Events
EVENTS
Every month host a different speaker who highlights some of Edmonton's regional talent, and can speak about what the Edmonton Metro region has to offer. We focus on speakers with an educational angle, and seek to improve the quality of business relationships through meaningful engagement and networking events.
Check out some of our past speakers below.
Justin YaassoubFrontline Leadership
As a Special Forces Operator, Justin was awarded the Bravery Medal by the Governor General for his actions during a combat operation. He was also awarded multiple Commander Citations for his teamwork and leadership. In 2015, Justin was recognized as the Top Special Forces Operator in CANSOFCOM, CSOR, and awarded the First Special Service Force Top Operator Award. Most recently, Justin was recognized by MacEwan University as a Distinguished Alumni and by Edify Magazine as the 2022 Top 40 Under 40.
He is the director of All Around Consulting – focusing on developing frontline leaders to lead and achieve superior results. He also develops and facilitates Leadership courses at MacEwan University and NAIT in Edmonton, Alberta.
Justin believes that it is through hardship and adversity the strongest of bonds are realized and the greatest of leaders shine.
Sarah TietThe Potentials of the Edmonton Metro Region
“There must be a better way!” is Sarah’s motto for lifelong learning. As a proud Chinese Canadian calling The Edmonton Region home all her life, she can mix Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, and English all into one sentence. With 20+ years of leadership experience combined with a results–driven personality, she is known for her creative and collaborative approach to problem solving. She has successfully built her own business, helped 500+ businesses, mentored budding entrepreneurs, and supported many charities and not-for-profit organizations along the way. Outside of work, you may find her active in the outdoors, reading in a coffee shop, wining and dining with great friends, or trying something frighteningly new!
Chelsey Jersak Infill in Edmonton
Consistently balancing innovation with pragmatism, Chelsey’s work focuses on advisory, policy and regulatory solutions to achieve tangible results.
Chelsey holds a bachelor’s degree in regional and urban development and a master’s degree in human geography. She’s a Registered Professional Planner and a certified Project Management Professional (PMP®), and is the current president of the Infill Development in Edmonton Association (IDEA). She is also past Edmonton Director of the Alberta District Council of the Urban Land Institute, and a founding member and past coordinator of the Child Friendly Housing Coalition of Alberta.
In 2020 Chelsey was recognized as one of Edmonton’s Top 40 Under 40 by EDify Magazine.
John ListonBullish on Alberta
John Liston is Vice President of Alberta Enterprise Group
AEG places Alberta businesses first by sharing information, advocating on policy, and building bridges to new markets. AEG members are business owners, senior executives, investors, and entrepreneurs representing firms in every major Alberta Industry. AEG members employ over 100,000 Albertans and generate billions in economic activity each year. The group was founded in 2007 with Cal Nichol in Edmonton, Murray Edwards in Calgary, and 100 other business and community leaders. Our typical member has $10 million to $100 million in annual revenues and 50 or more employees. They are the entrepreneurs and wealth builders who have built our province and country.
Andriy TovstiukWar in Ukraine
Andriy Tovstiuk has deployed on two rotations in Ukraine and, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Andriy has been published in the New York Times and Kyiv Independent as well as being featured on CBC.
Andriy will discuss the current conflict in Ukraine, and it's implications for Canadians.
Mardere BirkillThe Great Resignation - Why People Quit
Marderé has more than 20 years of leadership, consulting and coaching experience. She has held various senior administrative roles in both public and private organizations including Vice President Academic to a Community College, Executive Account Director in the IT industry. Marderé also taught several topics in Business Administration at various universities, and is currently a sessional instructor at McEwan University in Edmonton. Her experience gave her a solid foundation in executive leadership, strategic planning and execution, organizational performance management and evaluation, policy and program development and evaluation; coaching; and facilitation. Marderé is a Chair with TEC Canada and facilitates two executive peer advisory boards.
Stan Romaniuk"Avoiding pitfalls in business practice"
Stan is a Chartered Professional Accountant (“CPA”) post amalgamation of the three accounting designations (formerly a Certified Management Accountant). He believes in the importance of education and currently act as a mentor for student(s) in the CPA program. He is duly approved, pursuant to the authority as granted by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy to act as a Licensed Insolvency Trustee (“LIT”). Most of his time is currently spent in the personal insolvency field. He performed internal educational updates on the insolvency process for the Servus Credit Union, spoken before the Law Society of Alberta – Bar preparation sessions, Society of Management Accountants (Edmonton Chapter) as well as Edmonton Insurance Underwriter’s Association and other non-profit groups on assorted insolvency matters.
Perry Kinkaide"How Resilient is Alberta"
Perry Kinkaide, MSc, PhD, CMC is an accomplished manager and visionary, a change agent with passion and perspective. Since retiring in 2001, Perry has remained active as an advisor and director for several diverse public and private organizations. He is the Founder (2005) and Past-President of the Alberta Council of Technologies Society. His pre-retirement positions include: Canadian Knowledge Management Practice Leader and Managing Partner for KPMG Consulting in Edmonton (1987-2001). Assistant Deputy Minister, Director of Privatization and Funding Reform, Edmonton Regional Director and Regional Coordinator of Services for the Handicapped with the Alberta Government (1972-1986). He received his BA from Colgate University in 1964, MSc in 1967 and PhD from the University of Alberta in 1972 in Brain Research.
Mike Toffan - Project Forest"Positive impact through reforestation"
Project Forest was created by founder and manager, Mike Toffan with the help of the very talented team of Silviculturists at Tree Time Services. While there are various programs that allow donors to support positive impact around the world, Mike and his team recognized a gap in meaningful opportunities to support programs that benefited Canadians, and Canadian forests. They decided to create a program specifically for local businesses to get involved at a corporate level and fund forests in our back yard. With that vision here we are today and we are excited to meet anyone who shares our vision of rewilding the Canadian landscape one forest at a time.
Hilliard MacBeth"The real estate bubble"
Hilliard provides financial guidance and portfolio management expertise to a small number of high-net-worth individuals and families. His involvement in the investment industry spans more than 42 years as a professional and 50 years as an investor.
He published his first book, “Investment Traps and How to Avoid Them” in 1999 with Prentice Hall Canada. That book alerted investors to the “buy high” trap of the dot-com bubble and explains in understandable prose how the individual investor can outperform the markets.
Hilliard’s latest book “When the Bubble Bursts: Surviving the Canadian Real Estate Crash”, second edition came out in 2018. He describes the Canadian housing bubble, the reasons why a serious correction is inevitable and provides strategies to help Canadians survive the coming disruption.
Kimberly Allison"Managing your image on LinkedIn"
Power up your brand, reputation and profits with LinkedIn.
You can’t just sit around waiting for people to find you. I’ll share tips on optimizing and creating a captivating profile and how to use LinkedIn to create connections, build your credibility, and generate business opportunities.
Kimberly Allison shares tips on how to improve your LinkedIn profile for maximum effect.
Lynette Tremblay - Edmonton Global"Edmonton's Unique Selling Proposition"
Lynette Tremblay is Vice President, Strategy and Innovation for Edmonton Global where she leads the Strategy and Innovation Division, responsible for improving the region’s value proposition and competitiveness through advocacy, innovation, business partnerships. Lynette also leads the organization’s strategic and business planning, leveraging her diverse background in advocacy, strategic planning, policy development and marketing and communications from working in senior roles within various levels of government and private sector in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta.
Rick Gill - Team Rubicon"Working in disaster areas"
Rick Gill shares his extensive experiences on the front lines assisting humanitarian efforts in areas impacted by natural disasters with Team Rubicon.
Chris K - CK Design"Coming Design Trends"
ChrisK brings over 21 years of design experience to his design team with a wide range of project experience ranging from executive workplace interiors like Alberta Dental Association and Armour Insurance to National multi unit operators like The Canadian Brewhouse and Original Joe's.
ChrisK is an active member of the Alberta Architect's Association (Licensed Interior Designer #2925), The Edmonton Executives Association (EEA), The Edmonton Chapter of the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) and TEC Canada.
Mack Male - Taproot "Importance of Local Media"
The economics of journalism remain in flux, and that is having repercussions on both paid and earned media. As the tech giants have gobbled up advertising dollars, we've seen a shift in journalism toward audience pay models (donations, subscriptions, and membership). That's working well for global giants like the New York Times, but it's not clear that'll be enough to support local news. This has implications that you need to consider. Utilizing the digital means of production and distribution at your disposal to tell your own stories is more necessary than ever, but it's not enough. How can you ensure others will pay attention to you in the future?
Kim Krushell"Technology and business"
Kim Krushell speaks about Edmonton's innovation ecosystem, and some of the opportunities and pitfalls that exist in this arena.
John Rose - Chief Economist for the City of Edmonton"Projections for the future"
John Rose speaks about economic trends in the greater Edmonton region, and what to expect over the coming years.
Geoff Herdman - Edmonton International Airport"EIA's contribution to regional development"
Geoff discusses how the EIA drives regional growth through aviation and local commercial development.
Chad Banman - Sandler Sales Training"Effective Sales"
Building a Sales Driven Organization
When it comes to building a business many owners focus on their operations, customer service, and financial processes, but the sales process is often left open to interpretation.
This typically happens for one of two reasons, either because there is a belief in the organization that every sales event is different and therefore we cannot put a process around it, or the belief that sales people have to sell “their own way” to be successful. These beliefs then lead to inconsistent results and the inability to forecast accurately. If businesses want to break out of this inconsistency they need to commit to developing their sales process.
Sandler believes that sales growth can be predictable if you pay attention to the four pillars of sales growth which are skill development, the right people, a structure that is repeatable and a strategy that makes sense. This seminar focuses on those four pillars and what business owners need to be doing in their companies to create a sales driven organization.
Ian O'Donnell - Downtown Business Association"What's happening downtown"
Ian discusses exciting new developments coming to the downtown Edmonton area, issues facing the downtown core, and the DBA's mandate in promoting positive business development.
Dan Haight - Darkhorse Analytics"Wrangling data and making sense of stats"
Dan talks to the club about data analytics, visualization, wrangling data, and how to properly pick a sports team.
Percy Woods - Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA)"BOMA's role in shaping urban Edmonton"
Percy speaks to the club about BOMA's contribution to urban development in the city, and the role of the organization in the broader community.