Canada's 20th Prime Minister joins an impressive list of speakers for a leadership conference scheduled for September 27 in Kelowna.
We sat down with the main driving force behind the Level Up Executive Leadership Conference, Jim Csek, about landing Jean Chrétien, and what the leadership conference is all about. Just to be clear, this is Kent Molgat interviewing Jim Csek, the man who hired him to work at KelownaNow.
Jean Chrétien was first elected to the House of Commons in 1963 and served as Prime Minister from 1993 to 2003. The KelownaNow/Csek Creative event will also feature former Prime Minister Stephen Harper who served as PM for just shy of a decade from 2006 to 2015. The two former Prime Ministers are joined by a powerhouse list of speakers including former SUCCESS Magazine publisher, best Selling author, and motivational speaker Darren Hardy. Also addressing the conference will be Webnames.ca Co-Founder Cybele Negris, NBA player-turned-motivational speaker Walter Bond, Restaurateur and Top Chef Canada judge Janet Zuccarini, Dragon's Den Dragon and local business guru Lane Merrifield and more.
When first contacted by the event's organizers Chrétien's agent declined, but Csek refused to accept 'no' for an answer. "We respectfully decline your 'no'" Csek recalled writing in his letter, "and here's the reasons we would like you to attend." Ten days later, he agreed to come. "For us it's amazing," said Csek. "Jean Chrétien is probably one of the great Canadians. If you had to pick a person to represent Canada, I think Chrétien would be at the top of most peoples' lists."
Csek believes that leadership is the single most important element in business. "Leadership, lots of times is the reason for success or the reason for failure." It was with that in mind that he and his team at KelownaNow and Csek Creative started brainstorming a list of the most influential voices to recruit for the event. Darren Hardy was near the top of the list.
"He is probably one of the biggest success mentors out there," said Csek. "Most people are going to take stuff away from what he has to say and start using it the next day."
Level Up will be an intense, day-long event with Eight speakers taking to the stage. It is probably the most ambitious business leadership event ever hosted in Western Canada.
For more information on Level Up check out the webpage.
