The New Relationship Trust (NRT) and Cree Nation Youth Council are bringing the Young Entrepreneurs Symposium (YES) to the Rockies this Friday.
The YES Regional event is for Métis and Aboriginal youth between the ages of 19 and 30 years of age and will give participants a great introduction to YES. One lucky winner will get the chance to attend the National YES event in Ottawa.
“This is the first time NRT has taken the symposium on the road to the communities,” said Miranda Sterling, capacity and event manager for the NRT. “We want to be able to reach as many B.C. young people as possible who sometimes aren’t able to travel to the national ones.”
Youth interested in entrepreneurship will enjoy the symposium being held at the St. Eugene Mission from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday. Sterling said the hope is for more B.C. residents to attend the national conference and represent their province.
“We want to have B.C. represent at the National YES coming up in November being held in Ottawa, so at each session one person wins an all expense paid trip to go to YES National,” she said.
YES is sponsored by NRT and is free for Aboriginal and Métis youth. Lunch is included in the fun, informal day. Sterling said it’s a great opporunity to meet new Aboriginal youth across the country.
“Anyone who is either interested in starting their own business, working independently, wanting to push themselves out of their comfort zone and who are looking to network with more Aboriginal Youth (should attend),” she said.
The National YES event will be much bigger with representatives from all across the country attending. Keynote speakers in the past have included Rick Hanson and a new line-up of delegates and speakers is set for this November’s edition. The youth will work with their peers on challenges such as logo development and marketing challenges. In 2010 the teams got to produce their own Tim Hortons commercial with a professional production crew.
“Youth are put into teams and throughout the week they are given challenges to complete – most being business related but also some fun team building ones,” Sterling said. “Throughout the week they also get to hear from many experienced speakers at panel discussions as well as some keynote speakers.”
While in Cranbrook, the NRT will also be hosting its Regional Engagement Sessions at the St. Eugene Mission.
“These sessions are to provide an overview of our initiatives, and gather feedback from the communities on our future direction,” Sterling said. “It’s a really important session for NRT and we hope to see the First Nation governments and First Nation organizations around Cranbrook attend.”
For more information on NRT, visit www.newrelationshiptrust.ca and visit www.YES2012.ca for more information on the symposium.
