Kathryn Lyzun says she hopes five weeks in Finland will show her new ways of doing things back home.
Lyzun, a communications and marketing specialist with the Ontario government, is heading overseas on Saturday, one of five North Americans making the trek, part of Rotary International’s Group Study Exchange.
She’s the only Canadian among the group.
“We’re going to be spending time in different cultural and economic development organizations. We’re going to some mines, we’re going to some sawmills, we’re going to some universities. We’re going to hospitals, so we’re getting a real good cross-section of what they’re doing there,” said Lyzun, who spent a portion of Tuesday touring city hall with the exchange group from Finland, who will spend the next five weeks undertaking similar learning experiences in Thunder Bay, Minnesota and North Dakota.
Lyzun said there are plenty of benefits to the program, which is fully funded by Rotary International.
The purpose is to foster not only relationships between the two countries, but also knowledge exchange between professions.
That’s great for government workers, who are always looking for more efficient ways to work.
“I’ll meet with the people who do my job there and we’ll be able to exchange ideas. For me that’s great because Finland is very well-known and progressive in areas of technology and communications and public-sector service.”
Oulu, Finland’s Antti Hartikka came the other direction, fascinated at the opportunity to learn, but also to see how one of the largest Finnish populations in the world outside the motherland has evolved.
But like Lyzun, he’s also eager to learn.
“We each have five companies that we go to that are in our business area. So we try to learn from them. Then we go back to Finland and present our companies what we’ve learned,” said Hartikka, an account manager with JPS media Oy, which provides press-release distribution software as a service.
“Of course the cultural side comes in too.”
They’ve taken some time to take in some of Thunder Bay’s more revered tourist spots, including a near-mandatory trip to the Hoitu Restaurant.
“We are also living with families, so that way we get to learn a lot about the culture. We don’t stay in hotels. We’ve been in Nipigon and Red Rock and seen the wind farm. Then we had good food and we’ve met very nice people.”
Hartikka, Piritta Natynki, Saara-Kaisa Konttori, Sari Kurttila and Juha Risteli, his companions on his Canadian journey, met briefly on Tuesday with Mayor Keith Hobbs.
