President’s message
Welcome to the Canada-Finland Chamber of Commerce website.
I am pleased to report that 2009-2010 was a very active and successful year for the CFCC. Reflecting upon the CFCC’s activities over the last year, Vapaa Sana, the Finnish language newspaper in North America, recently commented that the CFCC is now one of two organizations in Toronto which hosts important and entertaining events.
Our events over the last year included:
- our annual golf tournament, which was held at the beautiful Royal Woodbine Golf Club;
- our first Featured Member Evening featuring Heikki Laurila of Outotec;
- our annual Christmas lunch held at the Old Mill;
- our annual pub night co-hosted with the British Canadian Chamber of Commerce;
- a second Featured Member Evening featuring Lauri Asikainen of Klingborg;
- a ‘Business Opportunities Seminar’ focusing on the Finnish and Canadian mining industries, which was attended by the Finnish Minister of Economic Affairs, Mauri Pekkarinen, Ambassador Risto Piipponen and Ambassador Christopher Shapardanov (the presentation was organized by Finpro and supported by the CFCC);
- a joint event with the Canadian Friends of Finland featuring Pertti Voutilainen, a senior director of Agnico-Eagle Mines, as our guest speaker; and
- our Annual General Meeting followed by the Entrepreneur of the Year award dinner, featuring our guest speaker, Ambassador Christopher Shapardanov.
I am pleased to further report that our plan for 2010-2011 is to expand our schedule of events to provide even greater value to our members. Please keep an eye on the “Events” section of our website which will keep you informed.
Providing a venue for business networking has always been an important role for the CFCC. Our events provide an excellent opportunity for people to expand their web of business contacts. Our members and the CFCC can open doors to business relationships and government contacts locally, in other Canadian cities, in the U.S. and around the world (including Finland, of course!). Our members can also take advantage of the CFCC’s connections with other Finnish business organizations and our membership in the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Toronto (“Eucocit”).
Of course the social aspect of our events is equally important. The CFCC is clearly an important social and cultural point of contact for many of our members, and a very enjoyable one at that!
If you are already a member, I would like to thank you for your continued support and I look forward to seeing you at future events. If you are not a member, I would encourage you to join – I am confident that you will find our events to be interesting and a lot of fun!
Please feel free to contact us through our general email address at info@canadafinlandcc.com or you can contact me directly at pauvinen@millerthomson.com.
Peter Auvinen