November 10, 2007

SARNIA, ON - Seminars and workshops fill Business Week in the Sarnia-Lambton area, to help business owners and their staff experience professional development opportunities they might otherwise miss.

At a low cost per seminar, more than 200 business owners and their employees annually participate in the variety of workshops offered for the past 13 years.  Topics and speakers are chosen depending on the previous year’s feedback.

“Sarnia-Lambton Business Week benefits the community by bringing experts to the area, not forcing people to go outside the area to gain the same knowledge,” says Mary Alderson, Community Economic Development Officer with the Sarnia-Lambton Business Development Corporation.  Alderson, SLBDC General Manager Mike McDonough and co-worker Ted Durrant are all members of the Business Week Committee.  Business people, members of the media and representatives of various agencies also serve on the committee.

“Informal polling is done each year to find out what topics are of current interest,” says Alderson.  All seminars are kept timely and current, to ensure useful and interesting information can be obtained by the participants.

At the end of each workshop, evaluation forms are filled out for the organizers to get feedback.  Like most of the seminars, one of last year’s workshops received 80 to 100 per cent satisfaction on multiple aspects of the workshop.  When asked what participants disliked about the workshop, 88 per cent said “nothing”.

Workshops are offered to participants for $20 per workshop.  The price drops to $15 per workshop if participants register for four or more seminars.  The reduced prices for four tickets are very flexible; one person can attend four different workshops, or an employer could send four employees to one workshop.

Workshops for organizations are also held.  “We try to include one workshop during the week that would be of interest to the managers of non-profit organizations.  These managers have many concerns similar to business owners, so we try to present topics of concern to both,” says Alderson.  As a result, a strong contingent of managers from non-profits and charities attend the business week activities.

Although activities during business week are advertised by radio, newspaper, magazine and flyers, they’ve grown popular mostly by word of mouth.  Because of its increased success and popularity over the years, the locations in which the Sarnia-Lambton Business Week activities have been offered has been expanded to make it easier for rural participants to attend.  The organizing committee has presented workshops in Forest over the past three years, and last year added Petrolia to its roster.

“We are proud of the reputation Sarnia-Lambton Business Week has established,” says Alderson.  “Now we have people looking forward to it, and asking us in advance for the list of speakers and topics.”