Remarks by
The Honourable Anita Neville, P.C., O.M.
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba
NATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOL CONFERENCE
Winnipeg Art Gallery
Thursday, November 16, 2023, 7:15 p.m.
(please check delivery)
Leaders, visionaries, students of business and of life, welcome to Winnipeg and to The National Business School Conference.
As Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, it is my pleasure to join you this evening in our wonderful Winnipeg Art Gallery – home of Quamajug (KOW-ma-yourk) – the world’s largest contemporary Inuit art gallery.
We are gathered in the heart of Treaty One land and the homeland of the Red River Metis.
This beautiful and diverse province is the ancestral and present-day home of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Dakota, Dene, Inuit and Metis peoples.
As we work for healing, inclusion and reconciliation in Manitoba and across Canada, a commitment to learning and intercultural understanding is essential.
And in that endeavour, we will need innovative, creative and highly skilled thinkers and problem solvers. We’ll need people who can make our businesses and our public-sector organizations more effective and better able to fulfill their missions. We will need strong leaders. We will need you.
As a delegate of this conference, you are already an executive of your respective Business Student Associations. You have shown that you have that spark, that drive to make a difference.
But as talented and hard-working as I am sure you all are, you will be at your very best in the workplace, and in your community, through building and nourishing partnerships and relationships with others.
The theme for this conference – Connect – is a reminder that none of us accomplishes all of our goals alone. We need to connect with others, to build teams, to find mentors and allies.
The great British novelist E.M. Forster summed up his approach to literature and life with the word “connect.”
“Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted.”
Where Forster says “prose” think of the specialized skills and knowledge you’re developing – in finance or accounting, marketing or human resources, information systems or operations.
Connect your skills and knowledge to your passion – a passion for learning, a passion for building, a passion for a better world for all.
Connect – and you’ll have a career that will provide you with a life of learning, new experiences and profound satisfactions.
Congratulations to all who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this conference possible.
I hope the next three days are productive, and fulfilling, and that you make many meaningful connections to last a lifetime.
Thank you , Merci, Meegwich and Shalom
