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OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, October 15, 2009 · 22 MONDAY OCTOBER 19 KICK-OFF BREAKFAST, With keynote speaker Jim Treliving,Chairman & Founder, Boston Pizza Restaurant Celebrate the week's launch with breakfast and hear success story Jim Treliving discuss: 1. Life as an entrepreneur in trucking, warehousing & sporting goods. 2. The Boston Pizza journey. 3. Lessons learned. 4. Understanding your customers. 5. Quality customer service & achieving peak performance with your team. 6. Sound common sense business advice. HOLIDAY INN OAKVILLE-CENTRE, 590 Argus Road 7:30 a.m. ­ SOLD OUT MARKETING By Steve Howse of Millington & Associates Inc. Steve Howse is the President and founder of Millington & Associates Inc; a consulting firm providing service in the areas of facilitation, sales, marketing, communications, personal coaching and governance. Millington fulfills the strategic needs of many organizations including the Deposit Insurance Corporation of Ontario (DICO), Burlington Hydro, JAN Kelly Marketing, Hamilton International Airport, FOX40, SB Partners Accountants and Pioneer Petroleums. With over 100 media appearances a year and ranked as one of the top three most quoted Professors at McMaster University, Steve is well known to the media. WEB 2.0 AND SOCIAL MEDIA: THE OWNER'S PERSPECTIVE By Ken Tencer of Spyderworks, following this interactive session, participants will know: - Overview of what web 2.0 and social media are. - How they fit into the overall communications mix. - A graphic example of how web has moved from 1.0 to 1.5 to 2.0. - What web 3.0 will look like and what it will mean for businesses. - Exercise with examples that will help participants walk away with an understanding of what they can and should be doing for their business. - Social Media DIY: Must haves and how to's for restricted budgets. HOLIDAY INN OAKVILLE-CENTRE, 590 Argus Road Marketing Seminar Time 9:30 am - 11am Social Media Seminar Time 11:30 am - 1 pm TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20 NEGOTIATION SKILLS By George Anastasopoulos of Leadership Fundamentals.A strong bias for action, strategic thinking, and leadership style honed managing large organizations and complex issues, developing superior employees and empowered teams. He founded Leadership Fundamentals Inc. a management consulting and executive/leadership coaching firm helping clients reap greater business results, productivity, and customer satisfaction and retention. DEALING WITH DIFFICULT BEHAVIOR By Lisa Dennie of The Marrek Group. Lisa Dennie brings 15 years of corporate experience at a major communications company where she held many roles including:Trainer and Coach;Training Manager; and Total Quality team member. Currently, Lisa designs and delivers top-notch training material for workshops and courses, incorporating leading edge information and research in the field of interpersonal skills. Courses include Core Skills for Managers, Mastering Communications, Creating Amazing Customer Service, Dealing with Difficult Behaviors and more. HOLIDAY INN OAKVILLE-CENTRE, 590 Argus Road Negotiation Skills Seminar 9 am - 10:30 am Dealing with Difficult Behaviour Seminar 11am - 12:30 pm WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21 BUSINESS AFTER HOURS & TRADE SHOW The Chamber's popular monthly evening reception is combined with our Annual Trade Show. Come to network with local business leaders, enter into our 50/50 and door prize draws, enjoy the catering and refreshments. Previous years have attracted nearly 300 attendees. HOLIDAY INN OAKVILLE-CENTRE, 590 Argus Road Networking Seminar 9 am - 10:30 am Sales Seminar 11am - 12:30 pm BUSINESS AFTER HOURS & TRADE SHOW Oakville Town Hall South Atrium, 1225 Trafalgar Road 5 pm - 8 pm THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22 PR/COMMUNICATIONS By Joan Mizzy-Fry of Nu Leaf Communications. Following this interactive session, participants will know: - Good, bad and ugly media coverage - The Anatomy of a press release - From the frontlines - It's a Wired World GOAL SETTING By Claire Carver-Dias of Clear Day Communications Participants will leave with: - The basics of goal setting in a memorable way - Understand the benefits of goal setting for their small business - Participants will leave with written goal plan - Participants will leave inspired to pursue their business goals BUSINESS ADVISORY ROUND TABLE Hosted By Aby Alameddine, Bill Dodge, Ed Foster, Ben Molfetta, and Bill Weis. Three interactive venues moderated by some of Oakville's leading business minds in the areas of Advertising, Branding / Marketing and Sales. Move from table to table and have all your business questions answered by the moderators. HOLIDAY INN OAKVILLE-CENTRE, 590 Argus Road Communications Seminar 9 am - 10:30 am Goal Setting Seminar 11 am - 12:30 pm Business Advistory Round Table 5 pm - 10 pm FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE EVENTS, VISIT WWW.OAKVILLECHAMBER.COM WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21 NETWORKING By Bonni Titgemeyer of The Employer's Choice. Bonni Titgemeyer is the Managing Director of The Employers' Choice Inc. She has been in the human resources consulting field for nearly twenty years, in both a Canadian and international context. She is a well-known entity in the compensation, legislative compliance and organizational effectiveness arenas. She has significant expertise in working with businesses undergoing change. She is serving her second term as President of the Human Resources Professionals Association of Peel. She is a member of the Toronto Consulting Advisory Group of the Canadian Association of Family Enterprise and sits on Board committees of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Peel and the Easter Seal Society, Ontario. SALES By Jamie Cunningham of ActionCoach. Jamie is a managing partner in a Business coaching firm that operates under the franchise of ActionCoach. Jamie's leadership in the business development role has enabled his firm to be the fastest growing in ActionCOACH globally 2008. He currently owns three businesses and maintains a well balanced life enjoying the outdoors, travel and extreme sports. SEMINARS: ROUNDTABLE BREAKFAST $30 to attend one $75 to attend three $95 to attend ALL (GST not included) $30 (GST not included) SOLD OUT Help the environment and your bottom line Continued from page 21 A 2007 CFIB survey found that energy conservation ranked as the second most important environmental issue after recycling of materials, with 83% of its members having already implemented energy conservation changes. While about half of respondents said cost savings was a factor in making changes, 81% said they were motivated by their own personal views. Swift says that trend appears to be holding. "These companies are motivated primarily by the owner's personal views about the importance of protecting the environment for future generations. Embracing environmental practices isn't something you usually have to convince them to do," says Swift. Of course, it's always nice if a company can help the environment and its bottom line at the same time. A quick Google search will turn up thousands of web pages on how companies of all sizes can be both green and profitable. First, there's the low-hanging fruit, things like printing on both sides of paper, recycling, switching to energy-efficient light bulbs, turning down the thermostat and shutting off idle office equipment. Natural Step Canada has a free sustainability toolkit that can be downloaded from its website. Another helpful resource is a book authored by Bob Willard entitled The Business Case for Sustainability. According to Willard, integrating sustainability strategies can increase profits up to 38% for large companies and 66% for small- or medium-sized companies over a five-year period. A lot of these savings can be achieved by reducing energy costs. "If your energy costs are high, you certainly have an incentive to reduce them," says Michel Bergeron, Vice President, Corporate Relations at the Business Development Bank of Canada. "But even if they aren't high, cutting your energy costs can give your company a competitive advantage by improving efficiencies and your corporate image with both customers and suppliers." Tax credits and incentives for energy efficiency and other green incentives are being pushed from Ottawa all the way down to local municipalities. Most utilities now offer businesses incentives to reduce energy use. Hydro Quebec, for example, offers financial assistance for electricity-saving industrial equipment, systems or processes. Keeping ahead of the law and public opinion Lower operational costs aren't the only reason to reduce energy use. All levels of government, including local, are introducing laws and regulations that will require companies to reduce waste and embrace more sustainable business practices. For example, once cap and trade rules become more widespread, Bergeron said companies will need to be careful about how much carbon they produce. "Reducing your energy use ­ and thus, your carbon footprint ­ should be part of any business plan. You can start with something as simple as reducing your corporate travel by using inexpensive videoconferencing technologies like Skype," he says. "But the most important building block should be an energy efficiency audit of your workplace." Business owners that act early will find themselves at a competitive advantage when new rules are implemented. "At some point, the consideration of environmental and social issues will be mandated, so for business this becomes a central risk factor. It also becomes an opportunity. Companies shouldn't wait until the economy picks up" says Melissa Shin, managing editor of Corporate Knights, a magazine focusing on corporate responsibility. Attracting a green workforce Companies that don't embrace environmental practices could also find themselves as a competitive disadvantage in attracting young, skilled employees. Today's young workers are more environmentally aware than previous generations, and they're bringing those values into their workplaces. "BDC, for example, is heavily paper-based and this becomes an irritant for our younger employees who view paper as a waste of resources" says Bergeron. "They're putting pressure on us to move more quickly to change our ways, and we are." Companies that incorporate environmental responsibility into their mandate will also tend to have more loyal employees who are more willing to make sacrifices, if needed, during a recession. "Embracing environmental and socially sustainable practices is a great way to retain your staff in an economic downturn" says Shin. Source: www.bdc.ca