Making Connections

Shannon Kuyt - Junior Team Canada Ambassador

It is Monday morning and that means that we are working straight from morning to night, meeting with industry leaders and creating our deliverables due at the end of our mission. The day contained two major meetings for us: one with Canadian mining firm, Hudbay Minerals; another with a Peruvian organization that promotes tourism and exports from Peru, PROMPERU. As we jumped in a taxi to get to our first meeting at HudBay, the lessons of the 5-Step Game Changer were in the back of our minds, “Always meet and greet with meaning; Find a common ground connector.”

As we met with the HudBay Mineral executives on the ground, our team was full of questions discussing finances, environmental protection and exit strategies once projects are done. Remembering to try to find a 'common ground connector', I remembered my partner, Priestly Demolition´s, work in Sudbury, ON in the mines. Asking a question related to this, it allowed our presenter and Vice President of Hudbay, Cashel Meagher, to remember my name at the end of the presentation, allowing me to develop a relationship for my Golden Rolodex.

JTC's meeting with PROMPERU.

Our next meeting was with PROMPERU where we learned more about Peru´s exports and the markets they are looking to break into and further develop. As we asked questions, we took in the experience and the knowledge that we had access to, which would otherwise be unavailable to us.

As the day came to a close, our team worked to meet our deadline for the rough draft of our mission report, compiling the information we have gathered thus far, as well as, the contacts we had met to bring together our collective Golden Rolodex.