquennial International Convention. Guestimates climb to 50,000 AAs, Al-Anons and friends of AA in attendance. The 2025 convention includes an unprecedented contribution from the secular AA community within our larger fellowship. For the last 35 years, the three-day event has included a “We Agnostics” panel of freethinkers: Seattle 1990, San Diego 1995, Minneapolis 2000, Toronto 2005, San Antonio 2010, Atlanta 2015, Detroit 2020—cancelled due to COVID. This year, in addition to “We Agnostics”, there will be two new secular panels: “One Big Tent” and “What is a ‘secular’ AA meeting format?” A careful look at the Vancouver program, designed by the New York IC2025 committee, reveals a broad and deliberate effort to showcase underrepresented AA populations, of all kinds.
My first AA convention was Montreal in 1985 – 40 years ago!!! It is meaningful to experience a stadium full of manic people with something in common, outside of their usual meeting environment. If we do the math, most AAs do not or cannot go. I think everyone who can, would enjoy coming once, and I know some who make it a must-go event every five years. I always wish I could take in more of the meetings and events at every conference or convention. No one can do it all. We all test our “emotional sobriety” at these events.
If you are going to be in Vancouver be sure to attend, and participate in sharing or Q&A after the panelists in many of the meetings. Here are some places to meet friends and have your say, if you wish:
Friday at 8:15 AM, Nosotros los Agnosticos In the Spanish Marathon Meeting, (Fairmount Hotel Vancouver).
Friday @ 11:00 AM, “What is a ‘secular’ format in AA?” (Convention Centre East MR 10- 12) with Ralph B, Sue J and Rick F, BC and Mary C, GA
Saturday @ 9:30 AM, “We Agnostics,” (Convention Centre West, Ballroom B) with Jeff S, OK, Keira H, NJ, Amy H, BC, Sam E, NV.
Saturday @ 3:00 PM, “One Big Tent” (Convention Centre West, Rooms 109-110) with Joe C, ON, Stephanie F., NZ, Michel D, ON, Rady A, OH. Also on at the same time: LGBTQ+, Emotional Sobriety, Young People
Other special purposes meetings are included – some in the same time slot: BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Women in AA, young people – there are many tough choices. Many meetings are recorded.
The block party will begin on Thursday at around 7:30pm. The daytime A.A. meetings will be held on Friday and Saturday throughout the Convention Campus. Marathon (around the clock) meetings also include some of the main convention hotels.
The three big meetings will be held at BC Place Stadium, the biggest sporting and event arena in British Columbia. These “big events” (meetings and ceremonies) include the flag ceremony Friday night, 50+ sober old-timers Saturday and closing ceremonies Sunday.
If you’re still thinking of going and you’re flying, there are airline discounts: Air Canada is providing our group with discounted travel. Promotion Code RF4VA681. Other airline discounts can be found from the SkyTeam partners, including Aerolíneas Argentinas, Aeroméxico, Air Europa, Air France, China Airlines, Czech Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Garuda Indonesia, ITA Airways, Kenya Airways, KLM, Korean Air, Middle East Airlines, Saudia, TAROM, Vietnam Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and Xiamen Air. To book, visit skyteam.com/en/business-solutions/global-meetings and enter our Event ID: 4860S.
In-person registration is $USD 185; the Vancouver convention centre will be open on Wednesday for on site registration July 2, 2025.
Hospitality Suites
Many hospitality suites are open Wednesday through Saturday night. You can find International Conference of Secular AA, in the Tweedsmuir Room of The Fairmount Hotel Vancouver. Hours: Wednesday/Thursday 8 AM-8 PM, Friday & Saturday 8 AM to 6 PM. Secular AA volunteer opportunities still exist in our hospitality suite or for the host-committee at the convention venue.
Other hospitality suites can be found at Fairmount Waterfront, Hyatt, Pan Pacific, and Convention Centre East. Other hospitality suites to visit include ICYPAA (young people), AA Archives, GAL-AA (LGBTQIA+), IDAA (Doctors), ILAA (Lawyers), OIAA (Online AA Intergroup), Accessibility, Public Information, First Responders, Indigenous members, International Women’s Online Intergroup, Technology in AA, Deaf AA and Friends, AA regions and other countries around the world will have suites to visit, too.
If you have The Meeting App, check “news” for an advance program which includes all Hospitality Suite locations, FAQ and more. I just downloaded the A.A.W.S. Events App to my phone, which already has a wealth of Vancouver information including public transit, accessibility, maps to BC Place and the Convention Centre, plus the program.
Watch Party Viewings Registration
If you’re staying home, AA offers several online registration and stream for a fee options available for individuals or viewing as a group. For 6-20 attendees, the virtual registration is $200.00, for over 40 attendees, $500.00.
The International World Convention of AA is normalizing unity over uniformity, and inclusion over exclusion for nonbelievers and other underrepresented populations. As I pack and look ahead, I think it’s a positive step that Vancouver 2025 is the first to include the International Conference of Secular AA as one of the many complementary hospitality suites. Detroit would have been the first, in 2020, except for the pandemic shutting everything down. Poor Detroit: they could have used the financial shot in the arm that AA brings in recovery love-in tourism. And Detroit was driving distance, for me from Toronto and I was registered and had a room booked. I look forward to Vancouver and hope to see some of you there.
Have your say.
Are you going to Vancouver? What do you think of the state of AA as a whole? Are you pleased with the progress of inclusion and normalization of secular AA in events like this? Are you disappointed that your priorities and hopes aren’t being realized? Please, share your experiences.
For more information, click here:
aa.org/international-convention
https://www.aasecular.org/vancouver-2025
Sober since disco, Joe C is a journalist/broadcaster who has covered music & entertainment, finance, culture, history, demographics, billiards, addiction and mental health. He has presented research and experience to treatment professionals and peers in the larger recovery community. His daily reflection book, Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life, is now in it’s third printing with over 35,000 copies in circulation. Joe C has been a regular AA Agnostica contributor through the years.
For a PDF of today’s article, click here: The International Convention of AA.
Woo hoo 🎉 can’t wait. I almost went to Montreal international convention in 1985. My boss was encouraging me to go. I had the funds. But the idea of being around 60,000 people terrified me. I’m going to give it a go in Vancouver and I hope to hit the stadium for a big event. But if I get overwhelmed I’m going to be hiding out in our hospitality suite.
Thanks for the info on streaming. We can pass this on to our home groups.
True that, Rady. During the pandemic, I discovered that I am more of an introvert than I had realized. These events activate me in a way that there is a feeling like a hangover or recuperation afterwards. I wouldn’t say it is maturity, but maybe an aging out that I pace myself better… of course, I say this now, everyone will be the witness in Vancouver, if I can act less like a teenager 40 years after Montreal’s 50th anniversary of AA. 9 more sleeps; Mary and I fly together to Vancouver to see everyone.
The hybrid/viritual components of AA’s international is something I hope ICSAA (Secular AA) will adopt to be more inclusive of people who just can’t make our in-person events.
Really looking forward to seeing you Rady; I’m glad you’re one of this year’s speakers.
The state of traditional AA today? Nothing has changed. Newcomers are still leaving in droves. Same with the disenchanted. Thankfully there are alternatives but access to them is limited. Especially face to face meetings, secular meetings. I recently left traditional AA. I’ve sampled one zoom meeting. It’s better than nothing but much of the same pontificating still happens. It does amaze me how supposedly enlighten people love to hear themselves speak.
What do you mean by pontificating Fred?
Thanks Joe. I’m glad that secular AA will have an appropriate venue and profile. I thought about attending but recent surgeries preclude that possibility. Would have loved to go back to my hometown but alas, it’s not to be.
I wish you could be there too, Murray. You’re a great ambassador for freethinkers in AA.
I’m glad they offer an online option. I think the idea is that while anyone can watch on their own, groups, sober clubs, or Zoom Rooms would create a watch party to foster connections for the online crowd. This will be the first convention that offers this.
Online makes sense for AA. Nina made that point very well in last week’s post. Our group’s district (District 12 in Toronto, which represents about 20 or so groups) is 100% online, which is great because I can log in from anywhere. Our Area (#83 Eastern Ontario International) represents about 600 groups from Toronto to the Quebec Border + one district from upstate NY) is hybrid. Participants (group reps, committee members, and any AA member) can log in. Groups can vote (online and in person). For those who want the live-in-person feel, that’s great, but there is a cost associated with it for groups to send their representatives. This way, any group can participate; time is the only cost to participate on Zoom.
I don’t know if the cost for online participation is cheap or expensive. But when you add up travel, accommodation and in-person registration, it isn’t too bad. I hope the experiment goes well and that the online program is expanded for future events.
Bonnie R. here, 32 years sober, homegroup As We Understand secular meeting in Portland, Oregon. I’m the Chair of Oregon Area 58’s Safety and Inclusion Committee, which we formed in July 2023. I’m responding to your question about the state of AA. The conversation about unity and inclusion and safety has grown. And just in the last two weeks, we received the official GSO Guidelines on Safety & AA Groups. For years we’ve had the three pieces of service material on Safety in AA –a broad category, which puts all types of disruption, discriminiatory, bullying and illegal behavior under this title. Safety itself is not a Conference Committee. It finds itself under Access. But there’s no doubt that progress is being made in all areas of the Conference. I’ve spoken to members, from BC, Kansas, South Carolina, Nebraska, Brooklyn, Chicago, and Washington State, as well as Oregon Area. Members, groups and districts are attending and hosting workshops, reading the safety literature, forming safety committees, and understanding that doing this work does not go against our traditions. I can’t be in Vancouver this year, but I plan to register for the online track. Will there be any online secular AA activities? Have an amazing conference. If you want to learn more about Safety and Inclusion in Oregon Area 58, email me at si@aa-oregon.org. and/or check out our SI Committee Website (url is below) Onward in love and service, Bonnie
I ❤️ Beyond Belief – it will be so cool to meet freethinkers and maybe bump into Joe C. and thank him personally for the compilation of daily meditations… so good.
Be sure to visit our ICSAA hospitality suite (in the program) or at Sober City 2025 a merch tent and visit Rebellion Dogs.
We can talk secular AA at either of these hang outs.
joe