www.leadingchangecanada.com
First things first, I should tell you about Leading Change Canada. LC is a bi-annual event held alongside the GLOBE Conference in Vancouver. LC is a day long event for young professionals interested in, involved in, or looking to network in the environmental/sustainable way of life. The day is filled with speakers, mentors, and discussion. Mostly it allows Canada's young environmental leaders a forum for them to come together from across the country, meet each other, and get rejuvenated and fired up about being involved in this industry. Everyone there wants to do their part to save the world.
Leading Change Canada, for the past two iterations in 2012 and 2014, has occurred on the Tuesday before GLOBE, allowing delegates to attend various parts of GLOBE.
I got involved with Leading Change in 2010 when I attended as a delegate myself. I was completing my MBA with a focus on Global Energy Management and Sustainable Development (GEMS), and this incredible opportunity came to me, and I knew I wanted to go. I had such and incredible experience, that I knew I wanted to be involved again in 2012. So, I applied to be on the Organizing Committee, and took on the role of Delegate Coordinator. I was just coming off my experience on the Organizing Committee of the 2011 Haskayne MBA 24 Hour Case Competition, and was really fired up to help another event come together.
2012
As the Delegate Coordinator, I was responsible for all things delegate. This included contacting different groups across Canada, getting the word out, and having people sign up to come. As well, it meant I was responsible for all the communication to the delegates themselves, and also meant I went through each application individually to determine who would be accepted to attend. Leading Change requires acceptance to the event, so we make sure we have people who are really interested in coming, who will add to the discussions, and who will be able to carry the movement forward. In the end we met our expectations with just under 120 delegates from all three corners of Canada; as far east as Nova Scotia and north from the Northwest Territories.
I felt that I really contributed to this event, that I grew personally and professionally, and most importantly, I brought a group of young professionals together for a four day conference that rejuvenated many, and...juvenated(?) the rest!
2014
Leading Change in 2014 started out without me on the Organizing Committee at all. While I was excited to see it going again, I didnt want to fulfil the same function as last time, and knew I wouldn't be able to commit, as a volunteer, to anything more time consuming. As it turned out, this worked well for Leading Change, for myself and for GLOBE.
I knew from 2012, and before, that one aspect of Leading Change that was missing was to have LC delegates directly involved in GLOBE; having a specifically Leading Change session presented at GLOBE as a joint session. And this year, we finally had the chance to do exactly that.
I came on-board as the GLOBE Liaison. My first task was to talk to GLOBE and get actual buy-in from them about this. While I was in Vancouver, I met with my GLOBE counterpart and what he said was music to my ears. "All the people attending GLOBE recognize they need to bring in more of the younger generatoin. They realize that most of the people attending this conference are 'old white men', so they want to really move on the younger generation's involvement."
At that point I jumped in and told him we want to have our own session at GLOBE! From then on it was go time. There were certainly some questions about how successful it would be, how many people attended, and if it would be valuable to them. In the end, not only was the session a success, but it was a great success!
Looking forward to what happens at Leading Change 2016!
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