By Jim Bentein, special to Business in Vancouver
Winnipeg has long been viewed as the geographical, logistics and business centre of Canada, but this May 25-27 it will be reaching out to the rest of the world, as it hosts a business-to-business forum that will allow participants to travel the globe for opportunities, from the comfort of the RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg.
That forum is just one component of an event called Centrallia, in which more than 700 participants from throughout Canada and over 30 countries assemble in one venue to discover how they can tap new opportunities in international markets.
Described as the equivalent of a “speed-dating opportunity” for smaller and mid-sized businesses, it’s the fourth such event held in Winnipeg.
Mariette Mulaire, president and CEO of the World Trade Centre Winnipeg (WTC Winnipeg), the organizer of the mammoth event, says Centrallia has a proven track record, with each edition generating gross direct economic benefits for the city’s economy adding up to about $5 million.
“And that’s not counting the economic opportunities for the companies themselves that are involved in the event,” Mulaire said.
While many of those opportunities flow to Manitoba-based businesses, she said there are also many companies and trade groups from other parts of Canada, from the U.S. and from Latin America involved.
With business leaders in Alberta, Saskatchewan and other parts of Canada hit hard by the commodity slump and searching for ways to diversify their economies, Centrallia offers a proven path for companies seeking other markets and opportunities.
Participants are allowed beforehand to shortlist the business leaders they want to meet with, which usually leads to follow-up meetings and new opportunities geographically or in sectors they might not have considered.
“It’s extremely beneficial for companies based here in Manitoba,” Mulaire said. “But it’s also a great opportunity for companies from outside the province. For instance, a success story from a past Centrallia event featured a U.S. company partnered with a company from Senegal.”
The cost of registering for the event is $1,350 per person, while firms wanting to exhibit at Centrallia pay $3,200. That fee includes two event registrations and a trade show booth.
Of course, airfare and hotel costs aren’t included in these costs, but Mulaire argues that it would cost the equivalent of the registration fee just to fly to a foreign location, such as any one of the South American countries that will participate. And that’s without the value-added component of having access to a database beforehand that allows participants to identify what markets they are interested in.
“It would cost that much just to fly to Toronto, but here the companies are getting an opportunity to shortlist the companies they want to talk to,” she said.
This year’s event is ideally geared for firms wanting to search out opportunities in manufacturing, transportation and logistics, agribusiness, information and communications technologies, environmental industries, energy, resources and mining, construction and infrastructure, and innovation and research and development.
Centrallia, held every two years, is a multi-faceted event that begins with a keynote address from a noted international speaker. Past speakers have been Ken Blanchard, prominent business author and speaker who wrote The One Minute Manager, and internationally renowned writer Malcolm Gladwell.
Gerald L. Durley, this year’s speaker, may not be as well known to Canadians, but he is famed in the U.S., where he is widely respected as a leader in the civil rights movement. He has held senior positions in the U.S. Office of Education and now heads Perspectives International Inc., which aims to create constructive programs for minority communities.
This year’s Centrallia includes two breakout sessions dealing with this year’s focus areas, which are the Arctic and the Americas.
“Seminars dealing with those opportunities are open to everyone attending,” Mulaire said. “Those seminars are designed to help business people understand what the opportunities are for them.”
The Arctic session will focus on business opportunities serving the needs of northern communities worldwide (officials from Alaska to Lapland, Finland, will attend) and improving economic conditions in those communities, particularly in areas such as energy, communications, waste management, transportation and logistics, food security, housing and new technologies and remote service delivery.
The Americas theme is focused on north-south trade strategies. Trade officials from the Mercosur and Pacific Alliance blocs will speak, focusing on the business opportunities in South American countries such as Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Venezuela, all part of the Mercosur pact. Pacific Alliance participants include Chile, Colombia, Peru and Mexico, all markets Canadian companies are very active in.
In addition to hearing from members of those blocs, participants can hear presentations from Canadian companies that have been active in those markets.
Although participants may have decided beforehand, based on their access to the database, that they want to focus on a certain opportunity, Mulaire said it’s common for companies to discover that a product or service they have developed has application to markets they have never before considered.
“Or it’s possible someone from Brazil may see an opportunity in their market for a product or service offered by a Canadian company that is participating,” she said, adding that it has been common in the past for contracts to be signed right at the event.
“However, in a lot of cases it ends up being the first meeting,” she said. “Deals can have long lead times, especially if they’re with contacts outside of Canada. In 2014 we were getting stories of contracts that had been signed from leads established at Centrallia in 2010.”
In the past, she said, the biggest beneficiaries have been manufacturers, IT companies, firms involved in environmental services and energy and mining-related firms.
The involvement of World Trade Centre Winnipeg doesn’t end with the conference.
“We prepare people [business leaders] before their meetings and we provide our services on an ongoing basis, assisting with follow-ups,” Mulaire said.
While that service is mostly open to Manitoba-based businesses (WTC Winnipeg receives funding from the Province of Manitoba and the federal government), Mulaire said companies from outside the province are referred to contacts within their market.
The event is supported by a global network of trade support organizations that work with participants and remain available after the event. Over 50 such delegation leaders have committed to the event to date.
For its part, WTC Winnipeg is part of the World Trade Centers Association (WTCA), the largest trade organization in the world with over 300 world trade centres globally.
“If a Manitoba company wants to do trade with Mexico or Brazil or Asia, we can pick up the phone and call our counterparts in those countries and get all the information we need right away,” Mulaire said. “Joining the WTCA has really been a game-changer for us, not only for Centrallia 2016, but for the ongoing benefits and reciprocity of service.”
In addition to Centrallia, the World Trade Centre Winnipeg offers a variety of ongoing seminars, research, trade missions and business assistance.
Centrallia itself grew out of a long-established trade program, aimed at the French-speaking world (a combined market of over 275 million consumers). Manitoba, which has a large francophone population, initially became involved with a leading organization out of France called Futurallia, and obtained the rights to host the Canadian version, which became what is today Centrallia.
The event has steadily grown since it was first held in 2010, when 400 companies and trade organizations and 600 people from 20 countries were involved.
Winnipeg, with one of Canada’s most diversified economies, is a logical location for the event, Mulaire said. “Manitoba is a multi-sector and diverse province, with multi-sector business opportunities,” she said.
And Centrallia provides business people from across Canada, the U.S. and the world – over 50 business delegations from 30 countries will be converging – with a one-stop way to tap into opportunities. •
