KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Dennis Agbegha, Senior Commercial Manager of BDC

SUCCESS STORY: Artur Dieiev, Marketing Specialist

On February 29th, 2024, during the networking event, our keynote speaker Dennis Agbegha shared valuable insights on leveraging the resources surrounding us, especially within our community. The better you are at surrounding yourself with people of high potential, the greater your chance for success. Dennis emphasized the importance of turning these resources into our own network, as the community is your network. Networks and communities can be incredibly beneficial for skill development, but they require active involvement and contribution, which I couldn’t agree more with. Networking is more about farming than it is about hunting. If you do so, you're well on your way to success.

We also had Artur Dieiev, a valued client from CCIS, share his success story. With years of experience in digital marketing and having visited 39 countries, Artur brings a global perspective to his work. He discussed the HADI process he uses to land opportunities in Canada and encouraged attendees to create your own network event if you are not filling comfortable to attend social event.

Artur's story also underscores the positive impact of CCIS in helping individuals reach their goals.

We had a fantastic morning at the Networking for Success breakfast hosted by our Business, Employment, and Training Services at the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society! This time, the spotlight was on pathways navigation in the age of AI, and the insights shared were truly eye-opening. 

We were privileged to have two incredible guest speakers grace the event: 

Lise Stransky enlightened us on the Role of Artificial Intelligence in Job Search and Talent Recruitment. Her expertise shed light on the transformative impact of AI in today's job market, leaving us with valuable takeaways. 

Sara Struthers took the stage to present the Digital Platform Hub, a cutting-edge initiative from the SAIT Continuing Education team. Exploring new dimensions in team development, she showcased the future of digital platforms and their role in shaping skill sets for success. 

The audience was not just a passive crowd but actively engaged in the discussions sparked by these thought-provoking presentations! It was inspiring to witness the exchange of ideas and the collective enthusiasm towards embracing the evolving landscape of technology. 

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:  David Fletcher, Talent Acquisition Consultant with the City of Calgary.

SUCCESS STORY: Jane Ahanonu, Associate Consultant with IBM.

On November 30, 2023,  during the Networking event, the keynote speaker David will unveil the secrets to professional success through personal branding, ensuring that participants are well-equipped to enhance their personal brand and excel in today's competitive business landscape.

In addition, our valued client Jane shared her career journey which was highly motivating and inspirational! She talked about how the programs and the community in Calgary including CCIS programs assisted her to gain employment and what is her own stratregy to land opportunities. 

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: David Yang, Branch Manager of BMO Bank.

SUCCESS STORY: Oleg Kostyuchok, Finance Leader at Amplify Advisors.

On Oct 26, 2023. During the networking event, our keynote speaker David Yang has shared valuable insights on how to get your foot at the door of any industry and how to transit from one field to the other. He also unveiled the secrets to creating lasting, authentic connections and will inspire you to craft your own success story through the power of networking!

We also have Oleg Kostyuchok, a valued CCIS client, immigrated to Canada in November 2022. When he first arrived in Canada, he was a CEO back in his country in the field of finance. He shared his success story on how to overcome the gap and strategies tips to land an opportunity through networking. Oleg’s inspiring journey is a shining example of resilience and perseverance. his story also highlights the positive impact of CCIS in helping individuals reach their goals!

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Jerry Caingcoy, Founder, and president of The Filipino champions of Canada (TFCC), Director of the Calgary Region Immigrant Economic Council (CRIEC), Financial leader at City of Calgary.

SUCCESS STORY: Nikhil Biware, Fuel Inventory Manager at Centex Petroleum.

On September 28, 2023. During the networking event, our keynote speaker Jerry Caingcoy has shared valuable insights on how to transform your networking approach, going beyond the basics. He also unveiled the secrets to creating lasting, authentic connections and will inspire you to craft your own success story through the power of networking!

We also have Nikhil Biware, a valued CCIS client, immigrated to Canada in 2018 and settled in Calgary in 2020. When he first arrived in Canada, he was a stay-at-home dad. Today, he is an Inventory Manager at Centex. Nikhil has shared his inspiring journey and for being a shining example of resilience and perseverance. Nikhil's story also highlights the positive impact of CCIS in helping individuals reach their goals.

EYNOTE SPEAKER:  Katherine Lesperance, Founder & Executive Officer at Sensible Marketer Inc.

SUCCESS STORY: Babajide Aiyepe, Creative Strategist, Deskside Support Technician at Kyndryl

On November 30, 2022,  During the Networking event, the keynote speaker Katherine Lesperance shared insightful information on how to plan and level up networking skills and self-marketing strategies. Katherine also shared resources and focused on what employers chose candidates to join their workforce in Canada.

In addition, our client’s journey Babajide Aiyepe was highly motivating and inspirational, Babajide spoke about how the programs and the community in Calgary including CCIS programs assisted him to gain employment, Babajide also mentioned that he transferred his skills into the tech industry.

EYNOTE SPEAKER:  Panos Kantzilieris, Business Development Manager at MACINK Consulting & Founder member of Sales Institute of Greece

SUCCESS STORY: Ciza Zoya, Creative Strategist, Project Coordinator at Alberta Network of Immigrant Women 

According to Harvard business review when managers and employees become leaders, three distinct but interdependent forms of networking—operational, personal, and strategic—plays a vital role in their transition. Creating a fabric of personal contacts who will provide support, feedback, insight, resources, and information—is simultaneously one of the most self-evident and one of the most dreaded developmental challenges that aspiring leaders. 

On October 31, 2022, during the Networking event, the keynote speaker Panos Kantzilieris, focused on addressing how to professionals can recognize their leadership skills to evolve through change. immigrant professionals in Canada can focus on their leadership skills to overcome drastic economic and personal changes. Panos delivered strategic methods of how one can recognize their leadership skills and utilize it at workplace.

In addition, our client’s journey Ciza Zoya was motivating, Zoya shared her journey and success on how CCIS programs such as Networking for Success and Career Bridging Workshop Program guided her, also platforms like LinkedIn were highly beneficial and landed her the position she is in, she also shared on how volunteering helped her to meet new people and gain industry information, she gained more confidence and advised the audience to never give up. 

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Shivi Agarwal, Customer Success Manager at Kudos, Author of Landed & Founder at The Startup Impact

SUCCESS STORY: Lyndin D’Penha, Senior Customer Experience Associate at Scotia Bank 

Newcomer professionals must learn Canadian workplace culture, it will help them to have more chances to secure employment in their field faster. 

On September 29, 2022, during the Networking event, the keynote speaker Shivi Agarwal, focused on addressing how to strategically strengthen networking skills, such as how to build, connect and maintain relationships. she also emphasized why and who you know is highly important to advance a career in Canada. Additionally, she described Canadian workplace culture's dos and don’ts. 

In addition, our client’s journey Lyndin D’Penha was inspiring, Lyndin shared his journey and success on how CCIS programs such as Networking for Success and Mentorship for Integration assisted him to boost his confidence and necessary knowledge to gain employment in his professional field. Lyndin shared and advised immigrant professionals to network and build relationships, but also seek mentorship in their field, the journey was motivational and inspiring.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:  Joseph Macdonald, Training Consultant, at SAIT

SUCCESS STORY:  Nasratullah Andar, Network IT Analyst at Kaizen Auto Group

On June 14, 2022, during the Networking event, the keynote speaker focused on addressing how to reinvent yourself as a new immigrant professional in Canada. Envisioning your future self starts with thinking of someone different and focusing on a clear goal, also the proposal of leaving your home country and creating a new identity to enter the road to success. If you can get over your fear of career change, there are massive opportunities to transfer your existing skills and aim at learning new skills. 

Our keynote speaker Joseph Macdonald from SAIT, during the event, focused on the journey of how to reinvent yourself by sharing his professional journey especially when Canada has enormous support via programs such as Networking for Success and Mentorship for integration. 

In addition, our client’s journey Nasratullah Andar who recently moved to Canada from Afghanistan was motivational and inspiring.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:  Osaki Edunro, Integrated Marketing Manager, at Enverus

SUCCESS STORY: Uche U, Business Analyst at Eligeo

On May 26, 2022, during Networking event, the speakers focused on addressing the importance of mainting relationship among your existing connections. Career development, in its simplest terms, is the evolution of you career. It's influenced by several things that include the jobs you hold, the experiences you gain in and out of your workplace, the growth and success you achieve at each stage of your career, the formal and informal education and training you receive, and the feedback you're provided with along the way.

Ideally, organizations would place more emphasis on employee development in the workplace. However, in this era you take control of your career. Hence the importance of networking for career development, as you network, you'll uncover opportunities to connect with different types of mentors and advisors, increase your visibility, further develop your areas of expertise, and improve your soft skills.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Jey Kumar, Becht Eng, Technical Advisor, Oil and Gas Professional

SUCCESS STORY: Srikar Samudrala, Technical Support Representative, Intertek 

On April 21, 2022 Networking event, the speakers focused on the importance of Self marketing strategy as area of growth for professionals in the current Calgary labour market. In the recent years there has been a shift in industry demands to attract ideal employers you must showcase your skills and experiences and brand yourself as a professional that enables you to make a strategic shift career and opens doors for opportunity to effectively communicate their skills, values, and vision to potential employers.

Our keynote speaker for event, Jey Kumar oil and Gas technical advisor shared with us insights on how to market yourself as professional in Canada that can result in in better economy and employment growth rate among international talent.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER- Pablo Silva - AVMAX Human Resources Advisor

Diversity and Inclusion are key to healthy businesses. The value diversity adds to business strategy and the shared responsibility between the employee and the employer gives a competitive edge to the organization. Diverse organizations are more successful at recruiting and retaining talent and inclusive workplaces maximize talent and productivity.

Pablo Silva, our keynote speaker at the event was able to explain the hidden value of diversity and inclusion in detail. Mr. Silva, an enthusiastic Human Resources Advisor, shared with us his vast knowledge with strategic experience creating, developing and implementing programs and processes in Recruitment, Diversity and Inclusion, etc. He discussed the importance of establishing strong and trusting relationships with leaders and employees and how this can make a difference in organizations to help leaders and employees reach their potential.

With this insightful presentation, clients developed a new perspective regarding how diversity and inclusion can be advantageous and a positive change for a healthier organization with increased productivity.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER- Fernando Valencia - Senior Procurement at Parson Corporation

SUCCESS STORY: Shaista Sheikh

Our celebrated keynote speaker Mr. Fernando Valencia spoke and enlightened us about the ways to move forward skillfully to find success in our careers. The topic being “Adaptability: A permanent key to success”, the importance of adapting into the new work culture with skills par excellence was highlighted. There are many ways one can start a career in a new country, but one must be ready to adapt and move around according to the needs of the market.

Mr. Valencia also spoke about the hard and soft skills required to succeed in our careers. The clients were happy to take back a key learning that will always come handy in life.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Anup Srivastava, Canada Research Chair at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary

SUCCESS STORY: Amal Attallah

With AI, robotics and automation taking over the tech industry, job polarization has become a real threat. Our scholarly keynote speaker, Mr. Anup Srivastava, who is the Canada Research Chair at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, was able to address the ever-changing dynamics and how one can successfully maneuver through this obvious situation in their career and stay relevant.

The solutions he provided to evade this situation were realistic and proven. One may need to upskill, juniorize and lateralize their work in order to avoid difficult situations with the managerial post later.

Apart from networking, CCIS clients took back learnings that they can apply into their professional lives and save themselves from job polarization.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER- Daniel Monzon - IT Director at Supply Chain Canada

The Economist published an article titled “The world's most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data” in 2017. Since the release of the article there has been a great deal of discussion among the ‘who’s who’ of the economy. Decisions today are dominated by data at all levels. It is said and proven that data in the 21^st century is like oil in the 18^th. We are all living in a digital economy where data is more valuable than ever before.

To give us an insider’s view and to help us understand data better, we invited Daniel Monzon as our keynote speaker. He is the Digital and Customer Experience Director at Supply Chain Canada and is responsible for generating awareness, engaging membership and improving the digital experience through data and online systems. He was able to share with us insightful information about the value data, analytics and systems have in making data-driven decisions to reach a goal and enlightened our clients about how to use their data to manage customer service relations and business operations, to help businesses create an online digital presence, drive employee engagement and profit from their data.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER- Malorie Reimer – SI Senior Recruiter

Multiculturalism unites a diverse set of cultures and ethnic backgrounds within the workplace. People from various socio-ethnic backgrounds or different countries offer many advantages, such as more creativity, greater respect among employees, improved customer service and the promotion of a positive work environment.

For a better understanding of multiculturism, we had Malorie Reimer as our keynote speaker. Malorie is an outstanding and talented recruiter with tremendous experience in the Technology and Business transformation Space, where she has been very successful working with talented candidates and hiring managers at large companies in Calgary. During this event we had the priviledge to learn from topics such as  as Hiring Privileges, Discrimination, and Best Recruitment Practices among many others, and we were thankful to have her sharing her expertise with us.

By the end of the event, our clients were able to understand how their multicultural backgrounds can be a powerful tool to market themselves. They learnt how to pitch this aspect as a positive quality during interviews.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER- Michael Olutola-Support Manager at Reach

The new norms of the modern workforce have been shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. We have long passed those days when the workplace used to be a mere physical space. Today's ever-connected instant access environment has blurred the lines between the physical office and the workplace. As the lines between professional and personal life disappear, and the workplace becomes truly digital, employees are communicating and collaborating in unprecedented ways.

But humans are wired to live in a ‘physical’ world and few of us are waiting to go back to the pre-covid situation. So, what will the world look like post-covid? What role will technology play as workers return to office spaces? What does “New Normal” mean for businesses and Employees? What will future work look like post-pandemic?

To answer these questions, we invited Michael Olutola Obembe to be our keynote speaker for the event. He is a Professional IT Solution Architect/Product Manager with over 10+ years of experience in ICT and Telco space designing innovative technical and business solutions. He was able to summarise for us that the “new normal” workforce is looking for systems and people to be pandemic proof and that it would be a blend of remote and physical working. Our clients understood that they need to add more “pandemic proof” skillsets to their resume as remote work is here to stay and will only increase in the future.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER- Dr. Anup Srivastava, Canada Research Chair for the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary

The way we work has changed quicker than we could imagine. The global health crisis has accelerated this change and now improving the workforce is pretty much a never-ending business. As we evaluate the latest trends, it’s clear that many of them have been shaped by the Millennial and Gen Z generations entering the workforce where we see a common desire among employees for their work to align with their ideals. Given the dramatic change in the workplace over the years, workforce management strategies have had to adapt to meet the needs of these trends.

The quality of your workforce has a direct impact on performance; the better an employee feels, the more likely they are to increase productivity and earn businesses more money. As more and more businesses turn to freelancers and private contractors for specific tasks, employees are requesting more control and flexibility with their schedules.

To break down the nitty-gritty of the new trends, we invited Dr. Anup Srivastava, who is the first Canada Research Chair at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary. He is one of the foremost researchers on the evolution of the knowledge economy and the rapidly changing landscape of business. Beyond scholarly publications in top academic journals, he has published over twenty practitioner-oriented ideas in Harvard Business Review. His work is frequently cited in Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Economist, New York Times, Forbes, and Barrons. He brings to his research a unique lens with over 14 years of corporate experience.

Anup was able to take us through the new trends in the workforce and how our clients can manoeuvre through these ‘remote’ demands for a successful professional career. Our clients now feel more prepared to face the demands of the new workforce trends.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Serge Boudreau – Talent Acquisition Director, Robots and Pencils and Recruitment Podcast Host

SUCCESS STORY: Elijah Oluwapojuwo – Senior Forensic Project Schedule Analyst at Trans Canada.

2020 has changed many rules forever. One of the most profound realities of the pandemic is how recruitment procedures were impacted. Current trends – many accelerated by the pandemic – have changed the rules of recruiting and hiring, requiring organizations and job seekers to adapt and embrace new practices to compete and triumph in the future war for talent.

Most organizations have had to rethink their recruitment strategies to perform well in the virtual environment. The whole idea of recruiting, assessing and hiring someone without meeting them in person is challenging for both hiring managers and candidates.

For candidates, their experience with virtual interviews is going to be a whole lot different from the in-persons. The procedures in place are more streamlined to find the right fit. Companies are now using artificial intelligence recruitment- software such as Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to filter out the 'cream of the crop' candidates using veritable data. The initial phone-screening remains the same, but the in-person interview has moved online. Video interviews, whether live or pre-recorded are the way to go. The change may be uncomfortable at first, but talent acquisition professionals and candidates are up for the task.