BURST
It is expected that among the thousands of soccer fans descending upon Vancouver for this summer’s World Cup, there will be captains of industry, high-ranking corporate executives and institutional investors in town for the games.
This chance has officials at Metro Vancouver and with the province working with federal counterparts to find out who might be at which game, and who is sitting with whom.
The goal is to entice them to take a break from the field and talk a bit of business alongside the FIFA event at B.C. Place from June 13 to July 7.
“It’s interesting with FIFA as it is attracting leaders from all over the world, who happen to be soccer fans, who happen to be high-profile or CEO or C-suite individuals,” said Invest Vancouver president Jacquie Griffiths.
Invest Vancouver is Metro’s regional economic development service, which works to attract investment for creating jobs.
“It is very much a team effort, with the federal government working closely with (the federal promotion agency) Invest In Canada, as well with the province, with ourselves and with our management board, to get the intelligence we need on who is it that will be making their way into the Metro Vancouver region at this time, so that ideally we can convince them to carve off some time, so we’re able to tell them more about the region and everything that we have to offer when it comes to business opportunities,” said Griffiths.
A recent Metro report described the approach as “compressing multi-year relationship building into a time-limited window in a local venue” with the hope of going from creating awareness in potential investors to having them actively considering investments.
With federal funding of just over $300,000, Invest Vancouver is aiming to use exposure from the World Cup and hoping generate 80 qualified investment leads that it will convert into as many as 10 investment projects that lead to the creation of up to 300 new jobs in the next three years.
In late May, during the Web Summit, which brought thousands of tech entrepreneurs, investors and industry leaders to Vancouver, there were “curated, small-group tours” designed to showcase how the region’s leading academic institutions and industry partners turn research, talent and innovation into investment opportunities.
In a similar way, during the World Cup, Invest Vancouver will be hosting similar themed tours for different sectors, including life sciences, critical minerals, artificial intelligence, and quantum, said Griffiths.
“It may be that they need more information on our post-secondary institutions. It may be that they need more information as it relates to land and availability. They may be looking at what talent-development programs we have,” said Griffiths.
She thinks that Invest In Canada will be a key partner as “they definitely have a great line of sight in terms of some of these key decision makers who are interested in investment in Canada, and then if they will also be considering the Metro Vancouver region and the province of B.C.”
B.C. Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon said B.C. is investing about $2 million in hosting opportunities that bring together international trade officers in different jurisdictions, academic partners and other stakeholders.
“It takes some time to get everyone to confirm, but we are starting to see good responses from different sector heads that are coming,” said Kahlon.
As an example, he said that in jurisdictions where there is a “real desire to buy critical minerals, our teams have identified companies that are looking, so we have been gathering those kinds of key people. We’ve been inviting them here so they get a chance to participate and enjoy in the atmosphere of the World Cup, but we’re also setting up meetings for them.”
Some will be invited to receptions hosted at a B.C. Business House at the Vancouver Convention Centre while the games are happening. There will also be a selective list of contacts who will be invited to games and other events, said Kahlon.
He cited working with the federal government “to identify key decision makers for major capital investments in order to invite them to play bigger roles and participate in the games in a different way.”