Aboriginal Business Match helps firms connect
Aboriginal Business Match focuses on agriculture, manufacturing businesses
The networking aspect is what brings Robert Tebb back to Aboriginal Business Match every year.
“(ABM’s) been a great way for us to get exposure and get our name out there and really get people to understand what we’re trying to do with this business,” said Tebb, the general manager of Xtended Hydraulics and Machine.
The two-day event connects agriculture and manufacturing businesses with aboriginal communities.
“We bring aboriginal decision makers and corporate decision makers to our event. They talk business, they talk aboriginal economic business development,” said Maynard Harry, principal partner with Raven Events, which runs Aboriginal Business Match.
This is the first time ABM has been held in Regina; previously it had been held in Saskatoon. Over Tuesday and Wednesday, 29 companies and 20 aboriginal communities held meetings at the Delta Hotel trying to land business deals.
Four Horse Developments Limited, the economic development branch of Sakimay First Nation, attended the conference with that goal in mind. The company has attended in years past.
“We’ve met representatives here and we’ve kind of gotten further insight into how they’re doing business and who they’re working with, as well as learned from some of their developments,” said Lorne Kequahtooway, chairperson of Four Horse Developments.
Kequahtooway is hoping to expand on current business opportunities Sakimay already has.
It owns a number of pieces of land in Regina and Yorkton.
“There’s a number of different opportunities that we have existing that we could search out potential partnerships from here,” Kequahtooway said.
Xtended Hydraulics and Machine was also looking to expand on the business it already has.
In years past, the company has used ABM as a way to find new employees. The aboriginal-owned and operated company regularly hires inexperienced employees and trains them.
“There’s so much unemployment in Saskatchewan and it’s the catch-22: ‘Well we can’t hire you without experience.’ Well how do you get experience without getting hired? So we’re trying to bridge that gap,” Tebb said.
In the past, PotashCorp has invested in Xtended Hydraulics and Machine to help the company train more people.
“They recognize what we are doing with our little business in Saskatchewan here ... but they haven’t come to this event and I’m sure there’s reasons why they haven’t,” Tebb said.
It surprises Tebb that larger corporations such as PotashCorp and SaskTel don’t attend ABM. He said the companies have good aboriginal recruitment strategies, but he believes this event would be of benefit to them.
“It makes no sense for just aboriginal companies to be here peddling their wares to the same aboriginal companies that are also trying to peddle their wares,” he said.
He said ABM has improved over the years, but that the next step is to get the larger companies to attend.