Displaying items by tag: Kelowna business events

April 28^th is the National Day of Mourning in Canada. The Day honours the memory of workers who have been killed, injured or suffered an illness as a result of a work-related incident.

A recent Bulletin by the BCNU (B.C. Nurses Union) states …

In BC there were 175 fatalities in 2014, up from the 128 in 2013.  That is more than 3 people each week who lost their lives while doing their job. 

The Stigma of Depression

A recent posting to Facebook from a colleague has resonated with me and I thought I would share it with everyone. Depression and mental illness affects all of us whether it be at work, home or business.

He wrote “The coverage German Wings tragedy is bothering me. The co-pilot had mental health issues, but he hid them, However all sorts of so-called “experts” are now on various news broadcasts discussing testing and screening and how this all could have possibly been averted. My fear is that for those who are troubled by Anxiety and Depression and have not come forward to acknowledge it and seek treatment and information to deal with their Mental Illness, will instead be driven further into shame and silence.”

My response was as follows:

I have often heard the Okanagan touted as a destination location for golfers. Agritourism and wineries seem to be making a rally as well as one of the leading tourist draws to our beautiful Okanagan. I’m not a golfer, nor am I all that interested to learn where my bottle of wine originated.

Introducing Rutland, Thrift Shop City.

Reuse, recycle, resell. It seems to be a good business model that has multiple benefits. “One man’s junk, is another man’s treasurer” seems to be the order of the day.

Today’s inspiration for editorial comes from a posting to Facebook from a colleague, Darren Jacklin. 

These are five good points that beg for expanding upon. [at least in my mind]

Are you? Open for change that is.

For the past two years around the end of December I have released an article entitled “Have you created your New Year’s Revolution yet?”

Interesting article for Okanagan business owners this week courtesy of Stacy Penner at KelownaNow.

She quotes Steve Harvey, of Business Finders Canada, a Kelowna company that helps people buy or sell business and commercial properties as saying that 80 percent of business owners are failing when they go to sell their company.

In trying to write a weekly thought-provoking business-related article of interest to entrepreneurs and small business owners I try to avoid focusing too much on Kelowna. There are truly many other amazing communities to live and do business in throughout the Okanagan. But the City of Kelowna, or its elected representatives, leave themselves open for scrutiny.

Once upon a time our sole source of information was the newspaper, often having taken ages to arrive to the targeted reader. Nowadays, news is instantaneous. We are bombarded with news items every minute of every single day. Breaking news now … and for ever. Television, radio, internet, mobile devices … it is everywhere!

But is it really news? Most of it isn’t. Much of it is marketing and promotion packaged as news.

This past week I was invited as a guest speaker to talk about business networking skills at the Mentor-Mentee Mixer hosted by Kelowna Community Resources Immigrant Services Settlement & Employment Mentorship Program.

This was an eye-opener for me in that while I was certainly aware that there were new immigrants living in the Okanagan, I had never really given it much thought.

New immigrants to Canada by way of the Okanagan, have the opportunity to participate in this effective program. Mentees are matched with local mentors, who may or may not have been an immigrant at one time themselves. Mentors meet with their mentees about once a week for a few hours and share sage advice and experience on how to be Canadian as well as job-hunting advice. I would expect that most of us have never given any thought to what it means to be Canadian.