LEDC official on an excellent Ukrainian adventure
By Sean Meyer/London Community News/Twitter: Newswriter22
Kadie Ward might not be able to go bike riding around Kyiv this summer, but she will be able to share her marketing knowledge with a variety of Ukrainian government officials.
Ward, director of marketing and communications for London Economic Development Corporation (LEDC), is part of a Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) delegation that is currently in the Ukraine teaching marketing techniques to government officials. The trip, which began last Saturday and wraps up May 28, will see Ward travel to Kyiv and Dnepropetovsk, while working as part of a joint Canada/Ukraine exchange called the Municipal Local Economic Development Program.
“I find international economics, and international economic development, really interesting,” Ward said last week before leaving for the Ukraine. “Even as our cities transition from a regional economy, being really focused on the local supply chain, we are focusing now on growing knowledge based economies that are global. So the global economy is becoming important to the local economy.”
This four-year program, which has been underway the past two years, is an initiative where FCM works to mentor emerging economies and create partnerships between municipalities.
Canada and the Ukraine, Ward said, have had a relationship since 1991 when the country broke away from the former Soviet Union. In fact, Canada was the first nation to formally recognize Ukrainian independence.
Despite being a free nation for over two decades, it has taken the Ukraine a very long time for them to develop their economy. In an effort to assist this process, FCM has organized delegations to bring municipal leaders and governments from Ukrainian cities to Canada to learn. And then, in turn, FCM is sending delegations from Canada, to the Ukraine, to teach.
In late February, a delegation from Ukraine came to the Forest City for a tour and Ward presented a lecture on economic development and marketing. Branding and marketing, Ward said, is something almost completely foreign to countries coming out of planned economies — like the Ukraine — because they have never had to be concerned with marketing their products and services.
“These are really foreign concepts, marketing, branding, especially as a city, how do you outline your assets and sell them internationally?” Ward said. “So after the presentation they asked me if I would be interested in going over there and talking to our counterparts, LEDC’s counterparts in the Ukraine. And I said yes. So they asked me how quickly could I come?”
Ward’s said from a business perspective, she has a fascination with geo-political economic relationships, which will be well served by such a trip to the Ukraine. However, she has another more personal reason for jumping at the opportunity.
As part-time teacher at Western University, as well as a fitness instructor, Ward said she just loves to teach and is looking forward to the challenges this experience will provide.
The teaching seminars Ward will be involved in are programmed, she said, on nearly a minute-by-minute agenda. Topics will include what is marketing, why is it important and what are the differences between internal and external marketing?
Ward said she expects the majority of the learning will come through the case studies she brings with her.
“We will have working groups sit down and try to come up with marketing and communication plans. It will be challenging,” Ward said. “We really just boiled it down to the main principals. A lot of the learning will come through the case studies and the workshopping. Question and answer will be a big part of the learning.”
Of course, there will some periods of down time during her Ukrainian adventure. But when it comes daily life within a former Soviet controlled city, with a history that dates back to the Vikings, two world wards and a long history of geo-political turmoil, it appears Ward will need to do some adjusting.
“It will be interesting, just the culture, it is very, very different. They asked if there was anything I wanted to do in my free time and I just said I wanted to go for a bike ride and enjoyed the city,” Ward said. “They (Ukrainian officials) just laughed and said there is no way you are going on a bike around Kyiv. They are not a tourist-based economy, so it will be interesting to figure out their culture and their dynamics. They just have a different outlook.”
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