In a place filled with ambassadors from countries all over the world, Ottawa can now say it has ambassadors of its very own.
In March, Invest Ottawa launched its new Ottawa Ambassador program as a way to seek out community and business leaders to act as city representatives. These ambassadors are tasked with spreading the word about why Ottawa is such a great place.
Ryan Gibson, communications manager at Invest Ottawa, says they’re looking for leaders who are prominent in the community to make speeches, talk to clients, or promote the city while travelling for business.
“It’s people we think have a good fit with us, people who already have a love for Ottawa from a business capacity, from a policy capacity, and from quality of life,” he says. “They’re already stakeholders in many ways, we’re just going to give them more tools to go out and promote the city.”
Before the program’s online launch on March 20, there were already 600 sign-ups – all of which became ambassadors. Since then, the number has grown to about 680. The sign-up process itself is “pretty straightforward,” he says. People who are interested only need to go to Invest Ottawa’s website and register. From there, they will receive a kit featuring ‘Why Ottawa?’ information material, which can be customized to their field of work. Currently, such high-profile Ottawa residents such as Mayor Jim Watson, Great River Media’s Mark Sutcliffe, and Shopify’s CPO Harley Finkelstein are registered.
Bryan Haralovitch, an Ottawa Ambassador and partner at accounting firm Welch LLP on Slater and O’Connor streets, says he signed up because he can use his profile in the community and abroad to make a difference.
“When and if I have the chance, I’ll choose (the Ottawa Ambassador material) to communicate it locally for sure, to rally the community as a whole as to why it’s such a good place to live and work,” Haralovitch – also a board member of Invest Ottawa – says.
Gibson says it’s all about streamlining the message.
“It gives everyone the same songbook to sing from,” he says. “Everyone’s on the same team, focused on the same goal. What you’re doing is instead of having all these little pockets of the community doing their own thing, everyone’s together and focusing on the greater good of trying to promote Ottawa.”
Because the program is in its infancy and still growing, not all Centretown businesses and organizations have heard of it.
Katie Miller, director of learning and development at HUB Ottawa says she wasn’t aware of the program, but shares the same goals.“