Case Study
Client: City of Brampton
Date: 2020
The Challenge
Design and implement a Canadian City’s first-ever trade mission to an African Nation
The Mission
In 2020, UpSurgence was invited by the City of Brampton’s mayor’s office to co-design and coordinate its first African trade mission within 45 days in accordance with the city’s 2040 Vision. To do so, we used co-design process among an international team of investors, entrepreneurs and NGOs, Brampton’s Economic Development team, the Mayor’s office and then Councillor Charmaine Williams— now Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity of Ontario—and her office to design and carry out the City’s Cultural and Foreign Direct Investment mission to Lagos.
The Results
The success of the trade mission led the City of Brampton Council (the very Council that initially blocked city funding for the mission) to unanimous vote to add African and Caribbean nations to the city’s Foreign Direct Investment program, making Brampton the first city to do so in Canada. The mission also laid the foundation for a Brampton-Lagos cybersecurity agreement.
