Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Canadian Contacts
Today I am on my way to Ottawa—my home town. I’ve got mixed feelings about the trip. With Paula laid up with the broken fibula it is tough to travel especially knowing that we had originally planned to have she and our daughter meet me there this weekend. With Paula’s break, we decided it was best for her to stay at home. My brother Alec and his family live in Manotick, a suburb of Ottawa. I’ll be staying with them over the next couple of days.
Over the next 24 hours I will be meeting with folks at the Canada Council on the Arts to discuss our two organizations and how they might interact in the future. The Canada Council is a similar organization at the National Endowment of the Arts—they are the national arts funder in Canada. They each have similar sized budgets, but Canada’s population is much smaller—roughly the same as the State of California. Canada has a stronger support of the arts, at least on a governmental level, than the U.S. One difference between Canada and the US is the Regional system fitting between the National level funders and the state/provincial level.
The meeting is a discovery kind of encounter with the intent to see where we might be able to collaborate or intersect.
Interestingly the Consulate in Denver has been in conversations with the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs (DOCA). Through an interesting string of events, the individual responsible for cultural exchange has given me tickets to a Barenaked Ladies concert at the Paramount in Denver on Thursday. I’ll be returning from Ottawa, hopefully in time for the concert. There is a meet and greet prior to the concert where, if I’m back, I’ll have a chance to meet the BLN. I think, more importantly, this has me in contact with some potentially interesting contacts at the Consulate. Still, I hope to 1) get on an earlier flight, or 2) that my flight isn’t late. We’ll see how United can help me out. I’m flying through Chicago’s O’Hare, which OFTEN has late flights.
The consular staff have asked if I can grab business cards from the Canada Council for them as well.
I’m also going to be doing some ZAPP demo work at the International Festival and Events Association annual meeting in Ottawa. Terry Adams, of the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, is conducting a festival affinity group. I’ll be helping out with that a little and then doing a half hour presentation on the ZAPP program afterwards. We hope it might lead to some leads.
It feels good that I might work with folks from back home. It also feels pretty good that I’ve been back to Canada twice in the last couple of months.
Over the next 24 hours I will be meeting with folks at the Canada Council on the Arts to discuss our two organizations and how they might interact in the future. The Canada Council is a similar organization at the National Endowment of the Arts—they are the national arts funder in Canada. They each have similar sized budgets, but Canada’s population is much smaller—roughly the same as the State of California. Canada has a stronger support of the arts, at least on a governmental level, than the U.S. One difference between Canada and the US is the Regional system fitting between the National level funders and the state/provincial level.
The meeting is a discovery kind of encounter with the intent to see where we might be able to collaborate or intersect.
Interestingly the Consulate in Denver has been in conversations with the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs (DOCA). Through an interesting string of events, the individual responsible for cultural exchange has given me tickets to a Barenaked Ladies concert at the Paramount in Denver on Thursday. I’ll be returning from Ottawa, hopefully in time for the concert. There is a meet and greet prior to the concert where, if I’m back, I’ll have a chance to meet the BLN. I think, more importantly, this has me in contact with some potentially interesting contacts at the Consulate. Still, I hope to 1) get on an earlier flight, or 2) that my flight isn’t late. We’ll see how United can help me out. I’m flying through Chicago’s O’Hare, which OFTEN has late flights.
The consular staff have asked if I can grab business cards from the Canada Council for them as well.
I’m also going to be doing some ZAPP demo work at the International Festival and Events Association annual meeting in Ottawa. Terry Adams, of the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, is conducting a festival affinity group. I’ll be helping out with that a little and then doing a half hour presentation on the ZAPP program afterwards. We hope it might lead to some leads.
It feels good that I might work with folks from back home. It also feels pretty good that I’ve been back to Canada twice in the last couple of months.
