#ShapeNA 2017 Recap
I just got back from a whirlwind of an experience at Shape North America, the Global Shapers conference that brought together over 250 Shapers from 22 different countries. We spent two-days in Ottawa then hoped on a bus early Friday morning to head to Toronto for the final few days of the conference.
One of my favourite take aways was seeing how folks from outside of Canada view our country, it certainly made me proud to call Canada home. There was a lot of focus around reconciliation happening here in Canada during the conference, and many American’s commented that this is something not even discussed in the US let alone something the country is actively working towards.
A breakout session that we did in Ottawa was the Blanket Exercise, which was one of my conference highlights. I encourage everyone to participate in this exercise and will be working to organize one for our Hub over the next few months. It opens up a difficult but important dialogue around the history of colonization and the ongoing process of reconciliation in Canada. It’s described on the website as “A teaching tool to share the historic and contemporary relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada.”
Another highlight was chatting with folks about their best practices and Hub organization structure. It helped me wrap my head around how best to serve you during my year as Curator. I had some great take aways that I look forward to unpacking and bringing forward to the Hub. It’s encouraging to hear that other Hubs face similar struggles that we do even if they are larger and more established. Everything from booking meeting space to recruiting new members to potluck organization all came up during my conversations with other Shapers.
During our time in Ottawa we had the chance to hear from several Ministers. I was lucky to get the chance to sit in on a roundtable chat with the Prime Minister, during which we discussed topics such as NAFTA and supporting newcomers to Canada. We also brought him into the Global Shapers family with a pin ceremony!
A lot of people have been asking me what the highlight was from our meeting with the Prime Minister. In all honesty I have to say my highlight actually came from the 15-minutes we spent waiting to meet with him. We were in a room with a group of participants who had gathered in Ottawa for the 4-H Global Summit, 4-H works with youth from around the world to develop young leaders and sustainable agriculture practices.
The meeting with 4-H was a very serendipitous moment because many of the Global Shaper Hubs are located in metropolitan centres, where as most 4-H clubs work predominately in rural areas. Both organizations have similar missions and values. It was an important reminder to me that it is essential to have all voices represented at the table, and the power that can come from collaboration when organizations work together. I will be bringing this back to the Halifax Hub and continuously looking at ways we can effectively collaborate with other Nova Scotian organizations to ensure we do the best work possible in our community.
We were also able to hear from several Ministers during the conference. Notably Minister Joly, who heads the Ministry of Canadian Heritage and Minister Hussen, head of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. Both were fascinating, Minister Joly shared the information about how important it is to develop the Canadian AI & VR space as we move forward in the future, these mediums will be integral parts of disseminating Canadian media, arts and culture.
Minister Hussen shared a neat initiative I had never heard of, the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program , created to fast track the immigration process of skilled foreign workers and students. Increased immigration has been lauded as one of the ways to assist in the shifting demographics of Atlantic Canada. We still face a lot of youth out-migration and on top of that have an aging population to support. As we see projects such as this program continue to grow there needs to be increase in support and training programs on the ground for new Nova Scotian’s when they arrive and begin to build a life here. This is one of the reason’s our entrepreneurship and pitch program that the Halifax Shaper’s Hub has been working on in collaboration with Enactus and other community players will be such a great project!
I’m so grateful that I was able to take part in this conference and represent the Halifax Hub! A big thank you to outgoing Halifax Curator Ben Wedge for all of your support, insights and hard work over the past year. And a special thanks for all the tour info during our time in Ottawa (did y’all know Ben spent time in Ottawa as a tour guide?! I sure didn’t).
Looking forward to getting this year started and what a better way then at our Summer Shapers Social event happening July 24th! If you’re just learning about Shapers now and interested in joining our Hub, fill out the application form or feel free to shoot me a message with any questions, we’re always looking for new folks to join the team and help make Halifax a stronger community! :)
