To mark Small Business Week, OBJ and the Ottawa Board of Trade are organizing a virtual conference to help businesses who are fighting to survive a pandemic.
The Small Business Summit is a free half-day conference on Thursday, Oct. 22 that will gather several experts to address bottom line issues that are key to operating a business in a pandemic.
“We’ve chosen the theme ‘the real lives of entrepreneurs,’” says OBJ publisher Michael Curran. “Sometimes people have this glamourous perception of business ownership that really isn’t based in reality. These days, many entrepreneurs have been pushed to the brink both financially and emotionally. We hope the conference provides some very useful resources to them.”
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Small Business Summit: Register now
The event will open with a serial entrepreneur and coach who helps business owners cut through dense accounting spreadsheets to focus on key financial metrics.
Next, the chief economist of BDC, Pierre Cleroux, will present the findings of a survey of 1,000 entrepreneurs and 2,000 consumers to understand how the pandemic is affecting consumer trends and how businesses should react.
Local media personality Mark Sutcliffe will lead an “all cameras on” Zoom call with conference co-chairs Karla Briones and Lee Underwood, both small business owners, to discuss what entrepreneurship is like during a health and financial crisis.
To help better understand digital trends, Vicki Iverson and Matt Strentse of Iversoft will explain how the pandemic has “pressed fast-forward” on the need for small businesses to establish better digital platforms and processes.
The final session will be a question-and-answer session with Emily Deacon of the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group on mental health tips for business owners and managers.
Conference attendees must pre-register here.