The National Black Business & Professional Convention addresses tomorrow’s leaders
By Samuel Getachew
The 2nd Annual National Black Business & Professional Convention hit a high note on its opening night at the Allstream Centre at the Exhibition Place on Thursday.
The Black Business and Professional Association (BBPA) National Convention and young Leaders of Tomorrow Conference joined forces for 2011 with the theme, EDUCATION + JOB CREATION = FINANCIAL LIBERATION: The Road to Generational Wealth.
It was keynote speaker, General Motors Canada’s head, Kevin Williams that captivated impressive attendees.
“I am a product of a broken background,” Williams told me before he spoke to the near sold out event.
“I have survived becoming the first university graduate from all of my family.”
On stage he mentions the brother who went to Vietnam during the war only to come back broken and alcoholic. His other brother spent 16 years of his life in prison. His own father left when he was only 9 years old and his mother quit work altogether at 41 because of stress.
As a high school student considering university, he reflected, he called his aunt only to be told how “poor and intellectually inferior” he was to even think of such an adventure.
“I have five principles I want to leave the young,” he preaches.
He mentions the idea of dreaming big dreams, the designation of one’s destiny, the perfection of one’s standard, education and integrity as the most basic principles that have guided him in his journey from a Maryland ghetto to being in charge of a $ 25 billion enterprise.
With an elite audience that included the likes of Ryerson University Chancellor Raymond Chang, one time political hopeful and Royal Bank of Canada Regional VP Mark Beckles and former Toronto Argonauts Quarterback Damon Allen, coupled with university and high school audience, his message of excellence received universal approval from the audience.
“Let me talk about my two daughters as a proud father,” he says. “I installed in them the idea of excellence at a young age, where every morning I would ask them to recite what has become a family ritual of repeating the words, ‘excellence’ and ‘because I can’.”
Today, one daughter is an academic star in an area high school while the other is attending Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. She also did a summer internship at Wall Street in New York, earned an excellent work review and was offered a summer position at $35,000 for one short summer.
“When I started at General Motors on probation, I was assessed as ‘intellectual weak’ and was recommended to be fired, yet, here I am,” he says proudly before he lists statistics that has four out of ten black high school drop out of school.
In his 25-minute speech, he encouraged the youth to “show their blackness through their brain” and to never imitate popular culture.
Dr. Anthony Sterling, a noted Brampton dentist and education advocate, also spoke on the topic of success and hard work. Jade’s Hip Hop Academy Performance Company as well as a past Harry Jerome Award recipient and noted saxophonist played much to the delight of the young people.
According to BBPA, the two-day event will host close to 1,000 entrepreneurs, students and executives. There will be a Career & University Fair and many opportunities to network. One of the most successful Jamaican Canadian businessmen and charity extraordinaire G. Raymond Chang, Superior Court Justice Michael Tulloch and Sherman Hamilton (analyst for The Score & NBA TV) are all expected to attend and speak.
According to BBPA President Pauline Christian, the convention will focus on education, job creation and financial liberation. The vision and the hope are, as she explains, “to try to change the mentality amongst our community to build income streams that will last for generations.”
The event will run until Friday, November 4th, 2011 at the Allstream Centre at the Exhibition Place.
For more information – visit www.bbpa.org/convention.
Related Articles:
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
Loading ...
Leave your response!