📢 Full speaker lineup and schedule details live on ONWARDYYC.com!

📅 Two half-days: June 5 & 6, 2017    📍 BMO Centre

The ONWARD Summit is Silicon Valley innovation meets Disneyland for entrepreneurs. Alongside 1000 local business leaders, you'll hear from 15 speakers over 2 half-days. Are you ready to challenge everything?

Here's some of the incredible speakers that will change how you think:

• Dave Masson, Country Manager for Canada, Darktrace
• Diane Francis, award-winning writer, journalist and author
• Arlene Strom, VP Sustainability & Communications, Suncor Energy
• Carlo Montemagno, Ingenuity Lab

🆕 Fast-Growth Champions: The business of doing good

📅 June 20, 2017   🕒 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm    📍 Local 522

Social entrepreneurship is about growing your business while doing good in the world. Many of your fellow members are using it as a fast-growth strategy, even in a tough economy. 

At Fast-Growth Champions you can learn how to build the strategies of social entrepreneurship into your own business from three local entrepreneurs who have not only done just that, but grew their company in the process. You'll hear from:

• Garth Johnson, CEO, Meticulon
• Shawn Cable, Director, Re-Matt
• Brianna Hallet, CEO, SwizzleSticks Salon & Spa

Connect at upcoming events

Only 9 tickets left for the ONWARD VIP Dinner!

📅 June 5, 2017    🕒 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm    📍 Catch & the Oyster Bar

Following on the heels of the opening day of the ONWARD Summit, you are personally invited to meet each of the speakers in real life, and engage them in powerful conversations at the exclusive ONWARD VIP Dinner.

This exclusive evening is all about enjoying great food, great wine, and great networking with our city’s top-level influencers and world-class innovative thinkers.

🆕 ONWARD Workshop: Growth strategies with Simon Raby

📅 June 6, 2017    🕒 12:00 pm – 2:30 pm    📍 BMO Centre

Top off your ONWARD Summit experience with an exclusive workshop led by Simon Raby. Alongside a cohort of fellow ambitious business owners, entrepreneurs and leaders of growth-oriented SMEs, you will be led through a deep-dive into the ingredients of growth strategies, and how to successfully navigate the four strategic management challenges:

• Orientation: What problem are we looking to solve?
• Trade-off: How do we compete?
• Relevance: What is our value proposition, and for whom?
• Execution: How do we adapt?

When robots come for your job: Todd Hirsch on the future of work

📅 June 13, 2017    🕒 7:00 am – 9:00 am    📍 Delta Calgary Downtown

Let's talk about what the workforce of the future looks like. Join us and The Talent Pool a dynamic discussion over breakfast on how to take advantage of the new opportunities technological advances are ushering in. You'll have a chance to engage with:

• Todd Hirsch, Chief Economist, ATB Financial
• Javier Lozano, Business Transformation Specialist, Past VP & CIO of the Calgary Airport Authority
• Dan Boucher, Director, Regulatory Affairs & Research, & Registrar, Human Resources Institute of Alberta

Enjoy ☀️+🍷+ 🤝 at Business After Hours at The Keg

📅 June 14, 2017   🕒 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm   📍 The Keg – Macleod Trail

Get ready to release your inner sommelier as you connect with the movers and shakers of Calgary’s business community at Business After Hours at The Keg. Mix and mingle on the patio, experience a wine pairing seminar, take in the sounds of a live DJ, and snack on some of The Keg’s finest appetizers. 

Join us to kick off your summer with some of the finest networking around.

Leaders Classic Golf Tournament

📅 June 29, 2017   🕒 11:30 am – 8:00 pm   📍 Silver Springs

The Calgary Chamber's annual Leaders Classic is more than just a golf tournament. It's an occasion that brings our city’s top executives, influential community leaders and politicians together in a fun and relaxed setting to build business relationships, and contribute to the work that makes our city a better place.

Unrivaled in its fantastic food, prizes and superior golf, the Leaders Classic is all about escaping the confines of the office, having some fun, and making connections on and off the green.

From our blog

Ray DePaul: The Calgary Chamber's 2016 Volunteer of the Year

Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting three recipients of this year's Calgary Chamber volunteer awards. Each year we recognize three outstanding volunteers, who have made an impact on our organization and community. Without the efforts of these individuals we wouldn't be able to carry out the important work that we do.

Ray DePaul is the recipient of the 2016 Volunteer of the Year Award. This week we had the opportunity to sit down and talk with him about his experience with the Chamber and why volunteering was so important to him.  

Tips to grow your business

🌟 ONWARD Contest: Win access to a VIP workshop with Salim Ismail

📅 June 6, 2017   🕒 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm    📍 BMO Centre

Salim Ismail knows breakthrough technologies, and how businesses can leverage disruptions to grow 10x faster than their peers. After the ONWARD Summit, Salim will be leading an exclusive workshop with 20 top executives to teach them how to make their organization exponential. 

A seat in this room costs $2,500, and if you're a Chamber member, you could WIN one for free.

Send us a video telling us why your business need to be in the room and how it would help you grow by Thursday, May 25th for your chance to win. Videos can be submitted via social media or you can send it to us directly at info@calgarychamber.com.

🎉 Applications and nominations for the 2017 Small Business Calgary Awards are open!

Do you know an outstanding small business that blows you away with how awesome they are? Every year, in the third week of October, we shine a light on the vibrant community of small but mighty business owners in our city with the Small Business Week Calgary Awards and Conference.

Help us celebrate these unsung heroes by letting us know who you think should be recognized for their valiant efforts. And if that's your business? Don't wait for a nomination, apply for the award you think is the best fit today!

Applications and nominations are due by 11:59 pm on Sunday, June 18th.

Digital tip: New direct message tools are coming to Twitter

Today Twitter revealed that it will be giving brands more multimedia features to encourage one-on-one conversations within promoted tweets, including video, interactive images and questions-based bots.

Called Direct Message Cards, the feature can involve up to four, custom, call-to-action buttons that send users to direct messages with the brand. They can also be used in organic tweets.

What we're reading...

• Varcoe: Kent Hehr says he'll fight to keep the NEB in Calgary
• Francis: ONWARD keynote and conference June 5&6
• Why the Dell Foundation betting big on social entrepreneurs
• 5 ways to be a badass leader, James Bond style
• A new emerging practice: Innovation communications

Member insights

Chamber member: BMO Financial Group

Established in 1817, and currently marking its 200th year of operations, BMO Financial Group is a highly diversified financial services provider based in North America.

With total assets of $692 billion as of January 31, 2017, and more than 45,000 employees, BMO provides a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers and conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets.  

Members get exclusive savings from WCBC

You can’t afford to make mistakes with employee compensation. Pay below market and run the risk of losing valuable employees and limiting your ability to attract talent. Pay too much and impact your HR budget. Annual compensation surveys can help you know if your salaries and total rewards are competitive.

As a Calgary Chamber member, you can save 15% off any of WCBC’s 10 compensation reports.

From our community partners

[Webinar] Learn about Alberta's investment tax credits

📅 May 31, 2017   🕒 10:00 am – 11:00 am   or   7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Within the Alberta Jobs Plan, the Government of Alberta has invested $90 million in the Alberta Investor Tax Credit (AITC) to encourage investment in local businesses. $70 million has also been invested by the Alberta Government towards a Capital Investment Tax Credit (CITC) to encourage investment in manufacturing, processing and tourism infrastructure.

To help you learn more about these programs, the Alberta Government will be presenting a webinar, complete with a Q&A, on:

• What the programs are
• Review of the program steps
• Eligibility requirements
• Registration process

Pipelines, carbon, the price of oil and Alberta's future

📅 June 8, 2017   🕒 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm   📍 The Calgary Petroleum Club

WPC Canada invites you to an evening of lively conversation and networking with industry leaders and special guest presenter, Dennis McConaghy, author of DYSFUNCTION, Canada after Keystone XL on pipelines, carbon, the price of oil and Alberta’s future.

Dennis McConaghy is a Canadian energy executive with nearly forty years of industry experience in infrastructure development. As one of the senior executives of TransCanada Pipelines, he was directly involved in conceiving and executing the Keystone XL pipeline project.

Community leaders