A Letter from the President
Colleagues, Associates and Peers,
There is much news to share with you since the issue of our January newsletter as we approach the end of the 4th month into 2013. In the winter issue, we stated that CAMSC’s plans for 2013 included a busy year ahead, full of networking, matchmaking and learning events. So far, we are on track with that plan.
Procurement Fair Highlights
As we are now wrapping up the Diversity Procurement Fair and getting ready to launch our other annual events, this is an ideal time to provide you with some fantastic highlights from our annual marquee event. On April 9th & 10th, CAMSC welcomed over 250 participants to the Diversity Procuremet Fair, which was hosted for the 2nd consecutive year at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel in downtown Toronto. Out of those, over 100 companies participated in the meeting marketplace, which is a 28% increase from last year. Overall, CAMSC facilitated over 630 meetings between representatives from 42 Corporations and 55 certified suppliers! This is a tremendous improvement from previous years, and the process only continues to get better with the help of your feedback. If you were a participant in this event and have not yet had the opportunity to participate in the post Procurement Fair survey but would like to, please click here now to fill out the survey. It is essential that we hear about your personal experience, which will enable us to improve the organization and execution of future events.
As an added highlight and special treat, we have a post event video that showcases the Diversity Networking Reception on April 9th, courtesy of Unikron. We would especially like to thank Unikron, one of our certified suppliers for capturing the essence of this portion of the event on video. Please enjoy.
Click Here to Watch The Video.
We will ensure that pictures from the event are posted on our website for your viewing pleasure once they are made available. As a follow up to this newsletter, we will send a follow up notice with a link to our website ‘photo gallery’, as well as post the link in our social media feed on LinkedIn.
We’d like to thank those of you who have taken the time to respond to our post event survey.
We are thrilled with the positive responses received by attendees of the event thus far and are happy to share the following survey results based on your feedback:
- 60% of corporate respondents who participated in the meeting marketplace appointments identified between 1 – 5 suppliers that they would follow up with for business opportunities.
- 80% of respondents found the set up and format of the matchmaker to be very effective
- Over 90% of respondents found the registration process to be efficient and well organized
With the Procurement Fair, a diversity outreach event and two webinars freshly behind us, and now that CAMSC’s new projects are underway, we are on track to delivering on our mandate through the rest of this busy year. For the next onslaught of networking and matchmaking events, please visit our 2013 Event Calendar and save the dates for the summer listings.
Other Updates
CAMSC Supplier Outreach
CAMSC has been busy during the first quarter of 2013 with supplier outreach and promotion of supplier diversity.
We participated as an exhibitor at Aboriginal Business Match 2013 that took place in Penticton, BC from February 19 – 21. With more than 600 participants, CAMSC was able to connect with potential suppliers and corporate members. Our president, Cassandra Dorrington spoke on Supplier Diversity, Business Development and Capacity Building at Mawio’mi 2013 Aboriginal Entrepreneur’s Business Forum which was hosted by the Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation Band in Corner Brook, NL on February 28th.
CAMSC was also pleased to participate at the 2013 ACCE Chinese Canadian Entrepreneur Awards on March 23 in Markham, ON. CAMSC would like to congratulate all the winners, and especially ACCE, on hosting a great event.
Visit CAMSC’s Company Page on LinkedIN
CAMSC is proud to announce that we are finally utilizing a social media platform to connect with our stakeholders, through LinkedIN. For those of you who are currently connected, please visit our company page, and follow us for updates, special notices, links to pictures and surveys, articles, contests, and more!
Annual Report
We are excited to announce that for the first time since our operations began in 2004, CAMSC is now in the process of creating an Annual Report for our members and stakeholders, which will be available for distribution in June. Please stay tuned for updates!
We look forward to continuing our work in delivering upon our mandate, making the rest of 2013 an outstanding success, and turning those successes into stories we can celebrate.
Cassandra Dorrington,
President
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