The Power Expo - A good start

Submitted by trufinancial

on Fri, 10/19/2012 - 11:09

I have had the pleasure of being involved with a very meaningful event these past 2 days - the Power Expo. The 3 ladies who pulled this event together - Dianne Ojar-Ali, Caroline Dafoe and Loana Morgan - ensured it was an 'admission-free' event, for the sole purpose of adding value and bringing positive change to the lives of those who attended.

The event was held at the Metropolitan Centre Banquet Hall, 3840 Finch Ave E, Scarborough (between Kennedy and Birchmount). The location was easy to find, except that the building was behind St. Nicholas' Church as you entered, and there was no sign for the banquet hall. Luckily the organizers put up a "Power Expo" sign at the entrance off the street, so that people could find it more easily. :)

There were several workshops on different topics across the 2 days, which, based on feedback from a few attendees that I talked to, felt encouraged and empowered after the event (hence, the event title: POWER Expo?) :D

Due to some tehcnical difficulties (described on my previous blog post), my session was shortened and I found myself rushing to complete my workshop. I still managed to cover all the topics i intented to go through, but I was actually hoping to have more interaction time with the group. The great thing about being at the event too, was having the opportunity to see a few of my friends that I had not been connecting as much with, and had really great conversations with them again. Although the turnout to the event was not huge, the people were very engaging and I had some insightful discussions with the exhibitors and attendees. In all, I think the event managed to achieve its main goal and purpose.

One minor issue, which needed to be clarified, was the introduction on me for the workshop by the event host. I had been inaccurately presented as someone who "had run a 6 million dollar project at the Economic Times foundation in Hong Kong...", when the he tru-th is...that I had been an editor with the Economic Times (a financial newspaper in Hong Kong) and am currently managing over 6 mission in clients' assets (I did get a question from an attendee in my session asking me what is that all about, I figure I might as well clarify here in my blog).

Everybody understands how hectic preparing for an event can be; there are alot of things that you cannot forsee that will come with experience and time. Based on the feedback I received though, I am sure that the event will improve each year and I look forward to the next one.

I have to thank my lovely assistant Nadia Angai, as well as my associate, Gordon Shing, for helping to make our appearance so smooth. Special thanks to InspireDesign for putting together our corporate gift basket for the draw at the event.

I must thank the following companies for their support:

Canada Life - for creating such amazing literature for small businesses and professionals, and shipping without delay;

Manulife - for never letting me down;

Benecaid - for being there whenever I need them;

Industry Canada and The Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation - for being so accommodating at such short notice in shipping material to us.

Having all this business-related information off hand now, I am planning to start an "Entrepreneurship and Small Business" series on my blog.... so please stay tuned for the publishing dates!

My advice and what I've taken away from the event? "Don't start selling after 3 sentences of interaction...allow your listener to develop interest in you, before they can be interested in what you have to sell..."

At the meantime, we can enjoy some of the photos we took at the Power Expo :) Video on my workshop will be out soon. Talk soon...

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Power Expo