This week I was fortunate enough to attend two awesome events: CREATE and Tourism Vancouver Island (TVI)’s Pro-D Days. Both were awesome events and fantastic learning experiences.
CREATE is a celebration of student research on campus, it was a chance for us all to share the hard work we have been doing and see what students from other programs were up to. I was very inspired seeing all the work people put into their research and the range of topics that were presented. It is so easy to become tied up in our immediate faculty that we forget about all the other amazing stuff going on. I think this is an important thing to keep in mind for all leaders. We must understand to not just look in our own field but across all fields to become the best at what we do. This comes back to what Geoff Godbey told us earlier in the semester — read everything, and be a life long learner. I think this also ties into innovation. How can we create the best, new and fantastic ideas if we do not have the capacity or scope to look beyond what is right in front of us? Innovation stems from exploring many outlets of information and developing a wide world view!
The very next day I made the journey to Tofino to attend the TVI’s Pro-D Days. This was an amazing event filled with industry leaders, this high level professionals from North to Central Island, ranging from hotel owners, professors, students, consultants, accounts to the CEO of Tourism Vancouver Island. The various speakers presented on topics such as Delivering the WOW, marketing with EQ, media relations, and the connection between tourism and population in rural communities. All speakers presented ideas on leading organization that was inspiring and exciting to hear as a young professional. Whether it be implementing the EQ (Explorer Quotient) into marketing strategies as Tourism Tofino has, or describing work environments that are truly empowering to their employees, we saw proof of what a successful leader of an organization looks like.
One example that was presented was West Jet, this is a company who is customer focused. Not just the external customer, but the internal they have created a work environment that inspires its staff to come to work and because of that is able to exceed customer expectations time and time again.
Although these events pulled me away from the experience, I was able to connect them to the topics we have been discussing in class and offer what I believe to be a pretty fantastic substitution!
Taya McAstocker 