Donna Messer had a group of about 200 people gathered in London
yesterday believing that the answers to almost anything anyone
would ever want were in the room with them.
Messer was the keynote speaker at a forum on networking sponsored
by the London and District Labour Council (LDLC) and the Elgin
Middlesex Oxford Local Training Board (EMOLTB)
The meeting brought together community organizations with groups
offering job services and training.
"I'm going to introduce you to 10,000 people I know,"
Messer, who runs ConnectUs Communications in Oakville, said
in her address. "Am I a wealth of knowledge? I'm a wealth
of who I know."
One of the exercises Messer used to show how easy and effective
networking could be was to have people find points they had
in common with the person seated next to them.
When she went around the room, Messer found people who had
immigrant parents, lived common-law, had degrees from the same
university or did volunteer work.
"If you're listening, you'll find you have common interests
that have nothing to do with your business," she said.
"What you're doing is you're building relationships and
those relationships build business opportunities."
The seminar also had a serious side, however. Organizers wanted
to make people aware of the services which various community
organizations offered and the avenues for funding open to them.
"We had a report done last year that looked at the services
provided in the area, particularly to the unionized workforce."
said Sandi Ellis, national representative for the Canadian Labour
Congress in London.
"That survey identified gaps, it identified needs, particularly
in literacy and numeric skills. This forum is part of the effort
to fill those gaps."
The crowd at the forum included representatives from training
organizations, the United Way, local unions and adult education.
Ellis said the forum was designed to provide an understanding
of how people could satisfy their needs through other organizations
- needs which some were not even aware of.
"I wasn't aware that the CLC had identified that,"
Francis Shamley, a community development worker with the Government
Access Information Network (GAIN) in Strathroy, said of the
findings on literacy in the CLC report.
GAIN links services and programs with the people looking for
them.
"Now that I know that, I'll make sure they get listings
of problems in the area," Shamley said.
"That's probably the most important thing we can do."
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