CAREER DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM

In order to provide the best and most diverse experience,  accommodating those who are keen to do in-person networking, while respecting those in remote locations, our conference is run in the following format;

• Career Development Symposium - April 19, 2024 - SFU Harbor Centre

The conference will start with a one-day long Career Development Symposium on April 19, 2024. You can join this event either in person or you can choose to watch the sessions online, as we are going to be streaming the event. 

• Career Development Webinar Collection

The symposium is going to be followed by a series of webinars that will run for several weeks every Tuesday and Thursday, from April 23rd to June 4th, all starting at 11 am PT. 

You can build your participation experience in any way that fits your schedule, budget, and your interests. 

Tim Tamashiro is an author, keynote speaker, entertainer and former national radio host. He is the author of the Amazon Best Selling book How To Ikigai.

For a decade Tim was host of Tonic on CBC Radio 2. His role as Canada’s nightly jazz companion was one of his most cherished experiences of his lifetime. He departed from CBC to study positive psychology, wellbeing and Ikigai (life’s worth).

Ikigai is an ancient philosophy from Okinawa, Japan. It encourages all people to live your "life's worth". Best of all, Ikigai is a map with four directions to follow: 1. Do what you love 2. Do what you're good at 3. Do what the world needs 4. Do what you can be rewarded for

Tim has learned that his own Ikigai is “to delight”. He shares his Ikigai every chance he gets whether he's giving a speech, singing a song, telling a story or sharing a smile

Dr. Tanya Behrisch manages a team of 14 professionals in Applied Sciences Co-operative Education at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada, facilitating 2000+ Co-op industry placements/year. Tanya has practiced oil painting for 35 years. She writes creatively for The Medium and her oil paintings are held in collections worldwide. 

She recently won the Dean’s Convocation Medal for her doctoral thesis, titled “Making friends with strangeness: practices of mastery within an ontology of abundance.” Tanya's research focused on how mastery relates to strangeness—that is, anything we encounter as threatening or uncertain. She found that artistic mastery, which depends on surrendering to unknowns, offers modern humans a humble respectful way to encounter strangeness than reaching to control. 

Natalia Bussard is the manager of 9 professionals in Science, Environment and Health Science Co-operative Education at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada, facilitating close to 1000+ Co-op industry placements a year. She has over 15 years of leadership experience in education, training, talent management, career, and program development. She’s also a plurilingual and speaks 6 languages. Understanding others and communicating with people meaningfully is what drives her every day.

Throughout her career, Natalia has helped build effective international partnerships around the world and locally. She has a passion for helping others grow and creating workplace cultures where everyone strives. Natalia’s research focuses on lifelong learning and transformative learning. Specifically, she examines the role of multiple languages in our lives and in what ways might practicing plurilingualism lead to transformative experiences and expanded worldviews of individuals. 

Jay Kiew is a change navigation strategist and world-renowned keynote speaker with more than 13 years of strategy and human capital experience. He has created more than $2B of impact for 400+ executives by designing, developing, and delivering organizational transformation, but his story extends far beyond the professional arena.

Kiew is a half-blind cancer survivor, whose life is a testament to resilience in the face of adversity. His remarkable blend of professional expertise and personal resilience equips leaders to hack through the thick of change and disruption.

Jay spent his corporate career working at Deloitte, TELUS, and ADP, where he led mission-critical strategic transformations. This included a $150-million primary care health policy reform, $13-million tech transformations, doubling app users from 1 to 2 million, and scaling 15 product lines to $35 million in 12 months.

At the age of 19, Jay became the world’s youngest Distinguished Toastmaster. He has since been featured in the Financial Times, Globe and Mail, Financial Post, Ivey Business Journal, Change Leadership, and more. He also sits on the Project Management Institute’s Board of Directors for the Canadian West Coast Chapter.

Jay holds an MBA from the Ivey Business School and is a Prosci-certified PMP and Insights psychometric practitioner.

Dr. Peter Arthur, Ph.D., is a globally recognized educational speaker with a far-reaching impact. In 2023, he was awarded the prestigious Killam Teaching Prize, recognizing his compassionate leadership and significant contributions.  Dr. Arthur's scholarly focus centers on fostering growth mindsets and self-regulation for achieving success. His influence continues as a professor of teaching, mentoring the next generation of educators and scholars.