Saskatoon conference offers speed-dating connections for Aboriginal communities, businesses
- Fraser Needham | June 24, 2014
Linking Aboriginal communities with as many private sector opportunities as possible within a short timeframe was the focus of a Saskatoon conference from June 17 to 19.
The Aboriginal Business Match conference was host to 124 First Nations and Métis communities and private businesses at TCU Place. The conference is like a speed-dating service hooking up communities with potential business partners.
Each appointment is 20 minutes and a community can book as many as 31 business appointments over the course of three days. Businesses are screened prior to the event to ensure their suitability for communities attending. Each community and business also has its own online profile so participants know what they are getting into before requesting or accepting an appointment.
Director of the Métis economic development sector for the Clarence Campeau Development Fund Monica Brunet, one of the event co-hosts, says the Saskatchewan ABM conference is based on a similar event held in B.C. where $30 million in new business deals was generated in just a few days. She says these conferences allow an individual community to make a number of invaluable private sector connections it would otherwise take years to make.
"It's a huge thing because what we're doing is bringing all of the decision makers under one roof and making those connections," she says. "The connections that will be made here over the last two-and-a-half days it could take up to five years if you're on the road travelling, trying to make the right connections to the right people and so this is just making that process happen a lot faster."
Ken Graham was at the conference representing the economic development arm of the Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs. He says he was able to make a lot of good business connections for BATC within a short period of time.
"It's been a fascinating experience, some of the industry attendees here have presented information in ways that I hadn't even considered before and I've been doing this for awhile," he says.
Angelo Torchia was also there on behalf of Aboriginal banking for Toronto Dominion. He says he was at the conference to make participants aware of the range of commercial banking services TD has to offer including everything from land development to commercial real estate. Torchia also says you would be surprised what you can learn in just twenty minutes during an appointment.
"You know what, I didn't think it was going to be but I was wrong," he says. "I think 20 minutes was a very good time and people came very prepared. So, for those that came prepared, I give them credit."
Brunet adds because participants already know quite a bit about each other through the online profiles, they are able to cut to the chase and get down to business within a couple of minutes.
"I went to the one in B.C. in February and I just listened in and it is (enough time). The fluff is taken away and it's like, 'this is what I need, this is who I am, this is my community, this is the goods and services I offer and do we have a match here.'"
The conference was also co-hosted by the Saskatchewan Indian Equity Foundation and the steering committee included Whitecap Dakota First Nation. Brunet says it is likely they will host a Saskatchewan ABM event again next year.