By Lara Fominoff @LaraFominoff on Twitter

Kijiji founder keynote speaker at Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce’s Opportunity South Summit

Oct 3, 2018 | 1:12 PM

LETHBRIDGE – ‘Southern Alberta Strong’ is this year’s theme for the third annual Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce’s Opportunity South two -day summit.

It’s a way for more than 200 local business owners and other attendees to cultivate more connections, and to learn and gather insight to help their businesses grow.

This year’s key note speaker is Kijiji founder Janet Bannister. The Canadian online classifieds giant, that started in 2005. Bannister says her speech focuses on three main topics.

“I’m going to talk a little bit about my journey and some of the things that I have learned along the way, particularly around three themes… basically taking initiative for your future, owning your future, owning your destiny and making your dreams come true.”

The second theme touches on believing in and pursuing dreams even if others discourage it, while the third theme relates to building people skills and relationships.

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Bannister says the online world is drastically changing lives, and businesses who traditionally use newspaper classifieds need to think more about how they can benefit and prosper in an online economy.

“Yes, on the one hand they may lose some local customers because those people are buying on Amazon or elsewhere. But on the flip-side, they can leverage technology to access a global customer base. Whether it’s…maybe they should open a Shopify store and figuring out how they can sell across Canada or in other countries. And so, my advice is…. the world is all about rapid change and always learning…and we all need to be embracing that.”

Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Karla Pyrch says Bannister is engaging and they’re very excited to host her.

“Last year we had Stephen Harper, so to build our summit, we just think there’s so much opportunity in southern Alberta, so if we have the chance to highlight that through high profile speakers and bring attention to our city and our region, the Chamber is always happy to do that.”

Other speakers include Robert Palmer, WestJet’s Manager of Public Affairs; Kelly J. Lendsay, one of Canada’s innovators of Indigenous workplace inclusion, diversity, and corporate engagements; and Sandra Huculak, ATB Financial’s Managing Director of Corporate Social Responsibility.

The event will also feature several ‘break-out’ sessions for participants on a variety of topics.