Submitted
Morinville – Bestselling author and Dragons’ Den personality David Chilton is the keynote speaker at the 3rd Annual Regional Business Symposium set to take place at the Morinville Community Cultural Centre June 20.
Chilton, the newest member of CBC TV’s popular entrepreneurial show Dragons’ Den, is also the author of the Wealthy Barber (1989) and the Wealthy Barber Returns (2012). Chilton’s keynote address is but one part of a full day of networking, sessions, and panels, the product of four municipalities (Morinville, Bon Accord, Gibbons and Sturgeon County) coming together to provide approximately 400 event attendees the tools they need to thrive, regardless of the size of their business.
Joining Chilton will be a group of local and regional business experts whose presentations will speak to the three key concepts of the Symposium – Motivate, Educate and Collaborate.
New to the symposium this year is a Regional Business Panel that will answer questions and share their challenges and success stories. The panel will include Kevin Brown of Enbridge / Northern Gateway Pipelines, Moe Chevalier, owner of Home Hardware / Bumper-to-Bumper, Morinville and District Chamber of Commerce President and Pleasant Homes co-owner Simon Boersma, and David Marshall, Director of Planning and Development with Champion Petfoods LP.
In addition to the day’s keynote speaker and panel discussion, this year’s symposium adds three seminars to round out the day.
Morinville Servus Credit Union Branch Manager Kym Moore’s seminar is called Community Involvement Makes Business Sense and will look at how much to invest in the community, where involvement should be, and what success means and how to measure it.
Dar Schwanbeck of St. Albert’s Northern Alberta Business Incubator (NABI) will give local and regional businesses some advice from around the globe through his seminar titled Lessons for Small Business from the Street Vendors of Peru
Brent Bushell, Executive Director of The Business Link, will speak on the Future of Entrepreneurship in Canada. Bushell will look at what many economic forecasters see as an unprecedented boom in new business in Canada in the coming decade. He will discuss why this is happening and what it means to Alberta with a particular eye on providing the info attendees can use to be well positioned to get the most out of the projected entrepreneurial wave.
Emcee for the morning seminars is the Town of Morinville’s own Allen Jacobson; the afternoon session will be emceed and moderated by former CTV journalist Shawna Randolph.
The symposium takes place June 20 from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. at the Morinville Community Cultural Centre and includes opportunities for attendees to network with one another. Registration for the Symposium is $75 per person and includes a copy of Chilton’s book The Wealthy Barber Returns, which participants will have an opportunity to have signed. Tickets may be purchased at the Morinville Community Cultural Centre (780-939-7839) or online at www.tixonthesquare.ca/event/detail/6648/.
