The 9th Canadian Immunization Conference was held on 5-8 December 2010 in Quebec City, Canada. Over 1000 academic, public health and vaccine industry scientists, nurses, pharmacists, physicians and policy makers attended the conference, which was organized by the Public Health Agency of Canada-Centre for Immunization Research and Respiratory Infectious Diseases in collaboration with the Canadian Association of Immunization Research and Evaluation, the Canadian Paediatric Society and the Canadian Public Health Association. Fresh from the pandemic influenza A H1N1 2009-2010 experience, in which Canada experienced a smaller Spring 2009 wave followed by a Fall wave that stretched public health prevention and healthcare system resources, conference attendees were given the chance to reflect on lessons from the perspective of communication strategies, vaccine effectiveness, safety and program delivery techniques, in one of six program streams devoted to H1N1. The five other streams were immunization in a global community, vaccine safety, new technologies, vaccine-specific issues and clinical practice. In this article, we summarize some of the key presentations from the six plenary sessions, 36 concurrent symposia and workshops, podium and poster presentations.