We are excited to bring you an event focused on Business Development. On Monday
March 19, YEP Hamilton is lucky to have two prominent members of the business
community chat with us about starting a business, how to engage your business
with your community and how to grow your small business.

Location: Mulberry Street Cafe
193 James Street North

We are excited to have the following executives take the time to chat with us
on Monday March 19, 2012:

1)  Richard Ward Allen
Richard Allen is the Director of The Renew Hamilton Project, a community initiative of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce.  The mission of Renew Hamilton is to document, promote and accelerate the regeneration of Hamilton’s built and natural environments.  The project is focused on helping to generate jobs and prosperity through advancing the revitalization of Hamilton’s restorable assets.  Visit renewhamilton.ca to learn more.

Richard was the founding Managing Director of the Hamilton Economic Summit (HES) and spearheaded the design and execution of three successive summits in collaboration with community partners representing all sectors of the economy.  HES operates under the auspices of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce and is Hamilton’s premier leadership initiative.

From 1995 through 2007, Richard held leadership positions with the Industry-Education Council of Hamilton and worked with staff and volunteers to create myriad initiatives to promote partnerships in education, locally and across Canada.

Richard has worked in the fields of sales promotion, media relations and arts managements.  He is a graduate of Queen’s University and holds a Master’s in Education degree.

He lives in Hamilton with his wife Tina and daughter Mary Elizabeth.

2) Robert Fleet
Robert Fleet is an Apartment Financing Specialist with First National. Previous
to joining First National, Robert was vice-president of operations and a
partner in Prime Restaurants, recognized as a four time winner of “Canada’s 50
Best Privately Managed Companies.” He specializes in conventional and CMHC
insured mortgage financing for the apartment industry. With over twenty years
experience as an award-winning executive, he is able to provide his clients
with superior service and quick approvals through the company’s “one-level”
approval process.
Robert is co-author of “Financing Made Easy”, a regular column in Canadian
Apartment Magazine

For this event we will have the following agenda.
·  7:00pm – 7:30pm – networking

·   7:30pm – 8:00pm – Intro + Learn about the each professional’s respective
job and background.  What factors have contributed to their success?  What is
Hamilton doing Right? What is Hamilton not doing now, what does it have to do
to realize its potential?

·  8:00pm – 9:00pm – Questions from young professionals to the Business
Executives. Q and A and open conversation
If you have a question you would like YEP Division Chair, Joe Accardi to ask in
the first session to make sure there is time, forward it to me and I will
include it in the agenda.

In order to maintain a conversational atmosphere, we only have 25 spots
available. Please RSVP to jaccardi.apm@gmail.com at your earliest convenience,
as we are booking on a first come, first served basis. In your RSVP please
provide your name and company name, and the industry you best align with. It
will be interesting for the executives and ourselves to see what industry
representation we have. Attendance is at no charge. Food & drink is extra at
Mulberry Cafe

We are looking forward to another successful night to get those business
questions answered, help develop our careers, engage our leaders, network and
generate ideas to push Hamilton to its full potential. Hope to see you all out
there.

YEP Hamilton is excited to bring to you an event with a focus around The Media.  Garnering media attention, finding the best media contacts and building media relations are very essential but often elusive tasks for many businesses.  Even if your business is not one that needs the spotlight of the media, this evening is important for us as a group of young professionals to understand what makes news in our community and to learn how we can be a part of telling “Good News” stories for the City of Hamilton.

We are grateful and excited to have two prominent media personalities take the time to chat with us on Wednesday May 11 about how we can begin to build positive media relationships as a group and as individuals:

1) Paul Berton, The Hamilton Spectator, Editor-in-Chief

Paul Berton is editor-in-chief of The Hamilton Spectator. He was editor-in-chief of The Free Press in London, Ontario, where he served on several boards and committees. He has a degree in journalism from Carleton University and a degree in English and history from the University of Western Ontario. He is the inventor of a board game called Eye Know.

2) Amanda Blitz, CHCH News

Amanda Blitz is a videographer with CHCH News, as well as a reporter, producer and anchor.  She’s also a finance and corporate lawyer that has practiced in London, England and Toronto, Canada.  Amanda got her Masters from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism where she received honours. While in New York she took on a prestigious internship working at NBC’s Dateline.  Amanda has always found a way to be connected to the journalism world, whether it was while she was a lawyer as a legal analyst for Canwest’s Global News Morning show or during law school, as an intern for Talk Radio News Service in Washington, D.C.

Amanda has lived all over the world including Japan and Australia, but now calls Hamilton home.  While at CHCH she has covered everything from the federal and municipal elections, Russell Williams’ sentencing in Belleville and reporting from the front lines of protests for the G20.  In February she hosted a one hour special called Spotlight on Sundance 2011 and last year produced and reported a series called Blitzing Through Summer.

Location: Art Gallery of Hamilton Boardroom, 123 King St. W., Hamilton

Please note: the AGH closes at 7pm, so attendees coming after 7 will have to go to the AGH’s entrance on Summer’s Lane and have the security buzz them in.

For this event we will have the following agenda.

• 7:00 – 7:30 – networking
• 7:30 – 8:00 – Intro + Learn about the each media personality’s respective company and industry.  What factors have contributed to their success?  What is Hamilton doing right now? What is Hamilton not doing now, that it must, to realize its potential?

• 8:00 – 9:00 – Questions from young professionals to the media personalities. Q and A along with conversation about topics about media presences in Hamilton, media engagement, the use of social media to get the word out about business, social media and traditional forms of media working together in Hamilton, business development, entrepreneurship, leadership, management, and other items from earlier in the evening. .

In order to maintain a conversational atmosphere, we only have 25 spots available. Please RSVP  at your earliest convenience, as we are booking on a first come, first served basis. In your RSVP please provide your name and company name, and the industry you best align with. It will be interesting for the executives and ourselves to see what industry representation we have. Attendance is at no charge.

We are looking forward to another successful night to get those business questions answered, help develop our careers, engage our leaders, network and generate ideas to push Hamilton to its full potential. Hope to see you there

Last night was the inaugural Executive Roundtable event, held by YEP Hamilton. Not only did we get to enjoy a variety of craft beers, local wine and delicious food (courtesy of the Food & Drinkfest), but we spoke with and learned from two successful Hamilton entrepreneurs, Mark Chamberlain, President and one of the founding partners of Trivaris Ltd., and Ron Neumann, Executive Director of the Innovation Factory.

The evening was purposefully structured to be an intimate event, a night where everyone had the chance to get involved. We first heard from the speakers, about their lives, successes and challenges. Then each participant had the opportunity to share the same before we jumped into a question and answer period.

The Executive Roundtable with Mark Chamberlain and Ron Neumann, led by Joe Accardi

This learning experience was rare. How often to you get such close interaction with two top executives in your city? The buzz after the event was hot, everyone kept talking about how much they learned and the excitement of the next event. While I’m sure this post is barely going to cover what I got out of it, it’s a start.

What I learned about….

…becoming a leader.

Whenever you hear the term “emerging leader” ignore it. You ARE a leader. That means right now. That five-year old kid there? She isn’t a future leader; she’s a leader right now. At any point in our lives we’re able to teach and move forward, we have successes. It’s about paying attention to what’s going on now.

…youth.

Most people get frustrated with the naivety of the ‘younger generation’ but it’s a generation that is always worth tapping into because of their naivety. They take risks and see things from totally different perspectives. They have an enthusiasm that most seasoned vets do not bring to the table. And, to reiterate the above point, they are leaders just as much as any other generation.

…life changing moments.

Ron Neumann shared an intense life experience that changed him. It helped him to restructure what was important to him and do some serious soul searching to find out about himself but, more importantly, about how he interacts with other people. He emphasizes the importance of understanding how you respond to people and how they respond to you.

…Hamilton.

We’ve got a bad rap (okay, that’s not new) but it’s only an image problem and that image problem is an internal issue just as much as an external issue. One participant shared his story of growing up on the mountain and how downtown Hamilton was viewed. I expressed that my own professional struggles have been the competition with Toronto. But everyone agreed on a love of Hamilton; there are tons of hidden gems, amazing people, and it’s a place we all want to live. To paraphrase one of the statements of the night, we have 500,000 ambassadors that we just need to tap into and connect. This event and YEP Hamilton are certainly catalysts for that.

Networking before the Executive Roundtable

Were you at the event? I would love to hear what you got out of it, so please leave your insights in the comments. If you missed it, be sure to sign up for notifications, ‘Like’ our Facebook page, or follow us on Twitter, @YEPHamilton, so that you can be a part of the action!

Zoë Siskos is a Social Media Consultant and Community Manager for HomeStars.com. She also hosts an online podcast with her husband, about being a Hamiltonian couple without children, called DiNKs the Show.