Keynote speakers to create ‘great palette’
By Sandi Krasowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Source: The Chronicle-Journal
The Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce is gearing up for its annual Prosperity Northwest conference, which will explore business sectors that Thunder Bay hasn’t yet seen.
From innovation and the Northwestern Ontario state of the economy to Indigenous business and tapping into the defence sector, Charla Robinson, chamber president, says the speakers are some of the best they’ve had yet.
“There’s just so much happening right now and so many different things moving around that it really provides a great palette for this conference,” Robinson said. “We’re going to talk about things that there’s never really been a discussion in our region about for some of these opportunities.”
The lineup of keynote speakers begins with David Pierce, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce vice president.
“He is coming to talk about the state of the Northwestern economy, the changing dynamics of what’s happening with trade and tariffs, and the complete change in Canada,” she said.
“He’ll talk about the need to look for new trade partnerships, recognizing the challenges with the U.S. and how that’s impacting us.”
Following Pierce is a panel discussion about innovation. Panellists include representatives from the Ontario Centre of Innovation, the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation, Boreal Springboard and Confederation College.
“They’ll be talking about some of the different things that are happening in the innovation network, including how mining is changing innovation basics, how forestry is changing and how those large industrial pieces are changing in this new innovative world,” she said. “They’ll also examine what that means for small business opportunities to really connect to the innovation that those big sectors are looking for, and they’ll bring some examples of the work they’re doing with smaller businesses.”
JP Gladu, an Indigenous economic developer leader and founder of Mokwateh, will be the lunchtime keynote speaker who will discuss the changing world dynamics and how to ensure that Indigenous communities and Indigenous businesses are right in the thick of those opportunities.
“This means big projects that the governments are pushing forward, that have big energy, big forestry opportunities and big mining opportunities. How do we make sure that there’s Indigenous involvement, joint ventures and partnership opportunities as the secret sauce to Canada being the most successful in these projects,” she said.
Greg Da Re, Frontier Lithium’s vice-president of corporate development, will provide an update on the development of the Frontier Lithium refinery project. Rounding out the conference is a panel of representatives from Public Service and Procurement Canada, Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario (FedNor) and Mokwateh.
Jamie Taylor, chief executive officer of the Thunder Bay Economic Development Commission (CEDC) will moderate the panel discussion.
With the government now spending on Canadian defence and searching for Canadian sources for procurement, Robinson said they want to make sure that local businesses are able to access those procurement opportunities.
“Defence is really not an area that Thunder Bay businesses have been that much involved in,” she said. “But now, with this massive investment by the federal government, there may be some opportunities for local businesses to get involved in such a different sector that we’ve never really talked about.”
Robinson said the conference aims to help businesses to not only become informed about the opportunities but also to become connected with the people who are making the decisions in those opportunities.
The event will conclude with a matchmaking session where pre-registered people have one-on-one, 10-minute meetings with different businesses to learn about opportunities to work and contribute to those businesses. Prosperity Northwest will take place at the Valhalla Inn on Jan. 27-28.
