Business leaders from New England and the Atlantic provinces recently met in Halifax to discuss opportunities and how the regions are linked economically. APP President Bob Dorsey, fourth from left, attended at the invitation of the Canadian Consul General to New England.

   HALIFAX, NS - An invitation to the New England-Canada Business Council gathering from the Canadian Consul General to New England was an opportunity Aroostook Partnership for Progress President Bob Dorsey said was one he wasn't about to pass up.

   A delegation of New England business leaders, which included Dorsey, made the trip to the Halifax, Nova Scotia area Oct. 3-5 for three days of meetings with their Maritime counterparts.

   "Currently Maine is importing roughly three times more than they are exporting to the Maritimes," said Dorsey. "We discussed opportunities which hopefully will be beneficial to both regions."

   The group used the trip as an opportunity to network and discuss topics of mutual interest related to energy, border, immigration, health sciences, transportation and aerospace.

   According to Dorsey, energy, whether it was hydro, wind, oil exploration or natural gas deposits in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, was the hot topic.

   "What I was excited by was there was no mention of biomass and what that says to me is - Aroostook County has the opportunity to become the epicenter of the biomass market," he said.

   "So for New England and Canadian relationships to develop and foster, we would like to do more regular travel and meet groups in the different provinces," said Ellen Kief, a member of the council's board of directors and one of the organizers of the visit.

   "There's no point in us being huge competitors with one another," said Prince Edward Island Premier Robert Ghinz, who gave the keynote speech. "We should find ways where we can work together, realize that we have a relatively small population base here on a worldwide scale, and it will make us more competitive globally."

   "If you know your neighbors strengths - are there areas we can leverage, are there areas we can collaborate on, are they doing something we haven't thought about - it is pretty powerful to have a regional perspective in a global economy," said Dorsey. "We are not just worried about Aroostook County and competing between Caribou and Presque Isle. That's irrelevant. It's Maine competing with other regions to getting our products to market and we need to think bigger if we are going to be successful."

   The Northern Maine Development Commission and the Sunrise County Economic Council, with support from the Small Business Administration, the Maine Small business Development Center and the Houlton Adult ED Department, will present the third in a series of six workshops for Aroostook and Washington county area entrepreneurs. All workshops are offered free of charge but space is limited so please pre-register.

   "Making the Most of the Online Marketplace" will be held Wednesday, Oct. 24 from 9-11 a.m. at the Caribou office of NMDC and by videoconference at satellite locations.

   This two-hour class will focus on advanced tools and techniques to better market your business online. The class will cover:

• Defining your online presence - Putting your business on the map; utilizing online listings and links; developing and utilizing your website; and incorporating social media into your marketing plan
• Driving traffic to your online sites - Crafting your message; testing your marketing campaigns; optimizing your ranking in search results
• Market analysis - Staying on top of industry news and trends, analyzing your competition, and finding your market niche
• Developing an integrated marketing plan - Incorporating traditional marketing techniques and emerging technology
• Participants will gain increased familiarity with online resources by viewing hands-on examples during the class and taking home handouts with links to further online resources in each topic area.

   For directions to the Caribou office, please contact Mary Dahlgren or Rod Thompson at 1-800-427-8736 or email mdahlgren@nmdc.org or rthompson@nmdc.org.

   In Houlton, the workshop can be viewed at the Houlton Higher Education Center at 18 Military Street. For directions contact Otis Smith at 521-3100 X 5 or email otsmith@msln.net. In the St. John Valley, the NMDC office in Fort Kent will serve as the videoconference site. For detailed directions contact Thompson. For detailed directions to the Washington County videoconference site contact Sharon Foss at 255-0983 or email sfoss@sunrisecounty.org.

   Please pre-register by contacting Dahlgren at 1-800-427-8736 or email mdahlgren@nmdc.org or Thompson at rthompson@nmdc.org.