A lifelong resident of Waterloo Region, Karen Redman is currently a member of Regional Council for Kitchener and was the Chief Executive Officer for Habitat for Humanity Waterloo Region. Over the past 20+ years, Redman has served as a municipal and regional councillor and as the Member of Parliament for Kitchener Centre.

You can find more out about her campaign at https://karen-redman.com

In this discussion we talk things such as:

-Her journey into political life

-What she would like to bring to Waterloo Region if elected as regional chair

-The worst political advice she ever got

-Funniest campaign stories

-Anecdotes about Jean Chretien and others from her time working on Parliament Hill

-Transitioning from federal to municipal politics

Enjoy!

Dr. Terry Rock, CEO of Calgary Technologies joins the podcast this week - his bio:

Dr. Terry Rock is working to bring innovation to the core of the Calgary and Alberta economies. He is a passionate promoter of Calgary’s potential and has an extensive entrepreneurial and strategic leadership background.

Terry’s previous experience has covered a wide variety of contexts and industries including Principal of Rock Strategy & Leadership, Executive Director of the Alberta Small Brewers Association, and Strategic Advisor to Alberta Music Cities. He was also the founding CEO of Calgary Arts Development Authority. Terry brings diverse experience in consulting for high-potential technology ventures, government relations, marketing and sector development, all critical to CTI in its work to establish Calgary as a global innovation hub.

Terry currently works with many Calgary-based boards including the TELUS Calgary Community Board, the Sled Island Music & Arts Festival Board, and the board for Hillhurst United Church. He has previously sat on the founding board of cSPACE Projects, and was the Chair of the AIESEC Canada Inc. board where he had been their President.

Terry holds a PhD in Management with a focus on Strategic Management, Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Texas Tech University, and a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing (with Distinction) from the University of Saskatchewan.

Berry Vrbanovic, Mayor of Kitchener and I had a wonderful discussion in his office on a number of topics. We spoke about how he looks at how data can be used to build better services for citizens, and what needs to be taken into consideration to impact all constituents. We also spoke about the Digital Kitchener strategy and how he tells the KW story worldwide. We then conclude with some personal questions about life in the Mayor's chair.

My wonderful friend and colleague Tracy Collins joins an end of year podcast. We both ventured into meditation and mindfulness in 2017 and chat about our respective experiences in that space. Tracy also is a remote working evangelist and she talks around the decisions to consider and best practices when looking at working remotely.

Tracy is CEO of Carizon, a major non-profit organization in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada joins The Global Shuffle and we discuss:

-Her journey from her corporate career at Deloitte into the non-profit sector

-The decision for her family to take a year off from regular life and travel around the world to each continent

-Why she decided to join Carizon, and what excites her about the organization

-The unique role non-profit CEOs play today in 2017

About Carizon:

Carizon is a source of hope for our community. When children, youth, adults, couples or families face life’s challenges, Carizon programs and services provide the care and compassion to help them achieve wellness.

Carizon specializes in children’s mental health, youth engagement and development, family violence, individual and family counselling, credit counselling, settlement supports and collective wellness.

With a head office located in the heart of the City of Kitchener, Carizon provides a full spectrum of services in more than 70 locations throughout the Region.

To find out more check out www.carizon.ca

On this week's episode I was privileged to interview Stephen Hurley, the founder of VoicEd radio. We chatted about his journey into education initially as a teacher, and how after retiring he today looks to be an educator, conversationalist and connector within the education space.

Stephen has a great perspective on learning, on bringing different voices together and on where education needs to go.

Stephen's bio:

In elementary school, I was often cited for daydreaming in class. I like to think that it was time well-spent as it allowed me to develop what I have come to know as one of my most important assets: IMAGINATION.

After 30 years of teaching in Ontario's public school system, I'm still very committed to being involved in those conversations and initiatives that will help us to imagine more creative and innovative ways of thinking about education—ways that extend well beyond the bricks and mortar of the traditional schoolhouse.

In particular, I'm always looking for ways to collaborate on initiatives that push the boundaries to ensure that all young (and not-so-young) people have access to the engaging, powerful educational experiences! In the process, I'm honing my skills in facilitation approaches that change the way we talk with each other, and the way that we think about our work together. Appreciative Inquiry, Polarity Thinking and Integral Strategy Mapping are just a few of the powerful models of thinking that are inspiring my work and my life.

If you're doing work (or thinking of doing work) that involves expanding the borders of this place we call school, I would love to connect with you.

From one adventurer to another...

_____________

You can check VoicEd out at www.voiced.ca

Mary joins The Global Shuffle Podcast from Washington, DC. We connected through the Smartly MBA program, which we are both taking concurrently. In the podcast we spoke about what she learned growing up in a military family, what it takes for veterans to transition to entrepreneurship and the biggest technological trends she's seeing in the Northeast of the USA (such as her first autonomous driving experience).

Mary has been recognized as a 2018 Forbes '30 Under 30' Social Entrepreneurship and 2017 DC Inno 'Blazer' recipient.

Shum is the VP Marketing & Communications of the YMCAs of Cambridge & Kitchener Waterloo here in Canada. He was previously one of the first employees at Axonify, building up the digital marketing function at the company and helping to build the strong company culture. He's also super involved in making the Kitchener-Waterloo community a great place to live.

In our discussion we speak about his journey to where he is today, his views on community building, how he believes in building company culture and how he got into teaching. We then close with some trivia from The Office TV show (as Shum is a diehard fan).

Christine is the CEO of e180, which turns events, organisations and communities into peer-learning hubs through braindates: one-on-one & face-to-face knowledge-sharing conversations. Before creating e180, Christine graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education as a Knox Fellow, focusing on informal learning, and worked was a Podcast producer for New York-based Learning Matters.

Christine was recognized in 2016 by Startup Canada as the Female Entrepreneur of the Year (Quebec). She is a contributing author to the book Knowmads Society and has shared her groundbreaking work on collaborative learning as a speaker in conferences such as SXSW & SXSWedu, Morgan Stanley Women Leadership Summit, C2 Montreal, re:publica, Tech Open Air.

She is an advisor for multiple emerging tech or social enterprises, and co-founded the Montreal Chapter of Technovation Challenge, which guide young girls through the creation of their first mobile app, addressing a challenge in their community. She also calls herself a triathlete even though frankly, she can't run for her life.

Joost Van De Loo joins The Global Shuffle to detail how he spends over 16 hours per week on lifelong learning. We then debrief a recent survey that I sent out to 120 people on their approaches on lifelong learning and discuss what items we each want to take forward from that.

To see the full results of the survey go to:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-surveyed-120-people-approaches-lifelong-learning-heres-vollebregt