How to profit from demographics? Attend NOBA.

Marcus Thomson is a shining example of the type of leadership we are looking for to lead Northern Ontario into the future. Here is a young man who wanted to move back North to attend a smaller university, where he believes he receives more attention from his professors than at the larger southern Ontario university he used to attend.

Not content to find just any summer job between semesters, this commerce student opened up his own business and, in year two, currently employs three other students at his seasonal company, Thomson Premium Student Window Cleaning.

We hope he continues to create opportunities for entrepreneurship, and that he continues to hire and train other young people along the way. But we must do more than hope. We need to find out how we can help him and hundreds of other young aspiring leaders create jobs, wealth and stability in our region. And we need to support their initiatives and encourage their creativity.

But how?

Thomson is one of literally hundreds of young Northerners we seldom hear about or even give thought to as we consistently meet, discuss, strategize and agonize over our dwindling population and the exodus of our young people to larger centres. We never stop to analyse and discuss why some of our young leaders stay, why some never left and why some come here from larger cities to set up shop in our communities.

But Northern Ontario Business, along with its partners, the City of Greater Sudbury and the Sudbury & Manitoulin Workforce Partnerships Board, are doing just that.

In a reversal of the trend to study why we are losing our young aspiring leaders, we are going to find out as much as we can about those who are in our communities. What types of businesses do they head up? What are their career aspirations? What do they hope to achieve? What do they want to contribute to their communities? How can we help them? How can they help us?

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Our Emerging Leaders conference will take place Oct. 6 at the Holiday Inn in Greater Sudbury. It has two underlying themes: return migration and succession planning for community. With renowed economist David Foot, co-author of Boom Bust and Echo: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Shift and Boom Bust and Echo: Profiting from the Demographic Shift in the 21st Century, we plan an exciting agenda that will answer many of these questions.

Registration will start at 7:30 am, followed by a hot buffet breakfast and the keynote address by Dr. Foot, People as employees and where the business opportunities are. Foot's presentation will be followed by a workshop to discuss this theme further and to highlight the demographics of Northern Ontario's five largest cities. As well, Foot will present a perspective on the growing communities of Manitoulin Island and the uniqueness of Elliot Lake.

The workshop will focus on sustainability, what sort of businesses would do well in our communities and how we deal with succession planning. We will discuss the creative use of people in their 50s and how to use this demographic to help those in their 30s merge into leadership roles in our communities.

We will engage participants in these discussions in a round-table format.

But the morning doesn't end there.

We will follow the workshop with a very interesting panel discussion and question-and-answer period.

On the panel will be one young leader who stayed in the North, created a business and found success. Another panelist will be a young leader who left the North for educational or career purposes, but returned back to the North to start a business, or to work and raise a family. A third panelist will represent those young people who are not from Northern Ontario, but moved here for career or entrepreneurial opportunities.

We'll round out the panel with seasoned professionals and entrepreneurs. They will share with us their success stories and plans for succession.

By bringing together corporate decision-makers, aspiring entrepreneurs, young professionals and established business owners, the conference will help delegates to: realize their entrepreneurial potential, create business opportunities, assess community needs, set goals for economic development, understand demographics and how to use them to advantage, empower themselves, become community leaders, understand the importance of succession planning, explore the so-called generational shift, contribute their experiences and insights to inspire more young people, and to feel motivated to continue to contribute to the North.

Foot will present a summary at the end of this half-day conference, which we can use to follow through on the suggestions and recommendations which are sure to follow this engaging discussion on our future. Northern Ontario Business and its sister publication, Sudbury Northern Life, will continue to report on the follow-up of this unique workshop and how we can use the forthcoming information to our advantage.

The Emerging Leaders conference is the new day program of the 19th annual Northern Ontario Business Awards (NOBA), to be held Oct. 6 at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Greater Sudbury. This annual gathering of the North's most influential business leaders continues to shine the spotlight on extraordinary companies and individuals who have excelled in their businesses.

For more information, and to purchase tickets to both events, contact Brianne Cartmill, executive programs coordinator at 1-800-757-2766 ext. 306, or 705-673-5707 or via e-mail to [e-mail].

Online registration is also available at noba.ca.

We hope to see you there.

www.noba.ca