October 11, 2018 :: 4pm - 9pm
1002 9 St SW, Calgary, AB T2R 0B5
A Meaningful Night
Enjoy an evening of savoury drinks, delicious food, great company and meaningful discussion at the first annual Women In Power Gala hosted by Ellie Bianca. The Women In Power Gala presents powerful female role models and men who champion women.
We are determined to ignite authentic conversations about the barriers facing women, and the steps required to enhance well being. Exploring and discussing relevant topics impacting women worldwide is all of our responsibility. Let’s close the inequality gap together. We are dedicated to empowering women through business, education and profit sharing.
Proceeds from the Women InPower Gala and our first annual Ellie Bianca Woman Run will go toward the Ellie Bianca Foundation. This foundation administers a scholarship to a single mother pursuing post-secondary education at a Canadian university. Only 28% of single mothers enrolled in university complete their degree – let's change this statistic to create a brighter future for the brilliant minds of tomorrow.
Your Host
Ms. Evelyne Nyairo, Founder of Ellie Bianca
Growing up in Kenya, Evelyne was immersed in a culture of stark gender inequality that conditioned young women to believe that expectation and privilege differed between men and women. Despite this, she developed an admiration for the resilience and grace of the women within her community. Their quiet strength coupled with their beautiful, healthy skin became a foundation of beauty for Evelyne that she knew she wanted to share.
Inspired by her daughter, Eliana, her rich heritage, and her passion for the environment, natural beauty and healthy living, Evelyne set out to help create a world where every woman has the opportunity to embrace and own her strength and beauty inside and out.
Guest Speakers
James Boettcher
Chief Idea Officer & CEO, Fiasco
Meet James - The Custodian of Culture and Chief Idea Officer of one of the fastest-growing private companies in Canada. With humble beginnings of acquiring a failing gelato shop in the midst of a recession with $1800 in his pocket, James’ disruptive vision for doing business differently, honesty in craft, and creative innovation of the Consumer packaged goods space, has charted a course for Fiasco's business model and led to its success.
Being a serial entrepreneur, his career started shovelling walks to help pay the rent, then bagging groceries on his 14th birthday for $5/hr. After a few other endeavours that always had the intention of helping others, James landed on his feet with Fiasco, and drew on his prior knowledge of building brands like Kicking Horse Coffee, to help draw the blueprint. Taking that knowledge and infusing it with lessons in leadership ranging from Nelson Mandela to Richard Branson, his creative and innovative approach to vision and people has led to building something that matters.
A man of passion and enthusiasm, James leaves it better than he found it. Bringing his dream of a “not-only-for-profit” business that not only sells great products but helps make the world a better place is now a reality.
Stephanie Jackman
REAP BeLocal
Stephanie is a champion of social impact who has been building businesses for 20+ years. She helped establish the strategic planning divisions at both Ogilvy Advertising and Venture Communications, and ran her own brand consultancy, called Blueprint Brand Strategies, for 15 years.
A marketer by trade, Stephanie believed that by sharing the stories of progressive organizations she could create demand for better business practices. This led her to create REAP – a business network that stands for Respect for the Earth and All People - and start a movement to green and localize Calgary’s economy. Today REAP’s community of 150 businesses represents $21 billion to Alberta’s economy, 4300 jobs, $15 million in charitable donations, and millions of tonnes of waste and CO2 diverted each year. With a strong team in place to manage REAP, Stephanie now consults on connecting purpose-driven businesses with government and other large buyers in order to scale social and economic impact.
Stephanie’s work in pioneering a more sustainable economy has been recognized by Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40, Calgary Herald’s 20 Compelling Calgarians, Pathways2Sustainability Leader in Commerce, imagineCALGARY’s Partner in Action, and the Calgary Nonprofit Innovation Award. She has a Masters degree in Global Management from Thunderbird, a Bachelor degree in Mass Communications from Carleton University, and a Certificate of Community Economic Development from Simon Fraser University.
Houston Peschl, MBA
Instructor of Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Sustainable Development, Haskayne School of Business
Houston started his entrepreneurial journey in the town of Canmore, Alberta at the age of 13. What has followed are many successful ventures and investments in the start up community. He is now following his passion to develop innovative methods of teaching Entrepreneurial Thinking at the Haskayne School of Business. Currently his research is focused on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, where he has developed an Open Educational Resource to teach Entrepreneurial Thinking at scale, and it is called Failing Forward. This resource includes 18 custom developed experiential exercises, which are the foundation of the flipped classroom experience. Houston believes that through the free Open Educational Resource, more instructors and students can access this resource to train the 7 skills of Entrepreneurial Thinking: Problem Solving, Problem Solving, Creativity with limited available means, Comfortable with uncertainty, Failing forward, Empathy – perspective taking, Responding to feedback, and Team Dynamics and Team Development.
As former Director of Operations and Sustainability of DIRTT Environmental Solutions, Houston mentored under serial entrepreneur Mogens Smed. Houston helped scale operations across North America, developed a comprehensive social and environmental sustainability program to demonstrate the benefits of innovative operational process improvement, cultural change, and green procurement strategies to create a competitive advantage. During this time at DIRTT, he also was recognized as Avenue Magazines Top 40 under 40 in 2013.
After leaving DIRTT, Houston co-founded Creating Eudaimonia; a firm dedicated to building capacity to start ups and small companies across Canada. He led multiple Alberta companies to become B Corp Certified, the most rigorous social enterprise certification globally. He is continually involved with B Corp to promote and advance the public policy for Benefit Corporations across North America.
Houston is a full time Instructor at Haskayne School of Business and created an “Entrepreneurial Thinking” course that is a required course for all 800 business undergrads. Out of this course there has been a dozen students who have started companies, through Houston’s mentorship. He also teaches entrepreneurial concepts at the School of Medicine, and Engineering. Houston also teaching the MBA and Executive MBA students Strategies in Sustainability.
Register Now!
General admission tickets are $89.99 each
Tickets are non refundable. Not including taxes
To register click here
