International Women's Day 2020

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International Women's Day 2020

March 5, 2020 (11:00 AM - 2:00 PM) (PST)

Description

International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. On March 5, the Tri-Cities Chamber is excited to host our 6th annual International Women's Day celebration.

Keynote Speaker: Jody Vance
Jody Vance is a born and raised Vancouverite who’s spent 30 years in both local and national media. The first woman in the history of Canadian TV to host her own sports show in primetime, since 2011 she’s been working in both TV and radio covering news and current affairs.

Emcee:
Jennifer McKinnon, PoCo BIA & Creating Culture

Jennifer is a BCIT graduate in Human Resources, Director for the Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce, Executive Director for the Downtown PoCo BIA and President of the Rotary Club of Coquitlam Sunrise. Jen owns Creating Culture, an HR and Community Relations consulting company. She offers a professional but personal approach to recommending best practices on maximizing employee and workplace potential, as well as provides high-level support to execute full-cycle recruitment and performance management processes. Jennifer is an active member and volunteer in the Tri-Cities community, speaker and mom to a sassy teenage girl. Passionate about efficiency, yoga, writing, reading, and giving back (not necessarily in that order) she lives every day to help others and enjoys mentoring and encouraging those looking to grow through professional projects and personal goals.

Moderator:
Alison Berg, Photonic Inc. & SFU Venture Labs

Alison has served in leadership roles at early-stage innovators in big data, telecommunications, and high-performance computing. Currently serving as VP of People & Communications at Photonic, Alison holds 20+ years of strategic marketing, communications, and HR experience in the technology sector. She also currently serves as an Executive-in-Residence at SFU VentureLabs, mentoring technology companies as they prepare to scale up. She holds an MBA, BA and HR certiﬁcate. Alison is the past president and long-time member of Soroptimist International of the TriCities, an international service organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls. She loves chocolate, wine, Netflix, and her kids (almost always in that order.)

Panelists:
Stacey Marshall, Vancouver Women in Technology

After accidently getting into IT sales 20 years ago, Stacey Marshall has enjoyed a successful career supporting enterprise clients evolve in the ever changing world of technology. Stacey recently started as a Sales Executive at TELUS and is incredibly proud to be part of an organization so committed not only to their customers, but also the community. In her spare time she is VP PR for her Toastmasters Club, an avid traveler, having been to 49 countries so far and an amateur photographer. Someday Stacey will focus on her professional speaking career, but for now tech is too much fun.

Leah Coss, Your Current Future

Leah Coss is an Entrepreneur & Consultant with a background in Franchising & Culture Development. She has worked with brands such as 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, Oxygen Yoga & Fitness, and other assorted service based industries. Franchising’s foundation is built on automation. Over her years, she observed as technology & automation simplified the way we do business, and with it, corporations & individuals were being “blindsided” by change and had to confront their actual Value to the economy. Even more alarming was that the education system was not preparing youth for The Future of Work. Co-Founding Build a Biz Kids & The Fuel Academy, Leah’s mission is to help Businesses & individuals remain relevant and create true fulfillment in their work in this ever-changing economy.

Stephanie Simmons, Photonic Inc.

Stephanie Simmons is Founder and Chief Quantum Officer at Photonic, a Vancouver-based startup where she provides the technology vision for the world’s first large-scale universal quantum processor. She is a world-leading expert in quantum technologies, silicon spin-photon interfaces, and quantum optics. She is also a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Quantum Nanoelectronics, as well as a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Fellow in Quantum Information Science, and Assistant Prof of Physics at SFU. Stef has twice achieved Physics World Top Ten Breakthroughs of the Year, in 2013 and 2015. In addition to her numerous research fellowships, she holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from Oxford University and a double honours degree in mathematical physics and pure mathematics from the University of Waterloo. Her work has been featured by the BBC, CBC, Scientific American, Wired Magazine, the New Scientist, and the New York Times.

Agenda