Young Entrepreneurs Association, Aboriginal Youth Entrepreneurs and Gala Launch
September, 22 and 23
By Ray Charlie
 
I got a chance to attend the Aboriginal Youth Entrepreneurs talking circle put together by the Young Entrepreneurs Association  ( YEA). The 2-day event was split into 2 venues - we started out at at the Longhouse on Squamish territory on  Wednesday September 22, 2004 and the Young Entrepreneurs Association Gala was Thursday at Skybar in downtown Vancouver. 
 
We made last minute plans to make sure to get out to the AYE talking circle, and when we finally got there we were warmly greeted and welcomed by Michael Glendale, the Production Assistant for another Aboriginal web design company,  Coopermoon, who helped arrange the event.  We came in at the end of an exercise where they paired up entrepreneurs with somebody they didn’t know - getting people to begin to talk about themselves and their businesses.  The next exercise we got to join in, called the “Samoan Circle” or the “Fishbowl discussion”. In this exercise there are 4 chairs placed inside a circle of people. The 4 people are chosen to start a conversation, with the topic of "culture and its place in business". Needless to say there were a diverse opinions and stories shared, so I absorbed a lot of different perspectives. 

The next exercise was odd but very interesting. At either end of the longhouse is a fireplace; one represented hope, the other doom. We stood where we thought our culture was with regards to a scale where hope was a 10 and doom was 1. One of the facilitators and he was interested why people stood at 10 and asked them why they stood there. He did the same for the people standing the furthest away. I stood at 7 because I pictured 10 as being the place we want to be as proud Native people with no baggage, and  I feel we are on our way there.  We're not there yet, but almost, as the affects of residential school and oppression are still lingering in my generation, but will hopefully only be an important but less dominant part of our history in my daughters' generation.
 
At the end of the night we got to eat a very tasty dinner and talk amongst each other. Then we got to listen and join in some drumming and singing. It was a very empowering evening.
 
The Gala event on Thursday at Skybar was quiet different. They had the event broadcasting for a half an hour across North America from their website (www.yea.ca), which was very exciting for a tekkie like me.  The key speakers were Peter Legge, who is president, CEO and publisher of the largest independently owned magazine publishing company in Western Canada. The next speaker was the president of the Young Entrepreneurs Association, Jason Guille, and it was great to learn more about YEA.  Leanne Cadden sppoke next, as an owner of a well-established downtown gallery in Victoria. Last (but not least was Jacob Beaton), president and founder of CopperMoon Media who delivered a very inspirational speech.
 
After the speeches, it was time to get busy and network. I spoke to quite a few people about our Project and Aboriginal youth business experiences I've had.  There were lots of different reactions to our project - some sincere interest and others not so sincere,  but all and all, I think we spread the word of RedWAY BC - and we might have a few new Ezine readers and potential sponsors. Now the real leg work begins...following up with everyone!

We look forward to working more with YEA in the future as we develop useful articles, resource links and content for our ezine and our website... we hope to build upon their success supporting and connecting entrepreneurs across Canada!
For more info about YEA, go to http://www.yea.ca/chapters/vancouver/events.php  and check out the speakers and event info.