Lending a Helping Hand in Janvier

It was a pleasure for me to be one of three members of the Millier Dickinson Blais team who were in Janvier, Alberta, on Saturday, October 15th to help clean up a burnt down elder/youth centre. Read the full blog post

What’s the “C” in CED?

After our tour of Downtown Kitchener, Dr. Sharpe and I had a chance to catch up at dinner. He supervised both my BA and MA theses, but it was during my MA that he offered me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to conduct my field work on Baffin Island (a hint as to how long ago that was – it wasn’t Nunavut then). Read the full blog post

Downtown Revitalization in Action

A couple of Saturdays ago I attended a celebration commemorating 50 years of geography at Wilfrid Laurier University – I obtained my BA and MA there a “few” years ago. And hey, what’s a geography get together without a field trip? I picked the tour of Downtown Kitchener led by my thesis advisor, Dr. Bob Sharpe. Anyone whose last exposure to Downtown Kitchener was a decade or longer ago should visit again and see the remarkable transformation of the core. Read the full blog post

Interview with the Ontario East Economic Development Corporation

I recently had the opportunity to chat with the Ontario East Economic Development Corporation about our Profit Hot 50 success, economic development, eastern Ontario, and the creative economy. You can read the whole interview on the Ontario East blog.

Nodding Off

One of the opportunities that comes with being named to PROFIT Magazine’s HOT 50: Canada’s Emerging Growth Companies is an invitation to GrowthCamp, a full day of inspirational and educational sessions for Hot 50 companies. Less than four hours after closing down Millier Dickinson Blais’ hospitality suite at the Economic Developers Association of Canada Annual Conference in Quebec City, Brock and I were on a flight to Toronto and the GrowthCamp. I walked into the Westin blurry eyed and looking for a cup of something heavily caffeinated. But better than an over-steeped Earl Grey, GrowthCamp was what I needed – a non-stop 12 hour blast of energy. Listening to great speakers like Robert Herjavec (of TV’s Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank) and Brian Beaulieu of the Institute for Trend Research all day really does make you forget you’re running on little sleep.

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