We started these workshops and I think have now completed nine or ten. We've touched about a thousand SMEs, so it has been a success. On average, there were about 100 participants per workshop. They're normally in secondary cities. They're not in the big metropolitan areas.
We have representatives of my service, the EDC, the BDC, and the CCC come in to speak to the participants on what opportunities exist in terms of the federal suite of programs but also in terms of some of the regional opportunities, depending on which sector these SMEs operate in. We do surveys at the end of each one, and we're compiling them. It's early days, but it has been very well received.
What we do in the trade commissioner service is then follow up with these participants. We have a fairly sophisticated client management system, as my colleagues have as well. Once we establish that first contact, we follow up to really see whether we can help continue their understanding and their working through of their potential expansion strategies.
The Go Global workshop is an opportunity for us to actually reach out and increase their understanding of those opportunities. Something that Minister Fast is always saying is that the trade commissioner service is one of the best kept secrets in terms of those opportunities. That's what these workshops are intended to be. We will continue them over the next six months, and we will then be able to better evaluate how successful they have been.