Northern Lights 2012 promises to dazzle

Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki will kick off the 2012 edition of the Northern Lights Business and Cultural Showcase in Ottawa next February. (PHOTO COURTESY LABRADOR NORTH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE)

The last Northern Lights trade room floor was set up at Montreal’s Palais de congrès in January 2010. In 2012, organizers expect more than a thousand delegates and exhibitors to attend the event. (PHOTO COURTESY LABRADOR NORTH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE)

The Northern Lights 2012 Business and Cultural Showcase promises to offer bigger and better exposure to the North than ever before.

The Ottawa-based trade show and conference will run for a third time Feb 1 to 4 at the Ottawa Convention Centre.

When the Baffin Regional Chamber of Commerce teamed up with Labrador North’s chamber of commerce to host the first event in 2008, it drew about 500 exhibitors and delegates.

“We had 800 in 2010, and this time, we’re hoping to see a thousand or more,” said Hal Timar, executive director of the Baffin Regional Chamber of Commerce, who calls the event the “professional face of the North.”

The 2012 showcase, which has a budget of about $1 million, hopes to attract delegates with high-profle speakers, including northern and southern premiers and Inuit leaders.

And kicking off the event will be a luncheon keynote address by leading Canadian environmentalist Dr. David Suzuki.

“This year’s event is looking at what is the economic impact on issues like climate change, and [Suzuki] is a great person to bring those together,” Timar said. “We know he has a keen interest in the North and he’s the right person to kick it off.”

The basic framework of the showcase will be the same in 2012, and will offer a trade room floor, an arts and culture pavillion and workshop sessions.

Sessions, led by northern business leaders, will touch on northern sovereignty, Arctic mining developments and northern transportation.

Among the performers scheduled to appear at the event`s closing gala are Susan Aglukark and Nunavik’s Cirqiniq circus program.

But Timar said the event has proven to be most popular to those who had little exposure to the North to begin with.

“We’ve had lots of southern businesses come tell us that, without this kind of event, they’d have had a very difficult time connecting with the North and probably wouldn’t have otherwise,’ Timar said. “It’s an inexpensive way to get a feel for the landscape.”

He also hopes that visitors leave impressed with the event itself and the calibre of northern business and talent.

“We want to make sure people left thinking it was a well-done,” Timar said. “We are putting on the professional face of the North, after all.”

Visit the Northern Lights 2012 website here.