News & Updates
Article Published in the Daily Gleaner- Fredericton
January 24, 2013
St. Mary’s Delegates Will Attend I DO BUSINESS. National Summit & Tradeshow
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St. Mary’s First Nation will be sending a delegation to a national native business conference set for March in Toronto.
Chief Candice Paul said an exact number of attendees have yet to be decided but said she will be leading a group to the Ontario capital. The I DO BUSINESS National Summit and Tradeshow, focusing on success for aboriginal entrepreneurs and part of the Joint Economic Development Initiative (JEDI), will be hosted by Ontario Native Literacy Coalition at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Toronto Airport from March 4 to 6. “I think it is a great initiative,” Paul said. “I think that we need to get educated in businesses. We need to understand how businesses operate. We need to be more in the know of it, because we’re not always going to be dealing in our own community— how businesses work. I think it will be a good learning experience.” Through the national summit, emerging and established aboriginal entrepreneurs will enhance their knowledge and skills to grow and sustain their businesses with an enhanced understanding of business development, business literacy and financial literacy, stated a news release. The summit is designed to bring to the forefront the importance of connecting economic development and adult literacy to support aboriginal business development. |
“JEDI is a great supporter of innovation to enhance aboriginal entrepreneurship in Atlantic Canada,” John Kor, National Lead of I DO BUSINESS, said in a statement:”They make it possible to allow innovation to transform individuals in industries and help them in a way that provides so much more value to communities and especially, to deliver this national information back into the home communities where entrepreneurs live, work and play through mini-summits that truly impacts the building of community capacity.”
Following the conclusion of the gathering, mini-summits will be launched in native communities across the country. Attending aboriginal entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to become community ambassadors and hosts of the mini-summits. They will each be supported to hold a one-day event in their communities, where they will share the information and skills learned at the national summit with 10 to 20 people. Paul said she will be overseeing the St. Mary’s effort. The mini-summits will be carried out immediately after the main one—all of which will be an effort to take advantage of the momentum created, she said. “It all fits in with the Idle No More,” Paul said. “It’s the awareness and stirring within the young people that I have to get out and do something.” |
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