NUNAVUT - Conference and meeting planners need to look beyond Iqaluit for their future events, and the Baffin Regional Chamber of Commerce is going to make sure they know what other options they have, says the chamber's executive director.

The Baffin Chamber of Commerce says it will use recently awarded money from CanNor to spread the word about Nunavut's potential to host meetings, retreats and conferences, especially in places outside Iqaluit, which already hosts its fair share of events. Here, the chamber's executive director, Hal Timar, lays the groundwork for last September's Nunavut Trade Show in Iqaluit. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

Earlier this month, the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency announced just under $94,000 in funding for the Baffin chamber, based in Iqaluit.

The money will be used by the chamber to market communities all across Nunavut to organizations that have yet to choose the setting for their next executive meeting, retreat or conference.

With Iqaluit already positioned as the annual mecca for the Nunavut Mining Symposium in the winter and the Nunavut Trade Show in the fall, it's time planners consider other communities in the Kitikmeot, Kivalliq and Baffin regions, said Hal Timar, executive director of the Baffin chamber.

"We have the basic part of it for the Baffin and now we want to expand it to include all of Nunavut and try to market Nunavut as a meeting and conference destination," said Timar.

"When we're doing it in the Baffin, we're doing it sort of Iqaluit last. If it can be done somewhere else, we'd rather see them hold it somewhere else, because somewhere else isn't getting as many as Iqaluit's already getting."

Timar said the chamber will take a targeted approach, meeting with the people who hold influence over organizations deciding where to hold their meetings.

"One meeting planner might have 20 or 30 clients. So it's more effective to try and track down the meeting planners so they can consider this as an option they can give their clients.

"In a competitive marketplace, they're looking to give their clients options and opportunities that not everybody else can give them. We think we're well positioned like that."

The Baffin chamber wasn't the only organization to receive recent CanNor funding.

The Nunavut Community Economic Development Organization (NCEDO), based in Iqaluit, was given $169,655.

The organization administers funds from the federal Aboriginal Business Development program to businesses in Nunavut communities. ABD money assists aboriginal entrepreneurs with business expansion, acquisitions and business plan development.

"We have a transition period where we have a senior officer who's going to be leaving in the near future, so we have a transition plan in place where we have recruited new people that would have the benefit of training with that senior officer," said Glenn Cousins, manager of NCDEDO.

CanNor's investment will help fund that effort, as well as updated promotional material about the ABD program, said Cousins.

"Those materials will be a good resource for our clients but also for other partners that we might be able to work together with to support clients," he said.

The Nunavut Economic Developers Association also received $125,000 to help with the creation of a "community profiles database" and to organized NEDA's annual professional development conference in Baker Lake.

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