web version
 

Selling Winnipeg To The World News

Volume 1  Edition 1
 

Bill Morrissey, Senior Vice-President  (204) 944-3309
Cindy Goertzen, Business Development Manager  (204) 944-3324
Tess Wilson, Business Development Coordinator  (204) 944-3323

The Initiative
 It's been a little more than three months since we last updated you, and we have a lot of information to update you on. In recent months, our team has been kept busy with a trade mission to India, conferences and, of course, pursuing leads that have come our way courtesy of our Winnipeg business community.  SWTTW aims to create significant private sector growth and development.  It is a bold new initiative, put forth by The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, to attract new companies to our city, assist existing companies to expand and entrepreneurs to bring their ideas to reality, and engage with the R&D community to commercialize innovation being developed in Winnipeg.

  

Proud and Confident
"If they can do it, we can too!"  Other jurisdictions have launched similar initiatives to both attract and grow business on their home turf.  Places like Halifax, bringing RIM to their doorstep, and Tennessee, who has seen more than 350 companies locate headquarters in their State in the past 10 years.  We believe Winnipeg is more than capable of similar outcomes.  To make this a reality, we will be launching a major fundraising campaign to help us to assemble the people and resources we will need to get our message out and get it done!

Our Team
"We" have grown to "3" - three team members that is:  Bill Morrissey, Cindy Goertzen and Tess Wilson.  A returning Manitoban, Cindy brings with her a wealth of experience in the fields of business development and recruitment at a local, national and international level.  Tess will use her special event and organizational strengths to assist SWTTW in converting ideas to actions.  Bill, of course, will continue to be SWTTW's enthusiastic and dedicated leader around the clock!

Happenings To Date
June saw the wrap up of a six month volunteer business call team effort, reaching out to more than 200 of Winnipeg's business leaders.  This campaign provided us with insights into our City's strengths and challenges, as well as provided recommendations on emerging business sectors to pursue.  From these conversations, a dozen leads and twice as many rumored leads were uncovered.  Since word of the initiative has gotten out, we are elated to report that we have assisted a dozen companies, in a variety of ways, to make doing business in Winnipeg even more attractive.

India Mission
The Chamber accompanied the Province on a 10-day trade mission to India (Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad) in July. Chamber President and CEO Dave Angus signed MOUs with six Indian Chambers of Commerce and other prominent business organizations which focused on building relationships and promoting bilateral trade, investment and technology transfer, as well as joint ventures and collaboration  In addition to these successes, 10 new business opportunities were identified with Indian companies.   SWTTW will follow up on all of them, including a connection with one of India's leading conglomerates.  In addition, three delegations from India will be coming to Winnipeg by the end of the year.  This trip also provided the impetus for The Chamber to host a seminar on India (Oct 6th) for the Winnipeg business community to better understand the immense opportunities and the local support available to them to pursue them.

Case Study

Client: Global Company (Confidential)
Employees:  Over 20,000
Annual Top Line Revenue: Over 20 Billion

Through our work with a site selector, SWTTW is pleased to report that Winnipeg has been short listed as one of three possible locations to support this company's growing needs.  They were very impressed with Winnipeg's many strengths and attributes. Due in no small part to the extremely professional and thorough job done by a number of local business people, who were called to action, Winnipeg will go on record as the best presentation from a City seen by this site selector in their 14 years of work.  Winnipeg was able to make quite an impression thanks to the caliber of presenters and the quality and consistency of the message put forth by these individuals.  This collaborative effort led by SWTTW, involving Destination Winnipeg, the Province of Manitoba and the City of Winnipeg, may prove to be the key for this company to open its doors here in early 2010.  Stay tuned!

It's Out There
You asked for it, we printed it.  For those individuals who frequently travel outside of our City for business, you now have a brochure to provide to prospective businesses that offers help to guide your discussions about how great Winnipeg is, and what is has to offer.  Over the last number of weeks, Tess has met with several members in the business community to provide them with copies of the brochure.  If you are interested in receiving printed copies or an electronic PDF version, please contact Tess directly at 204.944-3323 or twilson@winnipeg-chamber.com.

Moving Ahead
What's next?  SWTTW is eager to push forward with actively engaging businesses to consider Winnipeg as a viable, appealing and practical option for them to do business from.  Meetings with the leadership of Manitoba's eight key sector councils/ associations will be scheduled in the coming weeks to assist SWTTW in identifying some of the best companies for us to focus on.  Along with these sector councils, we anticipate working closely with site selectors, real estate and development agencies, as well as capital and financing companies in the city. And we will be requesting the broader Winnipeg business community to come forward with leads when we distribute a package to the over 2,000 members of The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce by the end of this month.

Robb Denomme
Genuwine Cellars

  "For almost 2 decades, Genuwine Cellars has designed and built awe-inspiring wine vaults. As demands for our Vintage VaultTM 
continues to increase year after year, our business looked at expansion options abroad. In 2008, we opened a branch facility in Nicaragua to meet our growing demands while containing our costs. Recently, our company was introduced to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce Selling Winnipeg to the World Initiative.  Clearly they want us to do our next expansion here in Winnipeg rather than elsewhere! And the team introduced us to key individuals who have listened to our plans and ideas and have helped identify possible next steps for us to consider. Due to their efforts we have been made aware of various government programs that we may be able to take advantage of that may make a significant difference in our decision.  Over the past 8 months they have repeatedly taken the initiative to arrange meetings and for that we are very thankful to the team.  This is a great program for our city."
 
Scott Richer
Choice Hotels
"As someone who specializes in working with Chambers across Canada, the assistance and professionalism received in
Winnipeg was precedent setting. Their most recent initiative, Selling Winnipeg to the World is as innovative as it is timely. Winnipeg is a market with enormous potential and we are proud to now be part of the historic growth that seems to be propelling them into the future."
 
Clayton Gording
YRC Worldwide
"In my personal involvement in national and international transportation during this time of economic challenges,
it has become very obvious to me that the need to attract new business and retain highly valuable existing enterprises has never been more important to our city.  Communities throughout North America are competing to enhance their share of the industrial market.  I am very excited about the initiative being sponsored by The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, where they are calling upon the best sales force in the country, namely our own business leaders, to become actively involved in Selling Winnipeg to the World. It is through the leads that we uncover, through talking about the opportunities for companies to establish in Winnipeg, that will ultimately pave the way for the success of this exciting project."
 
Judy Murphy
Meyers Norris Penny
"As I spoke with a number of local executives, I was extremely impressed with their enthusiasm for their businesses, their optimism for Winnipeg
and their support for the SWTTW initiative. The collaboration of this energy in expanding current business and attracting new business to Winnipeg is sure to deliver positive results!"
 
Sandy Sager
In The Know
"I was so pleased to be a part of Selling Winnipeg to the World initiative.  This exciting and forward thinking initiative is exactly what our great city 
needs; business leaders working together to uncover, expand and improve business opportunities. Our business call team was quite an impressive group and each time we met, I was invigorated by all of the great ideas that were brought forward.  I look forward to providing whatever further assistance I can to this initiative."

How Can You Help?
 Every day there are scores of meetings held within our City limits.  Within these meetings, there are so many topics covered which fall outside of the scripted agenda.  Things like "Have you heard this company is thinking of expanding?  Perhaps they might be a fit for Winnipeg" or "Have you heard that this company is having issues? Perhaps they might need help."  These are exactly the discussions we want to hear about.  Have you come up with the next "big thing?"  We want to hear if you have a new idea and it has been sitting on the shelf, maybe we can help make it a reality.  Does your company do a lot of business with suppliers from outside the province?  Might it be more practical, not to mention more financially appealing, if they had a presence in Winnipeg?  Let us know who you might like to see set up shop here in our great City.