On October 11, 2023, a working meeting was held at the Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria in Ottawa with the participation of Ambassador Plamen Georgiev, the Director General of the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA) Mr. Kiril Valchev, the Chairman of the Bulgarian Community in the Ottawa-Gatineau Capital Region Ms. Stella Kostova and the Head of the political office of the Bulgarian Embassy in Ottawa, Mr. Nikolay Nikolov.

At the meeting were discussed the possibilities for deepening the informational cooperation between the Embassy, the Bulgarian communities in Canada and BTA. Mr. Valchev singled out 4 main directions in the future work of the agency aiming to popularize and increase the visibility and the activities in the cultural and educational fields of our compatriots abroad.

The first pillar foresees deepening of BTA's cooperation with state news agencies from different countries, and specifically - with The Canadian Press, where an agreement has been reached for the daily exchange of news of mutual interest.

The second direction will be the regular contact with the Bulgarian communities abroad, from whom BTA will expect regular supply of information about upcoming and already held important events with their participation. Mr. Valchev highlighted the new opportunity that the BTA platform provides for establishing direct contacts between separate Bulgarian organizations and initiatives from different provinces in Canada. This will contribute to better information sharing on the initiatives they are involved in, and hence - to improved communication and better cooperation between those organizations.

The third pillar will be deepening the cooperation between BTA and the Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria in Ottawa. For this purpose, it will be greatly beneficial to promptly inform the news agency about events that would be of interest to the Bulgarian public and our compatriots around the world. It is important that the information is sent immediately after the event, since BTA, as a state news agency with long-standing traditions and established professionalism, is set to promptly publish the news.

The fourth main direction will be the creation of a calendar with the most important upcoming events around the world in 2024, for the optimal coverage of which BTA is considering dispatching reporters.

The BTA General Director indicated that in the web page of the Agency in the new section "BG WORLD" (with information exclusively about the Bulgarian communities around the world and their activities) additional functionalities will be added with options for locating information by topic and country, as well as a designated world map. A brief check during the working meeting revealed that for the current day alone, the news published in the "BG WORLD" section amount more than 30. At the moment, in the section "BULGARIANS AROUND THE WORLD" there are subsections "Bulgarian media around the world", "Bulgarian schools around the world", "Organizations of Bulgarians around the world" and "Prominent Bulgarians around the world".

Due to the expected significant increase in the volume of information published in the "BG WORLD" section, Ambassador Georgiev proposed for the sake of users’ easy navigation - to add to the BTA e-section also thematic sections for schools, churches, dance ensembles, choirs, community centers and sports organizations of the Bulgarian communities abroad, which was well accepted.

The Chairperson of the Bulgarian Community in the Ottawa-Gatineau Capital Region Ms. Stela Kostova briefed about the activities of the organization she heads, and about its upcoming events during the Bulgarian Cultural Days in October 2023 in Ottawa: Folk Festival at 1pm at Centrepointe Theater and Horoteka at 7 pm at Knox Presbyterian Church (both on October 14) as well as a screening of the film “Scimitar” at ByTowne Cinema at 7 pm (on October 19). In December 2023, the Bulgarian Community plans to launch a Christmas concert.

In conclusion, the participants in the meeting agreed on measures to better coordinate the support and the assistance to the initiatives of the Bulgarian organizations, as well as on ways to increase the visibility of their activities in Canada.