• Wednesday, September 2nd, 2020 18.30 CanCham’s Health & Leisure Group Zoom meeting. Register
• Tuesday, September 8th, 2020 18.30 CanCham’s Trade Facilitation & Export Group Zoom meeting. Register
• Thursday, September 10th, 2020 18.30 CanCham’s Construction Related Services Group Zoom meeting. Register
• Monday, October 5th at 18.30 – AGM (venue to be determined)
• Monday, October 12th, 2020 at 18.30 – Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner, Radisson Blu Elizabete Hotel, Elizabetes iela 73, CanCham Focus on Canada and the Canadian Embassy with H.E. Kevin Rex, Canadian Government Ambassador to Latvia.
• Wednesday, October 14th, 2020 18.30 CanCham’s Health & Leisure Group Zoom meeting.
• Tuesday, October 20th, 2020 18.30 CanCham’s Trade Facilitation & Export Group Zoom meeting.
• Thursday, October 22nd, 2020 18.30 CanCham’s Construction Related Services Group Zoom meeting.
• Monday, October 26th, 2020 at 18.30 – “Show and Tell” Construction Related Services member presentations evening

• CanCham’s Canada’s 153rd birthday celebration on Thursday, July 2nd on the Terrace of the Pullman Riga Old Town Hotel. See Report
• The Commercial visit to Iecava with the Canadian Embassy in Latvia and the CanCham on Thursday, August 6th, 2020. See Report

Annual General Meeting (AGM)

This year’s AGM takes place on Monday, October 5th at 18.30.

We have one vacancy on the Board of Directors, and invite members to nominate candidates for this position or volunteer themselves. Please send nominations to info@cancham.lv.  

• Corporate Contributing Members: Exupery International School, Savoie Laporte
• Senior Corporate Members: Singh's Restaurant, Indian Raja Restaurant, Energolukss

The way we work

One of the CanCham’s objectives is to create business opportunities for its members through strategic partnerships between Canadian and Latvian businesses through our networking activities, and to use our international partners to provide added possibilities. Some time age, we concluded that businesses entering a new market had little success, and so, we developed the Destination Management Coordination (DMC) approach. This works! We are now using this approach to connect to Canada and the international community.

The COVID-19 situation led to the CanCham changing its way of working since we could no longer meet in person. From May to June, the Health & Leisure, Trade Facilitation & Export and Construction Related Services Groups held a total of 18 ZOOM meetings. As a result, we found that we could connect not only to our members outside Riga, but also to others in Canada and other countries. In September, we will continue these meetings every two weeks.

One concern voiced by our members is that they do not know what each other does. To deal with this, each group will have a “Show & Tell” event allowing members and those interested in presenting to the CanCham to provide a five minute ppt presentation. This will also allow Canadian companies to be involved. Four events are planned in the coming months, starting with the Construction Related Services Group on Monday, October 26th, 2020.

We had a very successful commercial visit with the Canadian Embassy to Iecava to meet local businesses. Our aim was to find local businesses with which our members and Canadian companies can develop strategic partnerships with. Excellent contacts were made, and we were impressed with the professionalism of the companies visited. Now we plan to look for counterparts in Canada for some of these companies.

CanCham will also be involved in the organization of two health related conferences, one in May related to a Life Sciences organization facilitated by one of our Canadian DMCs, and an ophthalmology conference spearheaded by our member, the Latvian American Eye Centre.

• We are pleased to announce that one of our Board Members, Julie O’Donohue, has returned to Canada (Ottawa) and married Matthew Cooke who was just promoted to the position of Major in the CAF. Julie will continue to serve on the CanCham Board. Many changes in their lives. We wish them both the best that life can bring.

• CanCham Corporate Contributing member, Savoie Arbitration launched Savoie Laporte earlier this month. Savoie Laporte operates offices in Montreal, Canada and Paris, France, and serve the Latvian market. We congratulate Pierre-Olivier Savoie on the development of his legal business. More information

• The International School of Riga renews its Corporate membership. We also welcome its new director, Shane Kells (a Canadian) to Latvia.
• Evija Baula joins the CanCham as an Individual member.

• We also welcome the following new DMC’s in Canada: Evija Baula (Ottawa), Peter E. Von Sass (Edmonton), Jelena Razdorova (Montreal), Arnis O. Markitants (Toronto), Ravi Joshi (Toronto), Linda Lakats (Toronto), and Rohit Madaan (India).
• We are please to announce that Reinis Lauskis of CBRE has accepted the position of Group Leader of CanCham’s Business Support Group.