Indulge in a little Oakville
“All I can say is why haven’t I been here before?”-George Bailey, Travel Writer, whose article, “Outstanding Oakville”, appeared in Sun Media publications across the country in March, 2012 |
It’s often described as beautiful, charming, part village captured in time, with all the amenities and conveniences of modern living. For those who work and live in Oakville, we’ve known these things for a long time and in a modest, Canadian fashion, don’t like to brag about it.
Earlier this year, George Bailey, a travel writer from nearby Niagara Falls, visited Oakville for the first time. An influencer in a growing industry where stakeholders are increasingly influenced by online opinion, I wanted him to love Oakville as much as its natives do. I asked if he would like a personal tour, if I could take him to lunch or make some introductions. No, he replied, he preferred an authentic “tourist” experience.
Each year, we welcome approximately one million visitors to Town. In 2008, visitors contributed over $107M to the Oakville economy and supported 16,000 local jobs. Tourism is big business, worth $75B in Canada (Industry Canada, 2008) and $22B in Ontario (www.mtc.on.ca).
Many visitors to Oakville are our friends and family. According to a report published by Halton Region in 2010, 59% of Oakville visitors are day-trippers, often arriving from other municipalities in the GTA to shop, dine and enjoy outdoor activities.
“Of course, one of the things we appreciate from a local business perspective is the money visitors bring into Town,” Richard Messer, Executive Director of the Kerr Village BIA and Chair of the Oakville Tourism Partnership explained. “Even established businesses can’t always solely depend on a local customer base.”
Overnight guests, who make up the remaining 41%, are more likely here on business (11%) than anywhere else in the region, a correlation with the many regional and national head offices that have made Oakville home. Not surprisingly, it’s the overnight visitors who spend the most – on average, $238 per person, per visit.
Recently, I talked with people from Edmonton, Nevada, Indiana, Michigan and Southwestern Ontario who are planning visits to Oakville this summer, the peak season in Southern Ontario. Some had specific attractions in mind. One had been holding onto a brochure from the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum for years, another was planning a return to Harbour Days in Bronte. A repeat visitor said he liked Oakville so much, he wanted to move here. And the others, who had never visited before, had “heard really great things.”
George Bailey said “really great things” in his article too, which was picked up by Sun Media and syndicated in 43 papers across Canada. The full article can be found here: http://m.torontosun.com/2012/04/02/outstanding-oakville
And while her focus was on living in Oakville, visitor Suzanne Wintrob of the National Post also painted an impressive picture of our Town. That article can be found here: http://life.nationalpost.com/2012/04/27/street-smarts-oakville-the-town-born-from-timbers/
“Another benefit of tourism is something called ‘pride of place’. Friends visit, we show off our Town, take them to our favourite restaurants, cool stores and show off how wonderful Oakville is,” said Messer. “How often have you heard someone express their admiration for Oakville, after a visit or two? I bet often.”
No, we don’t like to brag about it. But it sure feels good when someone else does.
Rebecca Edgar
Oakville Tourism Manager
Oakville Chamber Environmental Advocacy Recognized with Award
ST. CATHARINES: The Oakville Chamber of Commerce has been instrumental in raising awareness about air quality issues at the provincial level by encouraging the province to make Oakville the first municipality in Ontario to participate in a multi-stakeholder air quality pilot project.
This work was recognized this weekend in St. Catharines with an Ontario Chamber of Commerce Advocacy Award.
“Clean air is important to everybody – individuals, businesses and governments,” saysJohn Sawyer, president of the Oakville Chamber of Commerce. “Air quality is a cross-border issue, and to deal with it most effectively we need the provincial government to take the lead role. They are doing that. We therefore applaud the province’s work in bringing together a range of stakeholders – including residents, municipalities and the Chamber – in taking on this important initiative.”
As part of their advocacy efforts, the Oakville Chamber of Commerce called on the provincial government in 2009 to take the lead on air quality policies across Ontario. Other stakeholders were part of the dialogue, and in August 2011 the province then announced a local air quality pilot project in the Oakville-Clarkson air shed. Premier Dalton McGuinty praised the pilot as an example of “effective multi-stakeholder engagement.”
The Ministry of the Environment is also working with the Oakville-Clarkson community to establish an Air Zone Management Advisory Committee to improve air quality while enhancing the economic competitiveness of the region.
The Oakville Chamber also received the honour because of their ability to help industry and businesses within the city contain their own emissions. The Advocacy Award was presented at the Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s 100th Annual General Meeting and Convention in St. Catharines on May 5, 2012.
The Advocacy Award is among several awards presented to chambers of commerce for excellence in leadership and delivery of impactful innovative programs and services. The Ontario Chamber of Commerce is proud to recognize the Oakville Chamber of Commerce as a member, and as a community leader.
Getting past the rhetoric
Recently, we hosted Peter Kent, the Federal Minister of the Environment. A seasoned broadcaster, Minister Kent is comfortable and confident in front of a microphone, making our commitment to provide an enlightening and riveting event for our audience easier.
“…this government is acutely aware of the need to balance environmental vigilance with economic realities.” Minister Kent’s message was clear: environmental protection as a partner in prosperity. Focusing on efficiency and effectiveness, the Minister called on Canada to move forward with environmental policies which are impactful within Canada as a whole and globally.
We need to get past the rhetoric on both sides of the environmental debate. We all want clean air, water and soil, hands down. How do we achieve this for the greater good? Actions in isolation are not effective; we do not live in a bubble. We need to have policies which are aligned municipally, regionally, provincially and federally to provide the greatest impact through standardized regulation. Air and water do not have defined boundaries and our policies need to reflect this fluidity. Air quality has been a hot topic in Oakville for a number of years. We know a significant portion of our air pollution comes from transportation and a signficant portion of transportation pollution comes from the U.S. Halton region is traversed by three major 400 series highways. Our community also serves as a transportation corridor as we are geographically located between commuters travelling across the GTA on a daily basis.
If we can get past the rhetoric, we can engage in meaningful dialogue about steps to move us forward. The rhetoric is taking away from a meaningful and sensible discussion about our future. Changing old habits and old technologies is necessary; taking sides is not.
A Day in the Life
I am often asked what is a day in the life of a Chamber manager like? The days are never, ever predictable as we work to fulfill our mandate: advocate, educate and facilitate. This week I had the perfect Chamber manager’s life as we fulfilled all three.
On Monday, Feb. 6, we hosted a luncheon with Premier McGuinty. Over 460 Chamber members and others from the Oakville business community filled the Oakville Conference Centre to hear the Premier discuss his government’s plan for growth and jobs. The Chamber is strictly non-partisan and we encourage representatives from all levels of government to come to Oakville and speak to our members. Bringing the Premier to Oakville enables us to make the provincial government aware of the issues facing our local economy and community, and keeping Oakville top-of-mind with government is at the heart of our role as a business advocate for our members.
On Wednesday, Feb. 8, we hosted our popular evening networking reception, Business After Hours, at Sheridan College’s Skills Training Centre. This event takes on a life of its own. There is always a palpable buzz in the air at the different venues where this event is held as members connect with each other, developing business opportunities and friendships. The Chamber is honoured to facilitate this process.
This morning, Feb. 9, we hosted our annual RBC Economic Outlook Breakfast with Paul Ferley, Assistant Chief Economist for RBC and Ray Kong, Senior VP, Ipsos Reid. This event offered the perfect balance of right and left brain insights into financial and consumer trends. Educating our members on issues of fundamental importance to their business is a role we take very seriously.
We have just hosted 750 people in four days with more to come.
What is an Entrepreneur..
Came across this great definition as it captures the essence of an entrepreneur:
What’s an Entrepreneur? The Best Answer Ever
This classic 25-word definition pares entrepreneurship to its essence and explains why it’s so hard. And so addictive.
Courtesy company
As an entrepreneur, you surely have an elevator pitch, the pithy 15-second synopsis of what your company does and why, and you can all but repeat it in your sleep. But until recently, I’d never seen a good elevator pitch for entrepreneurship itself—that is, what you do that all entrepreneurs do?
Now I’ve seen it, and it comes from Harvard Business School, of all places. It was conceived 37 years ago by HBS professor Howard Stevenson. I came across it in the book Breakthrough Entrepreneurship (which I highly recommend) by entrepreneur and teacher Jon Burgstone and writer Bill Murphy, Jr. Of Stevenson’s definition, Burgstone says, “people often need to say it out loud 50 or 100 times before they really understand what it means.” Here it is:
Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.
I talked to Stevenson about his classic definition this weekend. Back in 1983, he told me, people tended to define entrepreneurship almost as a personality disorder, a kind of risk addiction. “But that didn’t fit the entrepreneurs I knew,” he said. “I never met an entrepreneur who got up in the morning saying ‘Where’s the most risk in today’s economy, and how can I get some? Most entrepreneurs I know are looking to lay risk off—on investors, partners, lenders, and anyone else.” As for personality, he said, “The entrepreneurs I know are all different types. They’re as likely to be wallflowers as to be the wild man of Borneo.”
By focusing on entrepreneurship as a process, his definition opened the term to all kinds of people. Plus, it matched the one demographic fact HBS researchers already knew about entrepreneurs—they were more likely to start out poor than rich. “They see an opportunity and don’t feel constrained from pursuing it because they lack resources,” says Stevenson. “They’re used to making do without resources.”
The perception of opportunity in the absence of resources helps explain much of what differentiates entrepreneurial leadership from that of corporate administrators: the emphasis on team rather than hierarchy, fast decisions rather than deliberation, and equity rather than cash compensation.
What would you expect, asks Stevenson: When you don’t have the cash to boss people around, like in a corporation, you have to create a more horizontal organization. “You hire people who want what you have and not what you don’t have,” Stevenson says. In other words, entrepreneurs offer their team members a larger share of a vision for a future payoff, rather than a smaller share of the meager resources at hand. Opportunity is the only real resource you have.
Or, as Burgstone puts it:
Every time you want to make any important decision, there are two possible courses of action. You can look at the array of choices that present themselves, pick the best available option and try to make it fit. Or, you can do what the true entrepreneur does: Figure out the best conceivable option and then make it available.
And that, folks, is what makes entrepreneurship so friggin’ hard. And so friggin’ necessary.
Indulge in a little Oakville
Recently, I had the opportunity to indulge in a little Oakville retail therapy. Preparing for the Chamber’s Annual Chair’s Dinner, I had the privilege of being primped and pampered by a few of Oakville’s great clothing, hair and jewelry retailers.
Where will you shop this holiday season? Whether you are searching for a perfect gift or spending time with friends and loved ones, Oakville offers shopping, galleries and eateries to suit any palate.
The holiday season is the busiest time of the year for retailers. Shopping locally at this time of year creates a surge in the local economy. Local shops need to hire extra local staff and wages paid to local employees are circulated within the community. The holiday season is also a time when many of us donate to local charities to help those less fortunate in our community. Shopping locally supports local businesses that donate to local causes.
If a resident is looking for a specific good or service, the Chamber can provide information about member businesses who provide that good or service. Oakville has three Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) which can provide a wealth of information about shops in their areas. The BIAs are Kerr Village, Downtown Oakville and Bronte Village. Other community associations often organize local shopping days. Local community papers are a great resource for upcoming events at local merchants. The Oakville Business Directory, available for online viewing from the Chamber’s website, lists local businesses that can be searched by name or category.
Shopping locally reduces one’s carbon footprint, saving on gas and time. Shopping locally provides access to goods and services that are unique to Oakville’s distinct character. Shopping locally is the only effective way to preserve Oakville’s unique character and heritage. Shopping locally supports local merchants who in turn support the community.
Shopping locally is like voting with your wallet. There is a chain reaction that occurs with shopping locally – tax revenue is used to fund the local infrastructure including education, emergency services, community and school events, as well as, local charities. Local business means local jobs and less commuting. Shopping locally means that your travel expenses are reduced and it lessens your impact on our natural environment.
Shopping locally is good for our community health. We have the opportunity to meet our neighbours, and build long-term relationships with local businesses. Decision-making about product offerings and services are based on the local, unique needs of our community and preserve our community. A strong local economy will help attract new businesses, bringing their variety of products and services with a focus on the needs of our community. Through tax dollars, businesses subsidize the lifestyle we enjoy in Oakville. In order for us to plan the future we want as a community, we need to support businesses which support us, reflecting the values we hold as a community.
While these are all good academic reasons to shop locally, most importantly shopping locally will meet your “Wish List.” I have fulfilled every one of my daughter’s requests and found many unique gifts and services for those hard to buy for people on my list. I am proud to shop Oakville; I encourage everyone to put the “I” in “I Shop Oakville.” You will be happy you did. I look forward to seeing you at our many wonderful retailers, restaurants and recreational purveyors this season.
Happy Shopping and Happy Holidays
Wendy Rinella
Chair
Oakville Chamber of Commerce
Chamber Business Survey
We recently released the results of our 2011 Business Survey. Taxes, economic development and easing the business permitting process were identified as top priorities for members of the Oakville Chamber of Commerce and others in the Oakville business community who completed the survey.
The results of this survey will help us set our advocacy priorities. Oakville’s business community has a critical role to play in Oakville’s present and future. Through tax dollars, businesses subsidize the lifestyle we enjoy in Oakville. Oakville is uniquely situated to make it a premium location for business in areas such as advanced manufacturing, professional services, life sciences and digital media.
Other key findings from the respondents include:
- 82% of respondents would advise a colleague to set up or relocate an existing business to Oakville
- 54% of respondents are likely to expand to their business in the next three to five years
- 47% of respondents said there are barriers to doing business in Oakville with the number higher for member companies with 50+ employees
- Companies with 50+ employees are less likely than smaller companies to expand their business and more likely than smaller companies to consider moving their business out of Oakville in the next three to five years
There were 245 respondents to the online survey with the results deemed to be accurate within +/-6.3%, 19 times out of 20. The survey was conducted by Gerald Bramm of Bramm Research Inc.
The Chamber’s survey results can be found on the Chamber’s website: www.oakvillechamber.com
Date with a Dragon
We hosted our 57th Annual Chair’s Dinner on November 22. Despite the torrential rain and wind, we had a great turnout. Hosting an event at the Oakville Conference Centre is always a great experience and we had the benefit of enjoying the conference centre’s beautiful holiday decor.
Behind the scenes it was like Santa’s Workshop as we started early in the morning preparing for the festivities. In some ways, it was like attending an opulent wedding but without having to endure long-lost relatives and getting to take home valuable stuff courtesy of all our partners instead of a crystal picture frame you may never use.
It is always a little nerve-wracking as we prepare to host a guest speaker. We have been fortunate that all our speakers to date have been professional and gracious. BUT we always wonder about an upcoming speaker’s possible demands and temperament.
Bruce Croxon was one of the most humble and gracious speakers we have hosted. He arrived early, always a treat in our world and already making our job easier. He was very accommodating with those of us who were star struck and indulged us kindly as we snapped photo after photo. He ambled around the venue and spoke candidly to everyone.
In advance, Bruce told us he would prepare his remarks when he arrived. A little nervous, our concerns were dismissed as he rose to address the audience starting with, “I haven’t done this very much…” His speech went on to recount his personal successes and failures on his entrepreneurial journey, lessons learned with Lavalife and new lessons he is learning on Dragons’ Den. He was charming, down-to-earth and connected with everyone in the audience.
After his speech, the ambience, fabulous food and great company were just icing on the cake.
Random Acts of Kindness
Random: : a haphazard course; without definite aim, direction, rule, or method “random.” Merriam-Webster.com 2011. http://www.merriam-webster.com (10 Nov. 2011).
Oakville hosted its first Random Acts of Kindness Day on Nov. 4, 2011. Spearheaded by the Oakville Community Foundation with many community partners, it was an opportunity for anyone and everyone to “pay it forward” with any act of kindness. Some bought coffee for a stranger in line, some raked leaves at a random house or picked up a neighbour’s recycling bins.
More than anything, the day was a chance to embrace the part of our humanity which defines us as humans: the capacity for higher reasoning, compassion and empathy.
Some have criticized that “planning and organizing” a random acts of kindness day defeats the intent of act. When you review the definition of random, an act without specific direction, aim or method, this defines the spirit of the day: not prescribed behaviour but rather a consciousness raising. Raising the awareness about kind behaviour is never a misguided intent.
For more information about Random Acts of Kindness Day, visit http://www.rakoakville.com/
Cora’s Recipe for Success
Eggs, milk, flour, salt and a whisk are the foundation of so many successful recipes. Combining these ingredients creates many possibilities. Such simple ingredients can yield such profound results.
Cora Tsouflidou, founder of Cora’s Restaurants, created this successful recipe. Raising three teenage kids after her marriage ended, she transformed a small, Montreal snack bar into a nationwide brand, building on the foundation of her mother’s recipes.
Cora spoke this morning at our small business week kick-off breakfast. The purpose of this breakfast is to inspire small business entrepreneurs with lessons learned and sound advice from the trenches. Cora blew away our expectations. She is the real deal and knows every step of the journey. She gives new meaning to the phrase, walk the talk.
Cora tells us to think about our bowl as our context; our idea, concept, business.
The eggs are our creativity. Cora created a ”breakfast revolution” by serving breakfast the Cora way. What is our revolution? What makes us unique?
Milk is the focus of our business. Cora knows her core business is breakfast and lunch, not dinner or drive thrus. Focus reinforces our brand.
Flour is the work required, no getting around it, to grow and sustain our business.
Perhaps the most important ingredient is the salt – a dash of doubt.
How many other founding CEOs are their brand? Why not? Cora wears her uniform with conviction and commitment, another critical component for success.
The whisk is our tool for blending our ingredients, smoothing the batter to make the masterpiece. It is our discipline, our integrity.
No one ingredient can be left out – each equally important to create a successful recipe.
