Events & Holidays

Yesterday Career Edge Organization President & CEO Anne Lamont returned to Toronto after an exciting weekend in Halifax, attending the 2010 ALLIES Learning Exchange: Putting Ideas into Action.

ALLIES stands for “Assisting Local Leaders with Immigrant Employment Strategies” and is a project jointly funded by our friends at Maytree and The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation.

This project offers resources, networks and expertise to cities across Canada providing the support needed for local initiatives around finding suitable employment for skilled immigrants (a really informative backgrounder on ALLIES is available here through the Maytree website).

Anne Lamont was really impressed with project leader Peter Paul’s efforts at this year’s event, which brought together 150+ participants from more than 10 city regions including our partners from TRIEC (Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council) and their equivalents in other Canadian cities such as Edmonton and Calgary.

Anne Lamont and other guests were greeted with a warm welcome from Gordon Nixon, president and CEO of Career Bridge host employers Royal Bank of Canada.

Keynote addresses included:

• Don Drummond, TD Bank Financial Group – Changing Face of the Canadian Workplace

• Alan Broadbent, Maytree – Making your Immigrant Employment Council Work for your Community

• Will Kymlicka, Queen’s University – The Future of Multiculturalism in Canada

• Naomi Alboim, leading immigration expert – Immigrants and the Economic Recovery

And last (but not least) Ratna Omidvar, President of Maytree, provided closing remarks.

Other highlights included panel discussions on hiring practices, mentoring and engaging employers, in-depth workshops and a “marketplace” where Anne Lamont participated to provide information about our Career Bridge paid internship program for internationally qualified professionals.

As in previous years, we are happy to be ALLIES and participate in this wonderful event – it was a great opportunity for Anne to see familiar faces and meet new champions that stand alongside Career Bridge and Career Edge Organization to help launch careers and put talent to work!

We look forward to seeing what they have in store for 2011.

It has been unusually quiet in the office this week.

Over the past few days, Career Edge Organization has had a strong presence at the National Consultation on Career Development and Workforce Learning conference, better known as NATCON.

Having attended in the past as delegates, this year we were invited by the Conference Board of Canada to deliver two engaging presentations on subject matters within our areas of expertise.

On Monday, our President & CEO, Anne Lamont, delivered an informative and practical workshop on measuring diversity initiatives. Deanna Matzanke, Director, Global Employment Strategies at Scotiabank partnered with Career Edge Organization and presented alongside Anne.

While Anne Lamont gave an overview of diversity issues in Canadian employment, as well as 7 key factors in measuring diversity success, Deanna was able to provide an employer perspective, using Scotiabank as a case study for championing, measuring and improving diversity and inclusivity initiatives.

Yesterday we were treated to an energetic, fun and yet informative presentation from Gen Y authority, Dr. Karyn Gordon, who helped the audience understand the notorious millennial cohort in their cultural, familial and professional contexts.

This was a perfect segway into our second presentation. This morning, our Director, Marketing and Communications, Janice Rudkowski, built on the foundation set by Dr. Karyn’s keynote presentation, by providing the audience with insights derived from our Canadian Gen Y study which we conducted with Angus Reid Strategies last September.

For those who are not familiar with it, NATCON is considered a major industry conference in Canada that brings together professionals representing business, labour practitioners and policy makers from across the country. Simultaneously taking place were the “Global Best Awards” for education and business partnerships, also held by the Conference Board of Canada.

To learn more about it, visit their website: www.natcon.org

This afternoon our Vice President at Career Edge Organization, Donna Smith, sent out a fun but serious call to action to all staff:

Since today is Earth Day, this is a great opportunity to think about how we can each contribute to making this a cleaner, greener planet.

Here is my challenge to each of you…

Please propose one idea easy to implement idea that will make our offices  greener. I just know this creative team will come up with some fabulous ideas.

Donna’s promise? Starting today, she will only bring her early morning tea into the office in a reusable travel mug.

The rest of the staff quickly chimed in:

“Carrying a shopping bag with us all the time, so that we don’t use plastic bags!!” – Rima

“Order environmentally responsible office supplies…recycled paper clips anyone?” – Sydney

“How about keeping a stash of scrap paper for taking notes instead of using new paper every time” – Paula

“We can recycle our broken or old electronic devices by taking them to stores like Best Buy or Staples” – Ramtin

“If you take electronic devices to the green living show on the weekend you get in for free!” – Rory

“We can start using stairs instead of the elevator. (Yes, applies in my case too!)” – Rizwan

“Support our local farmers market, for example the one at Metro Hall (in Toronto)” – Janice

“Save trees by printing less – instead, save important emails and documents in electronic files for future use.” – Michelle

Talk to us! What does your workplace do to make the world a “greener, cleaner” place? How did your organization acknowledge Earth Day?

Last week on Wednesday, February 24 Career Edge Organization gathered partners, employers, interns, alumni, board members, leaders and ambassadors to celebrate the 2009/10 Achievement Awards. The response at and since the event has been overwhelmingly positive!

The food and decor was exquisite – we have never been prouder to be members of the Toronto Board of Trade! With Oliver & Bonacini behind their events and catering, everything was top-notch.

The entire Career Edge Organization team was on hand to hand out awards during the ceremony.

After enjoying cocktails and hors d’oeuvres during the networking hour our own Janice Rudkowski (Director of Marketing and Communications by day, MC by night) kicked off the evening following by President and CEO of Career Edge Organization, Anne Lamont with a warm welcome.

John King, the Executive Vice President and CAO of St. Micael’s Hospital was the first recipient of the night, honoured with the Leadership Award for his dedication and commitment to the Career Bridge program, and was presented with an original piece of artwork from the Petroff Gallery.

Another highlight of the night was Minister Harinder Takhar’s address to the audience. The Government of Ontario was among our event sponsors and the Ontario Public Service (OPS) was an award recipient.

Other big winners of the night include Scotiabank, First National Financial, Webcom, Bell Canada, RBC and AMR Process Inc. For a full list of winners, click here or download a PDF of the Achievement Awards Program where you can view winner photos, profiles and more: http://www.achievementawards.ca/images/10_AchievAwards_Program.pdf

The theme of the night was “Real People, Real Talent, Real Success” whose stories we told through framed portraits and testimonials stationed throughout the room, postcard photographs on all the cruiser tables, experiential multi-media slideshows and professional videos profiling our Mentor and Intern of the Year Award recipients: Andrea, Katie, Asma, Patricia and Richard.

The videos are now on the Achievement Awards website here: http://www.achievementawards.ca/video/

We have dozens of fantastic photos from the night which you can see on our Flickr “Talent Showcase”!

A big thank you to everyone who made this event possible – the guests who missed the Olympic Canada/Russia hockey game to be there (hopefully you caught the end of it…I heard it was a great game!), the sponsors, our staff and the incredible volunteers, many of whom are Alumni (former interns) and sit on our Alumni Network Committee.

We can’t wait to do it all again next year! If you have any comments or suggestions about the event, don’t hesitate to let us know!

Today, everyone here at Career Edge Organization took some time out of our daily busyness to celebrate the holidays which, as they approach, may instill feelings of anxiety (for those of us who haven’t started gift shopping), restlessness, (for those of us going on vacation), or joy (for employees who relish the holiday spirit). This is the perfect time for a celebration!

What’s great about living and working in a multi-faceted country like Canada is that many of us work in diverse, multicultural environments where the traditional North American “Christmas Party” has evolved into something much better.

For example, today’s “Multicultural Potluck” to celebrate the holidays at my workplace was a far departure from the typical turkey-and-stuffing meal that has come to be associated North American celebrations. Today we were spoiled with Samosas, Thai noodles, Latkes and other exotic dishes with roots in South American, Caribbean and Asian cultures in addition to all the staples of traditional Christmas potlucks (we have lots of leftovers if you’re hungry).

We also shared some laughs during a fun holiday-themed team-building exercise. The holidays are a perfect time for these kinds of activities. Things like “Secret Santa” or exchanging gifts anonymously help people get to know each other better and boost employee morale. I highly recommend it!

We are always looking for new, unique ideas on how to celebrate the holidays. We’d love to hear from you and find out how your workplace celebrates this time of year. Is there an evening party? A catered lunch? A day off?

Canadian organizations have seen a lot of ups and downs in the past year and we should all give ourselves a pat on the back. We should appreciate that we are working in an economy where many people are unemployed.

It doesn’t matter what your cultural background is. We all can celebrate the passing of 2009 and the opportunities that lie ahead in 2010!