Northern Lights showcase has “come of age” in 2012

Northern Lights 2012 was the backdrop for many side meetings between government leaders and industry officials. Here, Quebec Premier Jean Charest meets for the first time with Jobie Tukkiapik, the new president of Makivik Corp. along with other Kativik Regional Government officials. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Resolute Bay resident Louisa Gillespie sold her home-made pressed flower cards from her community’s booth at the Northern Lights trade show Feb. 3. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

OTTAWA — They came from across the world, across the Canadian Arctic and from as close as Parliament Hill.

More than 1,200 businesspeople, politicians and artists descended upon the Ottawa Convention Centre last week for the third — and largest — edition of the Northern Lights business and cultural showcase.

And if the goal of the conference was to bring together northerners and southerners to promote common projects, then organizers say the 2012 edition was Northern Lights’ best effort to date.

“Every day we hear about the tough challenges Nunavut faces as a young territory with a small population,” said Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak in a Feb. 4 speech at the conference.

“And yet look around you. The success of the Northern Lights trade show and the growing number of people it attracts tells a different story. All of you are talking about new opportunities for investment, new opportunities to create jobs, new opportunities to engage our youthful population in the global economy.”

The four-day event, hosted at Ottawa’s spacious new convention centre, featured daily conference sessions, keynote speakers (including Aariak, Quebec Premier Jean Charest and Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Kathy Dunderdale) a cultural pavilion and a sold-out trade show floor with more than 200 exhibitors.

The conference served a backdrop for meetings between government leaders, bureaucrats and industry executives. The convention centre’s proximity to Parliament Hill attracted Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq to the event, along with several of her fellow ministers.

Northern Lights also offered its delegates and visitors a look at life in the Eastern Arctic, with information booths hosted by northern communities and craftspeople alongside around-the-clock performances from the cultural pavilion’s main stage.

“Not only are these performers talented, they’re professional and we would recommend them anywhere,” boasted Flo Frank of Eon Music Productions said of her line-up of throat-singers, musicians, drum dancers and storytellers.

On the far end of the trade show floor, Louisa Gillespie welcomed visitors to Resolute Bay from a booth decorated in souvenirs from her High Arctic home; maps, photos, polar bear skin mittens and other crafts.

Among her wares for sale: a selection of hand-made cards brightened with dried and pressed flowers from the landscape around Resolute, including tiny Arctic poppies, tufted saxifrage and Alpine foxtail.

Gillespie began making the cards in 2009 to sell to cruise ship visitors so they could take home a little piece of the High Arctic landscape with them.

Now Gillespie, who works as a school community counsellor in Resolute Bay, is also training local youth people to drum dance and throat sing as a way to “share” her community with the rest of the world.

“This conference is great because it promotes the community by showing people that the Arctic is not empty – that it’s not as vast as it looks,” Gillespie said. “It’s full of people, plants and animals and it’s got an incredible history.”

The event’s closing gala Feb. 4 attracted hundreds to hear Juno award-winning Arviat singer Susan Aglukark perform, while a fundraising auction for the Arctic Children and Youth Foundation raised more than $40,000.

The Northern Lights trade show first launched in 2008, when the Baffin Regional Chamber of Commerce teamed up with Labrador North’s chamber of commerce to host the first event in Ottawa, drawing about 500 exhibitors and delegates.

The event ran a second time in Montreal in 2012.

But this year’s 1,200-plus participants made for more attendees than the other two years combined, said coordinator Hal Timar, with the Baffin Regional Chamber.

“That tells us the event seems to have come of age,” he said. “We’re very optimistic going ahead.”

Already, Timar and event organizers have pegged late January, 2014 for Northern Lights fourth edition.

“And if I was a betting man, I’d say we’ll be coming back to Ottawa,” he said. “Ottawa is a good central location and it’s got strong ties to the Eastern Arctic.”

Northern Lights 2012 attracted more than 1,200 participants – and shoppers – to its third event, hosted at the new Ottawa Convention Centre. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)