The Canadian Association of Fairs and Exhibitions (C.A.F.E.) held the first Learning Forum January 22 & 23 in Gatineau, Quebec.

View the 2007Learning Forum Final Report

2007 Learning Forum Overview

The purpose of the educational forums are to provide an opportunity for our Canadian fairs and exhibition managers to come together to develop and finely tune their skills.

The Advocacy Learning Forum was specifically focused on communicating to government the diverse and valuable role fairs and exhibitions play in our Canadian communities. Skills were learned as to how to draft and present your fair or exhibitions message. Participants learned how best to ensure that your message was being heard by the appropriate bureaucrats.

“As a national association C.A.F.E.’s role is to continually seek out new opportunities of benefit to its membership in their day to day operations. The learning forum is one of those opportunities for management to develop and grow through this valuable training program” said Rudy Friesen, 1st Vice President of the Board of Directors of C.A.F.E. and .General Manager, of Lethbridge & District Exhibition “For example, the first national learning forum on Advocating to the Government – federal, provincial, or municipal is a subject that applies to everyone working in our industry. We need to get the right people hearing our message”

C.A.F.E. applied to the Rural Development Program initiatives through the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for the necessary funding to host this event. A in-kind contribution from the Canadian Psychological Association provided the excellent services of Natasha Teoli a Psychologist and consultant in advocacy.

Natasha started with an overview of advocacy and guided participants through open forum discussions of the main challenges facing the fair and exhibition industry and helped to develop and deliver key messages to stakeholders and government officials.

In addition to the workshops, Hannah Service coordinated many speakers featured with government experience to illuminate the relationship between government, media, and the community.
“We wanted to provide participants the opportunity to learn from the experienced politicians,” said Hannah Service, C.A.F.E. Executive Director.

“We arranged speakers from various levels of government as well as those with lobbying experience to explain their roll and expectations in the advocacy process.”

The first guest speaker was The Honourable Marlene Catterall, a member of the Liberal Party of Canada in the Canadian House of Commons from 1988- 2005. Catterall spoke on the current context for community capacity building and advocacy in rural communities in Canada.

The Honourable Wayne Easter was first elected as a Liberal representative to the riding of Malpeque in 1993. He was appointed Official Opposition critic for Agriculture in February, 2006. Wayne was the lunch speaker on January 22, he delivered a message of what politicians are looking for when approached on advocacy issues.

Alex Munter Candidate for Mayor of Ottawa gave practical pointers on getting advocacy results and how to engage politicians and the media as the lunch speaker on January 23. Munter served for 12 years as a city and regional councillor in the Ottawa area. He is a respected media commentator and former owner and publisher of the Kanata Kourier paper.

The sessions on January 23 were facilitated by Isabel Metcalfe of Isabel Metcalfe Consulting who provides public affairs counsel to national, not-for-profit organizations. Isabel is a frequent guest lecturer on the topic of lobbying and advocacy at universities and for the Ottawa’s School of Management.

After and introduction to government relations and communications, Isabel spoke on the importance of preparation for a meeting with government officials and took attendees through role-playing sessions of on the spot scenarios when meeting with government officials.

Attendees of the workshop left with a workbook that will help their organizations create a simple advocacy plan focusing on setting goals, developing messages, building partnerships, and delivering your message to the government and media.

“CAFE’s Learning Forum was one of the most beneficial seminars I’ve attended.” said Donna Sagin, General Manager Swift Current Agricultural & Exhibition Association. “It put together the entire plan for community capacity building - from message development to delivery.”

C.A.F.E. hopes to continue these learning forums with a variety of topics in the future.