The leaders of tomorrow are about to meet the leaders of today and before the end of today, some of those roles might be reversed.
Mentor To Mentor is a one-day program offered by StartUp Prince George, the volunteer-based business development association. Over the course of the past two years, the StartUp Canada movement (Prince George is one of 15 cities linked to the national initiative) and the B.C. provincial government have done copious research on what new businesses want and need to get started and stay running through the rugged inaugural years. One of the highest items on the agendas of most entrepreneurs is mentorship - learning from those in business how to avoid pitfalls, cut red tape and recognize opportunities.
"We have heard time after time from entrepreneurs that they want mentorship, but don't know how to establish that kind of relationship," said Shauna Harper, one of the co-founders of StartUp PG. "It seems to work best when it happens naturally, so Mentor To Mentor is for having those initial conversations in a casual way. If you click with someone, you can carry it on. If you don't click, you can move on to someone else."
There will be some structure to the event - it is built to be casual but not chaotic. Harper believes it is a subtly important step towards major advances in Prince George business practices.
"Traditionally mentorship is thought of as one-directional - one person is the mentor, another person is a mentee. What normally happens is the mentee learns from the wisdom of the mentor. But ask any mentor that has given their time to a mentorship program or developed a relationship with a mentee and they will say there is always something to learn when you give."
If successful, there will be more call-togethers of local business minds to help advance the best of practices.
"This is a 'first of its kind' mentor event where everyone is a mentor," she said. "No matter what stage you are in your life, you have something to offer and give."
It happens tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Art Space (upstairs at Books and Company). There is no cost but pre-registration is mandatory at the event's online signup site: http://www.mentor2mentor.eventbrite.com.
