Halifax — From Thursday's Globe and MailPublished on Wednesday, Apr. 07, 2010 8:09PM EDTLast updated on Wednesday, Apr. 07, 2010 8:30PM EDT
Two faces of Cape Breton will be on display Thursday in San Francisco, where classic “kitchen party” music and food will be used to pitch the island’s future to business leaders, academics and expatriates.
At the Golden Gate Yacht Club, noshing on traditional island food including seafood, jams and a dessert known as Cape Breton Pork Pie, guests will be entertained by Howie MacDonald and Robbie Fraser.
“We possibly might even give them a little step-dancing lesson,” Mr. MacDonald said. “Our job is to provide some Celtic music and encourage them to come to Cape Breton.”
The reception is being held in the latest port of call for the Cape Breton Clipper. Turned by taxpayer money into a floating billboard for the NovaScotia
island, the 68-foot-tall ship is competing in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.
She is sitting in third place overall after finishing the fifth leg ahead of the pack, entering the California port flying the biggest Canadian flag sponsors could find and emblazoned with a huge eagle symbolizing the island. It was the race’s longest leg, from China to the United States.
But first crew and guests get to let their hair down at a reception that is a mix of party and business networking.
“It allows us to bring our contacts and show what Cape Breton is about,” said Cecil Smith, director of the Petroleum Applications of Wireless Systems Project at Cape Breton University. “Making contacts, talking with Stanford and Berkeley, we’re building the business side. The party really is just an attention grabber.”
The reception is part of a worldwide marketing and branding effort by Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation, which is partially funded by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.
Lauri Taylor, development officer for ECBC, a Crown corporation, said it cost $500,000 to be sole sponsor on the boat. The corporation also expects to spend the bulk of its $750,000 annual budget for tourism and trade promotion on events in the race’s various ports of call.
Ms. Taylor put the sponsorship’s exposure value at more than $2-million so far, with another two legs in the race to go.
“Cape Breton is in every port that we go into,” she said. “We’ve got a floating billboard and tremendous ambassadors with the crew. They’re all honorary Cape Bretoners.”
And along the way have been a series of receptions showing off products and businesses connected with the island.
Tonight’s gathering is expected to attract people from such heavyweights as Google and Cisco, and from Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. Also well represented in the crowd, nearly 200 of whom had confirmed attendance by Wednesday, is expected to be a large collection of nostalgic ex-pats.
“A Maritime-themed kitchen party was thought to resonate with those folks,” said Robert Pelley, who will be there as senior adviser for Innovacorp, a provincial business development agency. “And it helps us stand out with foreigners. It’s unique, very identifiable and still very prevalent in Cape Breton culture.”
The ship is scheduled to head for Jamaica next week. But before it does, the musicians are hoping to get a quick run around the harbour.
“We’re going to be taking a little drive in the clipper and probably playing a little fiddle on it,” Mr. MacDonald said. “But we’ll probably take two fiddles, rather than a fiddle and a piano.”
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