Monday, May 30, 2005

The Wisdom Exchange

Today marks the starts of the 11th annual Wisdom Exchange, one of the Ontario government’s better ideas.

The Wisdom Exchange is a special business networking/idea-sharing conference limited to CEOs of Ontario’s fastest-growing companies. It stemmed from Ontario’s belated realization a dozen years ago that not all small businesses are alike. And that if you identify the companies with the best prospects for growth, and give them extra care and service, you may just do more to create jobs and promote economic development than by simply throwing money at “small business” in general.

The theme for this year is “Return on Creativity - Leveraging the Power of Ideas.” Wisely, the organizers are taking a holistic approach to creativity. It’s not just about product innovation, but also applying creative approaches to financing, partnerships and alliances, HR strategies, marketing – even succession planning.

I’ll be moderating a roundtable on Creative Collaboration tomorrow. If we exchange any useful wisdom, I'll let you know.

Meantime, if you want to read the wisdom and “true confessions” of entrepreneurs such as Michael MacMillan (Alliance Atlantis) or John Stanton (The Running Room), take a look at the report from last year’s Wisdom Exchange. It’s also full of good ideas about marketing, personal development, and exporting to China.

This is your chance to share the wisdom of some of the province’s best business minds, so take a look – or even save it to your hard drive.

Check it out at
http://www.ontariocanada.com/ontcan/en/downloads/w-e/w-e-report-2004.pdf

It’s your tax dollar at work.

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