Award Ceremony to Feature
Accomplished Exporter
OWIT-Toronto’s 3rd Annual JoAnna Townsend Award Ceremony & Summer BBQ

The winner of the 3rd annual JoAnna Townsend Award, which recognizes an outstanding woman in Ontario who actively supports women entrepreneurs, helping them achieve success in international business, will be announced by OWIT-Toronto on September 27, 2006 at our Annual Summer BBQ. OWIT-Toronto launched the JoAnna Townsend Award in memory of JoAnna Townsend, a trailblazing champion of women exporters who died in 2004 after a courageous battle with cancer.

The event – the theme of which is “In Praise of OWIT Women” – will be held at Toronto’s exclusive lakeside Boulevard Club, located on the Lakeshore just minutes from downtown. It will include networking and dinner and will feature Nadja Piatka, the founder and President of Nadja Foods and the author of two best-selling cookbooks. She will deliver the event’s keynote presentation - “From Home Kitchen to Oprah - Lessons Learned from a Savvy Foodservice Exporter”.

Nadja, who has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and tours as a motivational speaker across North America, will share her experience of starting a business out of her home kitchen with a $100 investment and turning it into a multi-million dollar international food manufacturing company that now supplies healthy, nutritious food choices to McDonald’s®, Subway®, Sodexho® and public schools across North America. Nadja will also talk about her special connection to JoAnna Townsend, who introduced her to the world of exporting.

OWIT-Toronto’s 3rd Annual JoAnna Townsend Award Ceremony and Annual Summer BBQ is supported by Hodgson Russ LLP, Ann Wylie-Toal Designs, TLI - The Mandarin School, Export Development Canada (EDC) , and International Trade Canada (ITC). For more information, including a downloadable registration form, visit www.owit-toronto.ca/awards_prgm_3rd.html or email the event coordinator, Barbara Vink, at Barbara.Vink@edt.gov.on.ca.

Reserve Now for OWIT’s World Conference
Building the Bridge from Market Access to Global Trade

Plan to join our Canadian delegation to San Francisco this fall for the 2006 OWIT World Conference, hosted by Women in International Trade - Northern California (WIT-NC). To be held from September 13 to 15, the event promises to be a unique forum for members from around the world to learn and network with hundreds of their peers, industry leaders and experts in areas such as international trade best practices, supply chain management, IT global solutions, compliance, and market entry including multicultural implications of international trade.

With sessions specially designed to optimize the conference networking experience, the 2006 OWIT World Conference will offer three distinct program tracks:

Track 1 - Global Import and Export
Track 2 - Global Supply Chain and Security
Track 3 - Emerging Markets

There will be a strong Canadian presence at the event, including speakers from our chapter and a special presentation by Canada’s Andrina Lever, who will receive OWIT’s Woman of the Year honour (see story below).

Andrina, who will be honoured at the 2006 OWIT World Conference in San Francisco, is President of Toronto-based Lever Enterprises, a consulting firm specializing in international trade, finance and commercial development. She is also a founding partner of JIT International Ltd., a UK based not-for-profit firm specializing in assisting and training women entrepreneurs in developing countries and countries in transition. Andrina has trained women in more than 25 countries on all continents, most recently in the Republic of Georgia.

Andrina has spearheaded and participated in a number of initiatives which were important to underlining the role of businesswomen in the world of international trade as well as identifying their unique policy needs and concerns. For more information about Andrina’s accomplishments, please visit the News section of OWIT-Toronto’s website at www.owit-toronto.ca/whats_new.html.

Stephen Brereton, Consul General in Buffalo, welcomed participants to the Canadian Consulate General there – “Your home away from home.” The Buffalo office, which promotes cross-border trade, is the second largest of the 22 Canadian Consulates in the U.S. and an ideal gateway for Canadian business into the U.S. With its close proximity to Canada, Buffalo is an excellent test market – 120 million consumers are within a day’s drive of the Toronto area.

“Exporting is not rocket science - it’s just pieces of a puzzle and eventually it all comes together and you’re ready to take on the world,” Mary Mokka, Trade Commissioner at the Canadian Consulate General (mary.mokka@international.gc.ca), emphasized during her overview of exporting and Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service. Two things worth their weight in gold for Canadian exporters to access (at no cost) are the Virtual Trade Commissioner (register at www.infoexport.gc.ca to get instant notification of new information on your markets and sectors) and marketing reports. “For example, if you want to sell baby food in Southern California, ask for a food study report on California market.”

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According to statistics, there is $1.6 billion in goods and services per day in cross-border trade between Canada and the U.S. Mary noted that the exporting of management services is a growing area. She shared many tips for developing a successful exporting strategy, including:

• Have clear business objectives and a marketing plan.
• Concentrate on one region at a time, starting with states closest to home.
• Make a commitment to understand the local market.
• Emphasize quality, colour and creativity in your export literature. It’s helpful to have a website, U.S. mailing address or a toll free number.
• Provide a value-added solution, not just a commodity.

Other presenters included:
Penny Beckwith, Vice President of M&T Bank (pbeckwith@mandtbank.com); Sally Wisnowski, Senior Manager (sally.wisnoski@freedmaxick.com), and Lynn Leek, Manager (lynn.leek@freedmaxick.com) at Freed Maxick & Battaglia Certified Public Accountants; and Pam LaFranca, Sales Manager, PBB Global Logistics
(plafranca@pbb.com).

Here is some of their practical advice on expanding into the U.S.:

• Because there are over 8,000 banks in the U.S. vs. six in Canada, the competitive environment south of the border can play in favour of customers.
• U.S. banking services used by Canadian companies range from a standard chequing account to a lockbox for speeding up U.S. receivables since cheque clearance in the U.S. tends to be slower.
• Be sure you have an experienced insurance broker because the U.S. business environment is far more litigious.
• A good customs broker will help ensure you have all your documentation in order if you are exporting products, educating you about things like classification and duty rates.
• There are a number of ways to establish a physical U.S. presence, ranging from a branch when you are testing the market, which provides no legal protection, through to a C Corporation, which is typical for a Canadian company. It provides legal liability protection. An accountant will guide you in choosing the best business entity and help you understand the cumbersome U.S. tax system.
• Both the U.S. federal government and states offer a variety of incentives to businesses to set up shop south of the border, ranging from R&D to employment-based credits.

• Since immigration officers have a lot of discretion, be pleasant. This can have a big impact on how an officer treats you.
• Document your purpose – bring along any letters to confirm your business meeting.
• There are a variety of work permits as you expand into the U.S. As you move from business visitor entry to actually doing work, reassess if you should be in a different category to facilitate your entry.

The trade day ended with a tour and reception, hosted by General Manager Tom Garlock, at the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission in Lewiston, N.Y., an international entity that owns, operates and manages the Lewiston-Queenston, Rainbow and Whirlpool-Rapids Bridges as critical infrastructures for trade between the U.S. and Canada. Its 24-hour, state-of-the-art Operations Center monitors security and manages traffic. Travellers can call its hotline at 1-800-715-6722 for up-to-the-minute traffic conditions on the bridges.

Thanks to the supporting organizations and to Gail Morris, our VP, Events, for coordinating a super day!

In a recent interview, Niagara College Dean Neil Chartrand was very enthusiastic about the Bachelor of Applied Business (International Commerce and Global Development) program, which is set to launch in September, 2006. The program is unlike any other currently offered in Ontario colleges, and will focus on four key areas:

1. A strong foundation in core business courses such as accounting, economics, and human resources;
   
2. International trade specific courses, incorporating all FITT (Forum for International Trade Training) Skills and other important international trade competencies;
   
3. Enabling students for the workplace with knowledge in areas such as global development, English, math and computers skills;
   
4. Enriching in-class learning with opportunities such as co-operative education placements, foreign language courses, liberal studies, and courses in ethics reasoning and decision-making.
   

More information about the 4-year Bachelor of Applied Business (International Commerce and Global Development) program can be found at http://niagarac.on.ca/studying/programs/fulltime/babic_6002/.

“Getting Connected” Gets a Makeover

OWIT-Toronto would like to express our gratitude to Litmus Design for donating both time and professional expertise to design our new e-newsletter template for “Getting Connected.” Litmus Design – owned by entrepreneur and OWIT member Ursula Gallagher – has worked closely with OWIT-Toronto to help us achieve our communications goal of being a premier information source for women involved in international trade, using the company’s signature style of clean and organized design.

Many thanks to Litmus Design for our new look!

For more information about Litmus Design and its full range of graphic design services, including logo design, professional stationery, brochures and sales collateral, print advertising, tradeshow booths, and websites and other online marketing, visit www.litmusdesign.ca, or contact Ursula Gallagher at 416-834-0613 or ursula@litmusdesign.ca.