CCBC NEWS

In its fifth edition, São Paulo Techweek, Latin America’s biggest innovation and technology week, has already become a great venue for spreading startup culture and revealing new talent to the world. Canada House, for example, is a CCBC initiative that has been part of this special week’s agenda since last year and doubled in size in 2019. There were four days with approximately 20 lectures and seminars at the Chamber that provided tips for companies to become successful and brand internationalization – especially for those wishing to reach Canada.

Companies’ interest in the Brazil-Canada exchange goes far beyond optimism about the growth of the Brazilian economy, or the likable image of a Canada that supports technology and diversity. At CCBC, which celebrates the historic milestone of 200 members, this growing interest was also driven by varied strategies to stimulate new business.

Do you know who likes to go to Canada? Brazilian people. In the last four years, the number of passengers from Brazil to Canada has increased by 75%. Motivated by the positive outlook, Air Canada has just opened a non-stop São Paulo-Montreal connection with flights three times a week and a load factor of over 90% in December and January. The trip lasts nine hours.

In a recent debate at CCBC, BRK Environmental CEO Teresa Vernaglia said that Brazil’s lack of sanitation affects women much more than men. How? It all starts with a woman’s role in the family. According to the CEO, when a child gets contaminated in dirty water, it is usually up to the mother to take the child to the hospital and stay home with her child until he or she is able to go back to school. “The market is not always prepared to deal with the needs of this woman employee,” she said.

One of the key players in Brazil’s early history of electric power was the Canadian group Light, and the future of the industry may also be connected to companies based in Canada. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Light Group was responsible for providing energy along with the Rio-São Paulo hub, even offering trams and telephone services. Now, illuminated by the digital age, Canadian and Brazilian companies in the segment are turning their spotlight on data and artificial intelligence, seeking more efficient and sustainable projects.

The harps that Canadian Gianetta Baril brings to teach in Brazil weigh just over 20 kg and are included as excess baggage in air travel, protected by bubble wrap and cardboard. Heavy? In art history, however, the image of this instrument is different. The harp even seems light when seen in the hands of angels. In the classroom, it is the voice that Gianetta’s students learn to use to “sing with their fingers,” as the musician says. No matter what the best definition is, the harpist believes that words lose strength when faced with the power of music.

During Brazil’s 2014 economic crisis, the lawyer from Goiás Leonardo Couto, partner of a law firm specialized in Social Security and Labor Laws, with four units in Palmas (TO) and three in Belém (PA), decided with his wife Rebeca that if they were able to overcome the difficulties they were facing, they would move out of the country with their two children.