One in five people have some form of disability that prevents them from being able to access digital information equally. Learn how to up your digital inclusion game with these actionable tips and tricks, like how to implement image descriptions, add captions, and design with empathy to make your content more accessible.
With over 10 years of experience in Diversity Education and Design, Bex develops materials and brand strategies that are compassionate, accessible and inclusive for organizations such as universities, government agencies, non-profits, and small businesses. She provides consultation services for those looking to promote diversity and inclusion within their organization, with an emphasis on the importance of design as a catalyst for social change.
This workshop will speak to advocacy for wellbeing by supporting and mobilizing community. Individual wellbeing is incredibly important but there are significant impacts if we look at community and the ways we can advocate to support wellbeing all around us. We will discuss what that means, who are we talking about when we say “community” and participate in a mapping exercise to help us explore how we already support community wellbeing and where we can improve. I will link this back to human trafficking and how trafficking is on the extreme end of what happens when community wellbeing is not a priority.
Speaker Bio: Krystal Snider
Executive Disruptor, Collaborative Community Solutions
Krystal Snider is the Executive Disruptor at Collaborative Community Solutions, a training and consulting agency focused on ending human trafficking and gender-based violence. Krystal has 10+ years experience working in the non-profit field for feminist agencies. She specializes in supporting agencies working with individuals who have experienced gender based violence with particular expertise in human trafficking. As a survivor herself of human trafficking coupled with her years of experience in the field, Krystal has led a variety of community development responses to identify, support and build systemic capacity to reduce barriers to accessing services.
Finance is so important. It can also get very specific, very quickly. Whether you own a small to mid size business, or a franchise, there are so many things to do and different financial hats to wear. Explore general tax strategies, the advantages of incorporating a small business and adding shareholders, moving assets in and out of a corporation, and more. Learn more about government funding, employee retention, scaling your business, and succession planning.
Siobhan Deary is a local financial professional who’s mission is to educate & empower her clients through thoughtful planning, patience, and discipline. While handling all aspects of financial planning for individuals and families, Siobhan has also become a Business Financial Specialist. She is able to serve business owners with services from tax strategies, to government funding, financial structure, employee retention, succession planning, and proper support when selling your business. As a family orientated business owner herself, Siobhan understands the magnitude of what expert advice can do.
Join Tarilyn Bartels for an in-depth look and personal experiences with workplace burnout. Discover why burnout is normal, the drive to end the stigma around mental health, and efforts to make workplaces more open to and accepting of conversations around mental health and employee wellbeing. Learn how to prevent and detect the early signs of burnout, how to support your own mental health and other colleagues’ mental health through challenging times, and how to sustain your wellbeing long term and implications/recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaker:
Tarilyn Bartels
Manager, Ancillary Services, Brock University
Tarilyn is currently a Manager at Brock University, where she has worked for the past 7 years, leading an amazing team in Ancillary Services! She is passionate about working in a post-secondary environment, leading by example, and taking on new challenges! Tarilyn is also a recovering workaholic, but hopes to inspire other young professionals to join her in finding work-life harmony.
Adam Durrant from Niagara Workforce Planning Board will take an in-depth look at the employment situation in Niagara, what impact COVID-19 had on employment, and the outlook for the rest of 2021 and the years to come.
Speaker:
Adam Durrant
Project Manager, Niagara Workforce Planning Board
Adam Durrant is a St. Catharines native with a Master of Arts in Economic History from the University of Western Ontario. As a Project Manager at NWPB, Adam’s work focuses on the analysis and presentation of labour market information. He has expert-level skills in quantitative and qualitative analysis and is the author of multiple research papers on demographics, employment trends, and the relationship between employment and housing. Adam speaks 3 languages, programs in another 2, and has 1 cat.
Trinh Theresa Do will draw on her experiences leading the Thought Leadership & Economics team at RBC as she looks at the future of work. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed new opportunities in the workplace, from the emergence of the home office to the need for dynamic and interactive home video networking. What impact will this have on the workplace of the future? Are traditional office spaces dead, and is the home office the new normal? Theresa will look at all this and more and explore some possibilities the team at RBC has imagined.
Speaker:
Theresa Do
Strategy Development, Thought Leadership & Economics team, RBC
Trinh Theresa Do is responsible for strategy development on the Thought Leadership & Economics team, with occasional forays into podcasting, research, and writing. Previously, she was a strategy advisor to senior management and executives at RBC’s Personal & Commercial Banking business. Prior to joining RBC, Theresa was a national political journalist at CBC News and co-founded a nonprofit that promoted civic engagement through technology innovation.
Andrea Sacco and Kristen Nilsen discuss the path they followed to establish a satisfying dream career. Learn tips to stand out among the competition when applying for jobs, discover the components of empowerment education and life purpose coaching. The discussion will uncover how to discover your purpose, your passion, the career that makes you smile, or the university program that gives you inspiration.
Speaker Bio: Andrea Sacco
Owner, Academic & Career Coach, You Empower Tomorrow
Andrea is from Niagara Falls. She studied public health at Brock University and worked as a wellness facilitator and spent some time in the field of recruitment. She now works full time in the public health field and is eager to share some tips and experiences gained throughout her journey.
What Andrea noticed with all her past jobs was a repeating pattern of individuals feeling unworthy and unsure as to what they want to pursue career and academic wise. She would speak to students across Ontario who had no idea what they wanted for their future, and then she would talk to adults 15 years into their career that also expressed the same feelings of lack, uncertainty, and unhappiness. Not only has she experienced all of these feelings herself throughout her journey, but her goal is to support others to change this!
Following the components of empowerment education and life purpose coaching, she has designed coaching sessions to support others with discovering their purpose, passion, or career that makes them smile, or the university program that gives them inspiration.
Using the foundation of these sessions, Andrea has been able to land her dream job by the age of 22. That is not to say she did not experience any difficult times, but with support and a well-developed plan, she was able to gain relevant work experience, graduate DEBT free, and get employment directly out of university.
She has a passion towards empowering individuals to take control over their lives and she wants to help YOU follow your dreams and achieve success.
Join us for this panel discussion on the trials, tribulations and successes of being an entrepreneur. Our distinguished panelists will share their experiences and discuss the key points on how to make a successful business. Key topics in this panel include using your passions to drive your entrepreneurial adventure, identifying — or creating — opportunities in the marketplace for your ideas, and the process of overcoming problems and learning — and succeeding — through failure.
Speakers:
Andrews Moses
Founder and CEO, Tenantcube
Andrews Moses is the CEO and Co-Founder of Tenantcube Inc. He has over 10 years of experience working in the SaaS industry providing business solutions companies across the world. His career started at Zoho Corp, fresh out of college, and then went on to be one of the founding team members at Freshworks.
Andrews moved to Canada for his MBA, from the Goodman School. He then chose Niagara Falls as his forever home as he consulted with local businesses to implement SaaS solutions.
Tenantcube is his passion product that was born out of a personal experience and need. Andrews realized that managing his rental properties is a serious business that needed round the clock attention. To manage time better, to keep track of all his tasks in managing his property and to make the right decisions regarding tenants, Andrews sought a software solution. As it turned out, there were very few solutions that catered to the 8 billion dollar market of small business landlords.
So with his 15+ years of experience in Saas, he set out to build a solution for residential rental property management.
Tenantcube aims to help tenants, landlords and property managers automate tasks and activities that come with renting and take better care of their property. Tenantcube is cloud-based and provides solutions for advertising rentals, application management & screening, tenant onboarding and work order management.
As the Co-Founder of XpertVR, Evan sits down with their clients and partners to help grow their knowledge around the ever-growing range of virtual software & hardware available today. Together, they brainstorm ideas that push the boundaries of how research and business processes are executed. Communicating these ideas to the development team, they then get to work on putting together the right hardware/software for their client’s needs & bringing their imagination to life! Evan and Drew MacNeil started XpertVR out of Brock University 5 years ago and they haven’t stopped failing and overcoming our failures since. But every day is an exciting adventure and Evan wouldn’t have it any other way!
Maddy Wassink is the owner of Knot Really Art, an art business in Niagara that specializes in custom string art pieces and DIY craft kits. Established in 2019 from her love to create, Maddy sells her work across North America and prides herself in having everything handcrafted from start to finish. She works full-time at Brock University as the Social Media & Digital Content Coordinator for various departments on campus. Her expertise lies in social media marketing and all-things crafty and creative.
