Series connects needs with northern resources.

The Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (NORCAT) and Northern Ontario Business will connect valuable supply companies from across Northern Ontario with major industrial players through a new partnership initiative.

The initiative, NORCAT/Northern Ontario Business Opportunity Series, will see both partners working to invite key presenters from Northern Ontario to speak in front of gatherings of northern supply companies in a breakfast setting.

"The presentations will provide a forum for small and medium-sized businesses to sell and service major players in the region," says Darryl Lake, CEO at NORCAT.

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The partners have confirmed that mining giant De Beers will be sending two presenters to attend the meeting, set tentatively for Nov. 16.

Rather than just receive a speech, the company will be sending De Beers representatives who will actually be involved in selecting suppliers for the mining company's proposed Victor Mine in Attawapiskat.

"We could have invited the president or the vice-president, or someone else like that, but we wanted to get the real players who can actually make deals with them," says Lake.

Lake says he received his inspiration for the idea after attending a major business breakfast event in Ottawa three years ago where Arthur Carty, president of the National Research Council at the time and future national science adviser to PM Paul Martin, was in attendance. With close to 500 businesspeople at the event, Lake says it was a great place for businesses to network and solidify deals with one another. The companies were also informed about programs the research council was working on. This allowed them, Lake says, to make deals to supply the research council. In his view, the idea is a great move for all parties.

"If it's not a win-win situation for all, it's a waste of time," Lake says.

So far, Lake hopes that the breakfast event hosted by NORCAT and Northern Ontario Business will reach the maximum capacity of 100. The event will be held between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. in the NORCAT lobby and will move outside of it between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. for the remainder of the event.

The choice of hours, he says, is quite deliberate.

"We didn't want this to interfere in any way with the work day for the businesses we invite," he says.

As a pilot project, Lake is saying he will wait and see how it turns out. Bigger business breakfasts, like the one in Ottawa he attended, are all-day events and typically hold one-on-one sessions between the business presenters and the invited businesses. Lake says he is open to allowing businesses private time with the presenters after the presentation, but it will depend on how the event goes.

In the meantime, Lake says he will be returning to Ottawa for a similar event to see more closely how it operates successfully.

Tony George, mine manager at the Victor Diamond Project for DeBeers, will be the guest speaker at the Nov. 16 event.

George is a mining engineer with more than 20 years in the industry. He worked for De Beers in South Africa and Namibia in the 1980s and early 1990s--his last position being manager of the Auchas Mine in southern Namibia.

He moved to Canada in 1993, and spent the first couple of years with the Iron Ore Company of Canada in Labrador as Superintendent of Technical Services.

He then moved to Vancouver, where he spent seven years as a consulting mining engineer working for Rescan Engineering and AMEC Mining and Metals.

During this time, he worked on more than 40 projects in 20 countries. He rejoined De Beers in Canada in 2003, where his primary responsibility is the development of operational capability for the Victor Diamond Mine, which is planned to go into production in 2008.

Tickets for the event can be obtained by contacting Brianne Cartmill at Northern Ontario Business 1-800-757-2766 or 1-705-673-5705 ext. 306.

Tickets can also be purchased by contacting Nancy Wilkie, executive assistant at NORCAT, at 705-521-8324 ext. 210. They can also be purchased online at www.northernontariobusiness.com or www.norcat.org.

BY JOSEPH QUESNEL 

Northern Ontario Business