Fin Tech training

This past week we had a training group from the National Institute of Financial Management in India to learn more about "Fin Tech" developments in Canada. On Friday our team organized an interesting panel discussion with some companies in this relatively new financial sector.

Rotary Rib Fest

This weekend I volunteered my time again with the Markham Sunrise Rotary Club whom I joined in 2015. Their main fundraising event each year is a Rib & Music Fest. This year already the 15th time. A good amount of money is raised (net between $20,000-30,000) during three days. Most of the money this year will go to a local hospital to support a program for long-term sick children. Some of it goes to international development projects. Seneca is one of the corporate sponsors.

The music podium has non-stop bands perform from Friday 5 - 11 PM, Saturday from 11 AM to 11 PM and Sunday from 11 AM to 5 PM. The banner of Seneca clearly indicates its support to this very diverse community and the audience appreciates it a lot. The three days this year were non-stop beautiful weather (in July 2016 we had three days non-stop rain and actually the club lost money on the event organization). The revenues over expenses should be a good amount this time.

The "ribbers" had long line-ups; about 15,000 visitors this year (the photo above was taken early on Saturday before the gates were opened). There are also always a number of fun things for the kids to do so it is really a family event each time. My volunteer job has been the past two years to be at the gate and charge the visitors a $2 entrance fee. Here is the crew waiting early Saturday...

But even the "service above self" volunteer needs his breaks and I tried to stay with a healthy soup and salad or sandwich these three days. Just today I took a rib rack. Done for this time. The folks in Markham enjoyed the event again. Well done Markham Sunrise Rotary Club & volunteers!!

FIFA World Cup 2018

The past few weeks have been of course complete world cup madness again (once every four years). Today was the last game of the "round of 16" and Colombia competed with England. Both teams did their best; England got ahead and then Colombia equalized in the last few minutes of the game....

The yellow and blue shirts are Colombia fans at Seneca (just a few of them). Equal amount of fans for the English team, but the Colombians were louder. Then there was extra time and eventually the dreaded penalty shots to decide the game. Colombia started out well....

...but in the end it was England scoring more penalties and goes through to the quarter finals....

Canada Day 2018

Mark (on the left) celebrating Canada with a few friends in a cottage. His sister Hilary (also on the left) celebrated with friends in Santa Marta on the coast in Colombia. And their parents just quietly stayed home watching FIFA World Cup games while outside it was a few days of heatwaves....

Training groups from India

This summer we are hosting four training groups from India through the NIFM = National Institute for Financial Management. The training groups are either new hires, mid-career or late-career managers of State-owned companies and organizations in India. This is the third year that we are hosting these groups. It is a training contract that gives Seneca excellent reputation building in India which is our largest market for student recruitment.

Images Rotary Convention

With 35,000 participants the plenary sessions were held each day in the Air Canada Center (where the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team and the Toronto Raptors basketball team play their home games and where many music concerts are hosted). Above an impression of the crowd. Today former USA First Lady Laura Bush was one of the speakers.

At the large Toronto convention center all the other activities were hosted including the many concurrent break-out sessions each day and the so-called "House of Friendship" where many Rotary groups and other organizations had booths in a "trade show" kind of setting.

Many "RAGs" (Rotary Action Groups) had their booth at this convention; most of them on very serious topics and development issues. Others on not-so-serious topics (under the "fellowship" flag for which Rotary Clubs are also famous for).

There are Rotary members of all sorts: the fellow in the yellow shirt and barefoot with a large water bucket on his head was making the point that still so many people around the world walk distances to collect fresh water each day. Water will become a major issue in our future and might become more and more a destabilizing and peace-threatening aspect world-wide.

It is nice to see the Rotary movement now also grow in China. And every four years the Rotary Convention happens to be at the same time as the FIFA Football World Cup, this year hosted in Russia. Today Nigeria played Argentina; a nail-biter for both sides.....

Rotarians from around the world

Rotarians from around the world are visiting Toronto these days during the annual international Rotary Convention. On Sunday I was able to catch up with my dear friends Jorge & Alejandra from Iguazu in Argentina (where we did many years of project work with the team of Niagara College). Today there were many concurrent sessions going on. I assisted during one session with the project evaluators to attract new evaluators.

She was doing work on the floor of the hallways in between sessions (on the Rotary Action Group on Environmental Sustainability). With the Markham Rotary Club we hosted tonight a number of the international visiting Rotarians together with interested local folks who are thinking of joining one of the two Rotary Clubs in Markham.