Sessions
Welcome & Keynote with Laura Whaley
You know and love her — it’s Laura Whaley, and she’s your virtual work bestie from TikTok and Instagram. Laura’s keynote will take a deep dive into professional boundaries — what they are, how they work in practice, and how to make them work for you. Learn how to effectively communicate with your colleagues when reinforcing your professional boundaries and how they shape your work-life balance.
REALTalk: Getting Election Ready
Join NEXTNiagara council member Zach Dadson as he leads this REALTalk conversation with our panel of experts about the upcoming election. Irmak Taner, Liam Midzain-Gobin, and Lucas Spinosa will be discussing how to prepare for the election, why voting is important, how to ensure the issues that matter to you are on the radar for politicians, and how voting is just one of the ways you can become an engaged citizen who’s helping to shape the future of your community.
How to Turn Your Side Hustle or Idea to a Profitable Business
This talk will shed some light on the top three mistakes young entrepreneurs unknowingly make when launching and running a business AND how to AVOID them to set their budding business off to the most promising start. Presented by Alyssa Milot, Founder and Fractional CMO and Marketing Consultant, The Zen Strategy; Founder Co-Founder, Business Development Accelerator Program, Side Hustle to CEO.
Joining Boards of Directors: Leading and Learning
In this engaging session, strategy and governance expert Mark John Stewart will share insights on opportunities and pathways for young professionals to join boards of directors as a means of contributing to the community, advancing their skills and experience, and building their professional profile. Presented by Mark John Stewart, Managing Director, Wentworth Strategy Group.
Business in the Metaverse in 2030
The Metaverse, NFTs, XR, VR, AR, Blockchain, Crypto. Today there are a million and one acronyms and seemingly made up words swirling around the internet. With so much information going around how is it possible to make sense of any of it? Let alone understand how it might apply to your business, advocacy initiatives or life in general? In this presentation co-founder of XpertVR, Evan Sitler-Bates will help break down these concepts, show how they could impact you in the future and share how to get a head start today! Presented by Evan Sitler, CEO & Co-Founder, Xpert VR.
Careers & Networking Across Public Sector Organizations and the Government: Career Education & Development for Growing Professionals –
CANCELLED
11:30am | Breakout Room 4
Due to unforeseen circumstances Deepika Kumar who was presenting – Careers & Networking Across Public Sector Organizations and the Government: Career Education & Development for Growing Professionals will not be able to join us and we will have to cancel this session. We apologize for any inconvenience.The Careers & Networking Across Public Sector Organizations and the Government session will focus on introducing growing professionals to potential career options across Ontario government and public organizations. Participants can learn more about the day-to-day activities, projects, challenges, and opportunities that exist in the public sector. Useful information and guidance would be shared to encourage and help folks to network with current government professionals. This session will provide an open space to ask questions and facilitate valuable discussion amongst participants. Some insight will also be shared on developing career documents and interview preparation tips to help people prepare for public sector recruitment processes. Presented by Deepika Kumar, Policy Advisor, Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO)
When the House Lights Come On: Making A Career Jump
Stacey Kerslake landed her dream job, working in the music industry and contributing to campaigns for some of the biggest artists on the planet including Shawn Mendes, OneRepublic, Imagine Dragons, Billie Eilish, and more. After ten years, she was burnt out and ready for change. In this session, Stacey will share her experience in moving from the safety of the corporate world, to finding balance and happiness as an entrepreneur as she founded her own company Owned Marketing. Just like us, our dreams can change too. Presented by Stacey Kerslake, Founder, Owned Marketing.
Discovering YOU Workshop: Passion & Purpose
In this workshop, I will walk you through the steps to discovering your passion & purpose. The workshop gives tangible tools that you can use to embrace and understand the past, practice living in the present and welcoming the future. This workshop follows an interactive based curriculum that follows the foundations of empowerment education and cognitive behaviour techniques (CBT). This workshop is perfect for youth and young adults looking to discover more about their passions and interests and how they can begin putting their passion into action! Presented by Andrea Sacco, Founder, You Empower Tomorrow.
Networking @ Ironwood Cider House
5:00pm | Ironwood Cider House, 1425 Lakeshore Road, Niagara-on-the-Lake
Join us at Ironwood Cider House at 5PM for more inspiration, to support local businesses in our marketplace and to put your networking skills to work. Please note, this session is only for those who bought the in-person social or virtual morning & in-person social ticket options on Eventbrite. Tickets can be purchased digitally at the door.