2008 Ottawa Heads of Mission Tour - Moving Beyond Mounties, Mountains and Moose

By Michael Darch

One of my staff’s greatest wishes is that I learn the “NO!” word. But how can you pass up the fantastic opportunities to show off your city to international decision makers in a new light. And so it was when Brent Court of the Ontario office of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) gave me a call one fateful day in March.

For Canada’s cities competing globally in the knowledge based industries game, some of Canada’s greatest strengths are our greatest challenges. Canada has some great international icons: our red coated mounties, our spectacular mountain ranges typified by the Canadian Rockies and our wide open spaces symbolized by the moose. Who hasn’t seen these images and they are great for our tourism industry.

Also from Canada comes the telephone, insulin, the digital telephone switch and the Canadarm. Unfortunately these are far less known than the mounties, mountains and moose. In an era of global business competition, our tourism image is at odds with that of the innovation nation.

DFAIT has launched a program to give foreign Heads of Mission (Ambassadors and High Commissioners assigned to Canada) a look at the strength of our economy. Trips had already been made to Calgary, Toronto and Montreal when the idea of showing them the other side of the Nation’s Capital was made. Given the close working relationship between OCRI and DFAIT, OCRI was approached with the idea. And so the journey began.

Opening briefing at the Foreign Affairs building on Sussex Drive in Ottawa.

The OCRI team of Kelly Daize, Marysabel Gonzalez and yours truly was introduced to Albert Galpin of Canada’s Chief of Protocol Office. Let me just say that experts in economic development are not necessarily attuned to the fine points of diplomatic protocol, nor to the patience required.

This looked easy. We had the itinerary for the Montreal tour. A nip here, a tuck there and voila, the Ottawa tour. Not quite.

First came dates. With summer fast approaching and schedule conflicts galore in the time between, target dates were soon reduced to either the weeks of May 5th or May 12th. Montreal had included a Mayor’s reception, a visit by the Premier of Quebec and a talk by a senior Federal Cabinet Minister. Six weeks away, these people aren’t busy, a piece of cake! No mention yet made of the companies we are to visit.

We were dealing with Mayor Larry O’Brien’s Office on another matter, so his Chief of Staff Eric Lamoureux referred us over to Kathy Bowles of Ottawa’s Protocol Office. The good news, the Mayor holds an annual reception for the Heads of Mission, the bad news, it was scheduled for the last week of May. After considerable negotiation and resolution of scheduling conflicts, Kathy came back saying that it was possible the evening of May 13th. Great, this could kick off the Tour and the dates were set May 14,15. Not! It looked like those dates were not possible for Federal officials, so Albert suggested let’s go back to the week of 5 May, could I contact the Mayor’s Office. Not a call I wanted to make! You want to know a secret, I didn’t bother. I knew the answer. I waited 24 hours and said that unfortunately it was impossible.

Just to make things interesting, we also learned about this time that Amr Al-Dabbagh, the Governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) was coming to visit on May 13. Makes you feel like an Air Traffic Controller at O’Hare airport.

On to the real stuff, the site visits. Canada wanted to show off Canadian technology and innovation. We looked to our areas of strength and decided on digital media (nice flashy stuff), our historic telecommunications strength (world leading technology, a no brainer), medical devices (health is an issue everywhere) and garbage (whattttt!). Come on, everyone has a garbage problem and the Ottawa company Plasco Energy has a unique solution.

We ended up with a fantastic line up: Fuel Industries, Magmic Games, Research in Motion, Nortel, BreconRidge Manufacturing, the National Research Council, Plasco Energy Group, EMS Satcom and Abbott Point of Care.

We also had to get around, so we were asked to recommend a luxury coach rental company. Our suggestion: OC Transpo, our Municipal Transit Authority. That rated, “You want us to put Heads of Mission on a City bus and then take them to a Municipal Dump, did you ever take Diplomacy 101!” When we scraped the Office of Protocol off the ceiling we explained that Ottawa has an excellent Transitway system that will not only simplify logistics but demonstrate an innovative solution to municipal transit in urban areas. Our Plasco pilot demonstrates how you can incinerate municipal waste without harmful by products and by creating electricity.

Not only did we keep the buses and the Trail Road Waste Facility in, but Canada’s Minister of the Environment, John Baird, agreed to join the tour at the landfill site, travel on the bus, and join us for lunch. Unfortunately, Canada’s Opposition Party would have none of this, introducing a snap vote in the House of Commons just before the Minister was due to leave. He voted, missed the site visit and bus ride, but made lunch at the Brookstreet Hotel. You can’t win them all!

Was it a success, of course with OCRI, DFAIT and the City of Ottawa on the job, how could it not be! As we had suspected, most of the Heads of Mission had never seen the technology side of Ottawa and were surprised by its depth and diversity. Many had rarely been out of the City core and it provided them with a feeling for Ottawa, and Canada outside the world of National government and international diplomacy.

They were impressed by our dedicated transitway system and how it got people around. Nothing feels better than zipping by single occupant vehicles stuck in rush hour traffic.

The Heads of Mission board the buses.

Garbage is indeed every nation’s challenge. Plasco offers a solution that not only replaces the need for landfill sites but creates energy. The exuberance of the CEO Rod Bryden and Minister Baird demonstrated our corporate capability to develop sustainable solutions and the Federal government support for those innovative solutions.

Rod Bryden explains Plasco’s demonstration unit in Ottawa.

The youth, creativity and energy of our digital media sector were clearly evident. Fuel and Magmic definitely provided the “wow”.

Canada’s national flagships RIM and Nortel gave them a glimpse of the future. These companies operate in arguably the most competitive sector in the world. And they win, not by resting on their laurels, but by keeping ahead of the pack.

Manufacturing in Canada is dead, I don’t think so. BreconRidge and Abbott illustrated how sound business plans, technology and talent can produce solutions for global markets and provide manufacturing jobs here.

The visit to the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre at NRC showcased a central part of the local infrastructure that keeps Ottawa at the centre of the Photonics industry. EMS Satcom reaffirmed Ottawa’s R&D and high end manufacturing capabilities.

The group visits the National Research Council (NRC).

And the Brookstreet Spa will see a spike in appointments.

It only goes to prove that public transit and garbage can impress! We received nothing but positive comments from the over 60 attendees on the tour. They strongly indicated that this should be an annual event and that we should do a similar tour for the Commercial Attaches. So much for learning the “NO!” word.

(Mike Darch is Executive Director of OCRI Global Marketing)