#HOTCS: Marie-Michelle Poulin, Mexico City

“It’s such a small world, and nothing highlights that better than working as a trade commissioner. I’ve worked in both Mumbai and Mexico City, and it’s happened where I’ve run into a representative from a company in Mexico whom I first met in India. It’s so great to come across these same companies in different markets, at different stages of their evolution. Their approach is likely to be completely different from one country to another, they might not even be selling the same products, but it just highlights how we live in a global economy.

“The projects that are the most interesting to me are the ones where the TCS collaborates with other organizations, provinces, associations and companies. One of the projects that I worked on when I was in India was a ten episode TV miniseries in collaboration with the Atlantic Canadian Opportunities Agency and all Canadian provinces. We had a celebrity Indian chef travel across Canada discovering different types of foods and ingredients. I called every single province, did a pitch, and then got everyone to contribute a portion of funds so that we could get the crew into Canada. Then we planned the shows along with the production team. It was a lot of work. The whole project took over a month and a half to complete, including post-production, but in the end, the final series was really amazing. At the time, there weren’t a lot of Canadian products available in India other than commodities. This TV show increased awareness of Canadian products in India, we heard a lot about it from our local contacts, so it was a great success.”