Aboriginal Business Day Event Brings one of a kind Talent to Thunder Bay
by Scott A. Sumner
It was an exciting atmosphere at the Victoria Inn in Thunder Bay at a day long conference held as part of Small Business week. There were some very interesting speakers on hand including Wab Kinew from Winnipeg.
Wab Kinew is the owner of Indie Ends Production that does live event production, video production and develops mobile apps. He is also the Director of Indigenous Inclusion for the University of Winnipeg and is based in Winnipeg. Wab was born in Kenora and raised near Nestor Falls. He has a BA in economics from the University of Manitoba.
“ I will be speaking about the ways the aboriginal community are connecting with the main stream economy in Canada. If you look around Canada from coast to coast to coast there are a lot of exciting things happening with new relationships. We want prosperity and are becoming active partners in developing natural resource projects, band owned business or First Nations entrepreneurs working for themselves,” said Wab Kinew. “ The rate of business ownership in the Aboriginal community is growing three times faster than the rest of Canada. I want to talk about that new relationship and some people that are pulling it off in a good way. I like to approach things with an entrepreneurial spirit looking for opportunity and ways to take things to market.”
Wab works all the time pretty much with some time for his family and his time at the gym. “ I like being able to do deals on my I Phone and laptop. It is super helpful, the technology of today. You still have to work hard and put in lots of hours every week but for myself I don’t look at it like work,” said Wab. “ Today is about celebrating some of the successes so people can see it is happening and people are doing it so we can do it too. I think often times we don’t take a second to reflect on the big picture and so I hope what I talk about will give people the chance to reflect and consider the bigger picture or strategy in their lives.”
