What a great start to a new year! MPI Toronto kick-started its year with the first edition of the Signature Series event which was combined with the Annual General Meeting.
The International Centre proved that when you combine creativity and hard work you can overcome the biggest of challenges, such as not having electricity. The Operations and Culinary teams worked diligently to ensure our breakfast event went without a glitch. Sure, it was a bit warmer than normal but in just a few weeks we will be complaining that it is too cold...
Emceed by yours truly, led by Kelly Shannon, Immediate Past President, and Brenda Carter, President, the AGM portion of the event covered the state of the union with our Chapter and included a review of our balance sheet and the official introduction of the new Board of Directors and Committee Chairs.
Our keynote speaker, Richard St. John, delivered a powerful presentation on the key characteristics of successful people, a conversation that started more than 10 years ago during a routine plane ride. A girl sitting next to him asked what it was like to be successful, and Richard was stumped. Between running marathons in all five continents (including running laps on a cruise ship deck covered in ice!), he interviewed hundreds of successful people and identified the 8 Traits Successful People have in Common (coincidentally the name of his most recent book). He shared tidbits of his conversations with Richard Branson, Martha Stewart, Bill Gates, and Al Gore amongst others in a fun and casual manner at the presentation.
My takeaway from our first Signature Series event was that when faced with adversity you must work as a team to overcome it , and you never know where inspiration for the next great research and book may come from.
Hope to see you at our next Signature Series event.
Marcelo DeOliveira, Director Education