Annual Award Winner Honoured at Annual BBQ

Consultant Betty Wood is this year’s recipient of the JoAnna Townsend Award, presented by OWIT – Toronto in September. She received the award, which recognizes a woman’s trade advocate in Ontario, for her outstanding work over many years to encourage women to expand globally. OWIT-Toronto launched the award several years ago in memory of JoAnna Townsend, a trailblazing champion of women exporters who died in 2004 after a courageous battle with cancer.

“When you do something you're passionate about, the work itself is very rewarding,” said Betty in accepting the award presented by JoAnna Townsend’s daughter, Meghan Friesen, and Kathryn McCallion, Senior Advisor, Office of the Deputy Minister, International Trade. “It’s a particular honour to receive this because I had the pleasure to work with Joanna, a passionate supporter of women, on several initiatives including the Beyond Borders Report, which was the first research of its kind. My current work in Africa gives me the opportunity to pass along what I have learned over the years from so many talented women in Canada and abroad. We all really do stand on the shoulders of those who went before us.

“I applaud OWIT for recognizing those who work with women entrepreneurs to encourage exporting,” Betty added. “We know that companies that export tend to be more successful – OWIT is the place to get the information, networking opportunities and global contacts to open those doors.”

In selecting Betty as this year’s winner, the judges highlighted her efforts in the advancement of women in international trade, her innovativeness, and the length of time she has been engaged in this. Betty is currently doing work in Africa to assist women entrepreneurs in developing countries, as a consultant for the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of The World Bank Group. Previously, as National Director of Women’s Market Strategies for RBC Royal Bank for seven years, she had focused on developing and executing integrated marketing programs and initiatives designed to foster education, networking and international trade opportunities for women. These included newsletters, a website, and sponsoring trade missions and events that helped educate women about exporting and expand their global contacts.

The awards ceremony was supported by Foreign Affairs & International Trade Canada, with award sponsors including Export Development Canada, Hodgson Russ LLP, and the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.

How to Be a Global Leader

“World domination is a full-time job – requiring lots of guts, determination and confidence,” said Kyle MacDonald, CEO of Phoenix Interactive Design Inc. and 2006 RBC Canadian Woman Entrepreneur Award winner for exporting, during her riveting keynote speech at our Awards ceremony and BBQ. She shared her insights on key success factors for exporting – from developing solid relationships through to understanding cultural differences – that helped catapult her software company onto the global stage and revolutionize the retail banking industry in her presentation, From Fledgling to Phoenix Rising: 5 Secrets to World Domination.

Here are just a few of her tips:

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Next International Conference

The 2008 OWIT World Conference will be held in Monterrey, Mexico from October 22-24, hosted by the Monterrey chapter. The theme is Trade and the Environment: The Triple Bottom Line and its Impact on Business. Watch www.owit.org for details.

And many congratulations to the Monterrey chapter, winner of the 2007 OWIT Chapter of the Year. Our Toronto chapter mentored Monterrey two years ago when it was launched as the first OWIT chapter in Mexico. “I encourage Toronto chapter members to plan to attend next year’s World Conference in Monterrey,” says Susan Baka, Co-President, OWIT-Toronto. “The Monterrey chapter has already begun planning the event, and I know they will do an exceptional job, as they did when they hosted our international board me eting earlier this year. And I know that Mexican businesswomen are eager to do business with Canada, so it will be a great opportunity to build alliances.”

Preliminary plans are underway by our chapter to organize a trade mission to Mexico in conjunction with the conference, which would include business matching. If you are interested, contact Susan at susanb@owit-toronto.ca.

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OWIT International recently re-launched its website, www.owit.org, enhanced to provides gateways of collaboration for OWIT chapters and individual members around the world.

Some of the benefits for members include:

Members can contact OWIT-Toronto Co-President Amanda de Vogel at amandad@owit-toronto.ca for your website login and password information to access these aspects of the site.

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A quick summary of where OWIT-Toronto has been represented in the last few months:

• The Monterrey (California) Institute of International Studies is conducting research and analysis on OWIT regarding its objective to continue expansion worldwide in a sustainable fashion and will make recommendations to best achieve this objective.



• Canada had a high profile at the 16th Annual OWIT World Conference held in Miami this month. Sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency and the Trade Facilitation Office, a delegation of women entrepreneurs from Asia, Africa and Latin America participated in a pre-conference workshop as well as the conference itself – enhancing the international flavour and contacts. Canadian speakers at the event included Maureen Kempston Darkes, who headed up GM Canada prior to her current role overseeing GM Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, as well as Helena Guergis, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, International Trade & Sport. Canada’s Consul General in Miami, Marcy Grossman, hosted a special evening for Canadian delegates. Another highlight of this year’s event was the presentation of the OWIT Member of the Year Award to Canada’s Leann Hackman-Carty, Past President of OWIT International and a founding member and Past President of the Calgary chapter.

Incoming Trade Mission Links Women Internationally
By Susan Baka

OWIT-Toronto participated in an International Business Services Forum in May 2007 as part of an incoming trade mission organized by the International Trade Centre (ITC) in Geneva. The two-day event showcased 25 women business owners from Asia, Africa and South America to Canada. Among the businesses represented were printers and publishers, call centres, lawyers, translators, trade development specialists.

One of the biggest takeaways? There are very accomplished women in developing countries who can hold their own as service providers, who are anxious to do business with the west and who dispelled many of the myths that North Americans hold. Here are a few of their messages:

• Africa is a very diverse continent of developed and developing countries and one on the move.


• Some countries (eg. Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa) are very stable and have many business people who were educated abroad.


• Pakistan is a growing country with a booming economy where many women have their own businesses or run large multinational companies.


• Latin America is very up-to-date with technology because of the internet.

The forum also included presentations by experts on how to market and operate service-based businesses globally. Some of the tips from Doreen Conrad, Chief, Trade in Services Section, International Trade Centre, Geneva, Andrina Lever, President, Lever Enterprises, and Diane Girard, President, Global Links Network, included:

• Three quarters of your export preparation should take place in your home country. Research your target markets online, invest in world-class promotional literature since it’s a reflection of you, and get letters of recommendation from clients in your home market.


• Ensure you have a good website with excellent content that is updated regularly


• Work through women’s business associations, industry associations, and service clubs to find ways to showcase your expertise abroad and build credibility since you’re not selling a tangible item.


• Look for export markets where you might have a personal link.


• Set up progress payments, especially for longer-term contracts, to ensure you get paid along the way and can avoid cash-flow problems.


• Use Skype as a cost-effective communication tool.


• Have tolerance and understanding when dealing with other cultures and, notwithstanding that there may still be gender challenges for women in some countries, always maintain the highest standards.


• Never give up…and have fun!

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Gail Morris [left] with Andrea Mandel-Campbell

After many years of living and working in Latin America, Andrea had observed first hand how Canadian businesses were perceived around the world.

Speaking for the first time in front of mostly women, she started off by saying that she usually addresses a sea of men in suits. “Women in international trade are as rare as home-grown Canadian multinational companies,” she admitted.

With amusing yet compelling anecdotes taken from her book, Andrea described Canada’s lack of vision and ambition in a rapidly changing global business environment. Relying solely on its natural resources, yet not knowing how to build viable multinationals in order to stay competitive internationally, Canada has remained inward looking and lazy, she said. Hence the title of the book – that despite its strong culture of beer and enormous amount of fresh water and barley, Canadian beer is not known outside of Canada. Molson was too afraid to take the risk, while a less equipped beer company from Mexico has successfully launched Corona as a leading global brand.

According to Andrea, Canada has completely overlooked its greatest assets – new immigrants. “Immigrants have founded most of the few Canadian multinationals,” she said. Yet because most of Canada’s trade is done with the U.S., we’ve become too comfortable. As the rest of the world has gone global, Canada has chosen to look away. In closing, Andrea warned that Canada is actually “deglobalizing”, and without a radical change in leadership and strategy, will end up as a nation of dependency with lost opportunities.

Welcome to this new feature that introduces you to an OWIT member from another chapter. It is designed to encourage and assist business development with like-minded women across chapters. Visit our website at www.owit-toronto.ca/resources/resources.html to find out more about Leann's services, what kind of business she is looking for and what she can offer you in terms of business development.

Background: Leann has expertise in community economic development. Prior to starting her own business, she served as Vice-President of Calgary’s economic development group and also as Executive Assistant, Community & Economic Development to the Mayor of Calgary. Leann is a founder and Past President of OWIT- Alberta and also Past President of OWIT International. She currently serves as Advisory Chair. She is the winner of this year’s OWIT Member of the Year Award.

Business Description: For the past five years, Leann has been utilizing her marketing, international trade and business development expertise in growing her own companies, Concrete Global Ventures and Groovy Global Trading. Concrete Global Ventures is a private consulting firm that works primarily with small to mid sized companies. Its services include: strategic planning, business development, fundraising and marketing. Its work with philanthropic groups is carried out under the trade name of Blue Heart Consulting. Groovy Global Trading builds international networks for "groovy" products, ideas and services. This includes providing marketing and sales support, business development tactics, market entry strategies and other export/import consulting advice.

 Services for Export:

1. International trade consulting services
2. Business/organizational development strategies
3. Fund development plans

Visit our website at
www.owit-toronto.ca/resources/resources.html to find out more about Leann’s services, what kind of business she is looking for and what she can offer you in terms of business development.

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