Concordia hosts government relations conference

A recent conference of the Government Relations Officers Network (GRO), held at Concordia, explored innovative ways to measure performance and effectiveness in government relations for post-secondary institutions.

“The conference was a huge success, and I think we all benefit by exchanging knowledge and information from university advocacy efforts and experiences across Canada,” says Russell Copeman, Concordia’s associate vice-president, external relations.  “Both the presentations and the informal discussions amongst colleagues were very useful to find ways to help our universities make progress in our relationship with governments.”

Many delegates were impressed by how much Quartier Concordia has evolved since their last visit to the downtown campus. | Photo by Concordia University

The annual conference provides opportunities for GRO members to exchange information, share best practices, and advance mutual concerns with various levels of government.

This year, the event attracted more than 50 delegates representing more than 40 institutions and featured an impressive list of guest speakers, including leading civil servants, representatives from the granting agencies, and a very lively panel discussion with members of the national media (Paul Wells from Maclean’s, Rhéal Séguin from The Globe and Mail and Joseph Facal from Journal de Montréal).

Other issues addressed included emerging trends in post-secondary education across Canada, with perspectives shared by government partners such as Industry Canada, and the granting councils.

Concordia President Frederick Lowy formally opened the conference at a reception on June 26, which was attended by Richard Deschamps, City of Montreal executive committee member, Jacques Chagnon, president of Quebec’s National Assembly and member for Westmount-Saint-Louis, and members of Parliament Marc Garneau, Hélène LeBlanc and Laurin Liu.

The last time Concordia the GRO network conference was  in 2008 and since then the network and conference have expanded significantly. The network is composed of government relations professionals from universities across Canada. Membership includes senior-level university staff who are charged with leading advocacy efforts on behalf of their institutions.

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•  Concordia’s Office of External Relations