Posing with Arlene Dickinson, CEO Venture Communications and a Dragon on CBC’s Dragons’ Den.
Into my third year of university, I was given the option of being the Co-Chair of Conference or the Vice-President of Events (VPoE). Even though I love the Women’s Leadership Symposium and loved large events, I wanted to plan multiple events over the course of one year. I decided to be the VPoE and ran a committee of 7 girls and 1 amazing intern (who in turn became the Director of Events the next year).
This experience was one where I learned to be a leader, learned to be a mentor. I had to give direction to my girls on how to build an event from the ground up. I had no one guiding me, I only had my past event volunteering experience to go on and the support of my team. A lot of what I loved about being the VPoE, was the fact that I could try different events, I could test drive a lot of different educational pieces. My biggest accomplishment in this role was probably putting on Rotman’s first Speed Networking event. This event was important to me because the foundation of business was “connection.” A lot of students did not know how to reach out and take the first step, so what better way to help them than to organize an event where the professionals are brought to the students. The event was a huge success. At the end of the event, a student came up to me and thanked me for organizing the event. It was probably at that time I realized, as long as I made a positive impact on one person’s life, I can be proud of myself and I had accomplished something. This realization took the pressure off my shoulders as I was someone who always strove to please everyone. Professionally and personally, I matured from this experience.
Through the Tea Cupboard 