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Semi-Annual Summit Hosted by BBI in Halifax in June
March 6, 2007
By Carol Dobson
Literally speaking, a pebble was thrown into the pond that is the Nova Scotia business community ten years ago when the Black Business Initiative opened its doors. Today, the ripples caused by throwing that pebble have spread to every corner of the province and beyond.
Go into a major coffee chain and order a coffee - the amount of cream in that coffee is more than likely uniformly dispensed from a Nova Scotian-made machine invented by entrepreneur Mike Duck. Drive down a road in the HRM, the markings may have been painted there by one of Glenn Carvery's crew. Drop one of Bin Doctor Robert Loppie's bin liners into the green bin to make recycling less messy. Or, somewhere on the other side of the world, a person learns that they are not HIV positive within minutes, thanks to technology developed by Dr. Abi Kirumira. These are just a few of the Black entrepreneurs and visionaries working in this province today.
The ripples caused by the BBI come from its initial vision statement "to foster a dynamic and vibrant Black presence within the Nova Scotia Business Community". That vibrance was present at the semi-annual Black Business Summit the BBI held in Halifax in June.
"It was very effective on two fronts as represented by our two keynote speakers," Rustum Southwell, the BBI's Chief Executive Officer, says. "On one front, we had Coach Carter who was able to cross between enterpreneurship and education and on the other, we had Howard Shearer, of Hitachi, who is the head of the Canadian branch of a multi-national company."
In addition to promoting Black entrepreneurship through a variety of communications tools - the "Black to Business" periodical, the BBI website, an annual directory, and a series of advertisements on Global Television, the BBI has also reached out to organizations like the African Nova Scotia Music Association and created an investment tool, a Community Economic Development Investment Fund. The RBC Financial Group has come on board as a major sponsor of the BBI's programme for young entrepreneurs, "Business is Jammin'" for a three year period.
"You have to look at the young business owners that are coming along, people like DarLa Johnson of SLIC Laser Hair Removal Clinic and Saundra Vernon of Ruby's Sugar Shack," Southwell says. "They're doing very well."
Recently, Southwell says he looked back at the goals of the Ad Hoc Committee that recommended the formation of the BBI a decade ago and was pleased to realise that, of the list of goals and objectives the committee laid out, the BBI had only missed out on one or two minor ones.
"The longer we're doing this, the more we're convinced that we've been following the proper strategy from the beginning. We're creating ripples and having an impact."
