Today the Government of Saskatchwean announced free wireless Internet. It's not everywhere, yet, but it's a start for those of us who live in the major centres. We'll see about the execution, but this is the first good technology idea the government and the crowns have had in about ... oh ... thirty years.

I am the proud owner of a custom-built and fully-loaded 2000 Ford Focus ZX3. Yesterday, I had to include the bank in that sentence.

Can you believe it took me 6.5 years to pay it off? I will never ever ever ever buy a new car again - the worst "investment" I have ever made in my entire life.

If you'd like to see photos of our snowboarding trip this past weekend, visit my Asessippi 2007 album. To save time, here's a link to a video of Blair Hillmer getting his 8th concussion.

Notes from the breakout sessions are now online. In particular, you can view the notes from my morning session entitled "Youth Friendly Work Places or the notes from my afternoon session entitled "Saskatchewan in 2020".

Take them with a grain of salt, as the guy was basically just writing down everything people said, but have fun trying to figure out which one were my suggestions or comments ;)

Congrats to Steve and Nicole, the proud parents of Ryan Wade who was born this weekend, weighing in at over nine pounds. Through circumstance he ended up being born in Saskatchewan ;)

While the formal "work" of the summit ended in the afternoon on Saturday, that wasn't the end of the days events. When I returned to the convention centre, the upper ballroom was transformed into a pretty damned cool sight. The place had been redecorated in the vein of a trendy lounge. I was very impressed and later learned in the speeches that a set designer had been hired to give the place its look. I got myself a drink and then settled down at a table with some girls from another CEP local (one of whom swore up and down that she had met me at a training course the year before, even though I haven't been on training outside the company in a very long time) and a few boys from the videographers for the event, 306 Productions (note the clever name!). The food was decent hotel fare and the speeches were excellent as well

We were graced by the presence of His Honour the Honourable Dr. Gordon Barnhart, and he spoke at length about a variety of subjects mostly focused on life-long learning and his passion for governance and citizenship. It was the first time I had to the opportunity to hear him speak for any length of time and was really impressed by him. The last speaker of the evening was Pat Atkinson, the Minister of Advanced Education and Employment, the department that put on the event. She mostly thanked the organisers (who did a great job, btw) but also talked a little bit about why we were all in the room. She had a great line when she said, "we're not here to say that Saskatchewan is perfect." It's clearly not, but it was refreshing to hear someone like that talk with a little candour. I was also surprised to hear her encourage folks to leave the province – no, it's not what you think. She told a story about how she left the province as a young person and that the experience made her realize what she had back at home in Saskatchewan. She encourage us to travel and see the world and that if we left the province to realize that we would be doing so because we could, not because we had to. I'm not sure why her words stuck with me but I think it has to do with the fact that I have lived and worked outside the country and I can relate to what she is saying. You can gain a lot of perspective by stepping outside your box and seeing what's out there, both positive and negative. I really wish this government would have done the same recently, and they will too after they get voted out.

After the speeches, that was it for the formal program. There were bands and music all night long, but I had an early morning ahead of me so I didn't stay very much longer for the show. It could have been fun!

So, what can I tell you regarding my thoughts about the summit overall?

First and foremost, I think the organisation of the conference, while not perfect (could it ever be?), was as close as anyone could ask it to be. Given the timeframes involved from the idea to the concept to the execution, I can't say anything less than I was absolutely impressed with the skill of the entire team involved. All the bases were covered, from the great facilities down to the willingness of those involved to do whatever they could to accommodate us over the weekend. What also perhaps impressed me most was the passion that the organisers had for not only putting on the event, but the passion they had for their vision of giving youth a voice.

What was the goal of the summit? I think the goal of the summit was to bring together a large and representative group of Saskatchewan's young people on a scale not done before for the purposes of having them dialogue and network and to begin a conversation about the future of our province. In that sense, the summit was an unqualified success. I learned a hell of a lot in one short day about what young people are thinking in and about this province. It also dawned on my that most of what they were talking about was quite a bit different from the way the baby boomers in our land see the world. The question is, what happens next?

More and more in my career and my personal life, I've been trying to focus my activities into getting results. No matter what anyone tells you, the true measure of any person's success is what they are able to achieve. Trying and failing more often than not is often a big part of the process, but ultimately if you don't have any tangible results in the end you have to ask yourself whether you had set appropriate goals to begin with and whether you did what was needed to achieve them. What tangible results will come of this summit? The answer is, quite honestly, none. The sessions we participated in were of the warm and fuzzy type, lots of vague questions, statements, and expressions but nothing in and of itself very useful. We didn't get much time to work on anything, either. Does this mean it was a waste of time? I don't believe so. These kinds of preliminary activities are always a necessary process – a necessary beginning to something larger. At first it might not seem that we got anything real done, but what we did do was take that first baby step. The real results will come from the activities that will happen after the conference. There were a lot of political and business leaders in the crowd, and from what I could see most of them followed Calvert's lead when he told his Ministers to shut up and listen during the summit. The next step in this process will be the report on the event at the end of the month.

Was this whole thing worth taxpayer's hard-earned dollars? I am still struggling with the whole idea but the bottom line is that things cost money. Some people might struggle with the fact that the government spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a conference when thousands of people in the province are living below the poverty line, but I've found over the years that it's impossible to think that way. Money can be a very abstract thing; it is simply one of the primary ways we associate value with our time and effort. It costs money for people live, work, and get together for things like the summit. That's just the way it is. Our challenge is to make sure that something comes of it.

I can only hope that something does come of this. Yes, we have to step up to the plate as youth to shape our future, but I don't believe the preaching from the plenary wrap-up that each of the stakeholders must share equal responsibility for continuing the work of the summit. To suggest that each demographic has an equal responsibility for the issues of the day is ludicrous. The fact of the matter is that the leaders of today – I'm talking specifically about the senior leaders of government, business, and labour - the baby boomers, are the shoulders that the future of the work begun at the summit rests on. It is up to them to give us a voice, to listen, and to act, where appropriate, because it is they who hold the true power to make things happen and make them happen quickly, because we do not have time to wait. I'm looking to the government in particular to take on this initiative, either with regard to the issues and recommendations raised in the summit or taking steps to take the work of the summit and turn it into concrete plans for action. If they don't, then the whole thing will have been just a lot of hot air. The value of this conference rests not with what happened, but what the follow-through will be.

We are in a time of unprecedented and I think largely unpredictable change here in Saskatchewan. The next five to twenty years will likely see the biggest changes that our province has seen since the introduction of socialism to the province 70 years ago. The only thing that we know for sure is that things will change and that we must incorporate change into our daily life. This emergency of change at all levels in our society is the most pressing issue facing us as a people today, and I look to our senior leaders to move away from their culture of entitlement and respond accordingly. That is not to say that we as youth won't help. We will soon need you to throw that torch from your hands. The sooner you realize that your hands are failing, the sooner we can get started.

The first speakers for the afternoon were Scott Carson and Brad Zakreski from Storm Applied Technologies. It was pretty funny since I'm pretty sure I took a few classes with Brad back in the day at university. The focus of their speech was an overview of the process they went to create the Eco-Party Dragon Boat tours of Wascana Lake. Then, they had the balls to do a SWOT analysis of Saskatchewan with a ton of cabinet members in the audience - I was pretty impressed with that.

The second speaker was Jason Louttit, who was in all honesty either not a great speaker or wasn't good at coming up with material for this summit. Maybe it's just the fact that I just finished watching an episode of Bullshit! about self-help and motivational speakers, but he managed to talk for 15 minutes about pretty much nothing.

Once the speakers were finished, we went through the results of our sessions with the two ladies from the morning. I typed fast and furiously to document what they put on the screen but honestly I couldn't keep up so I don't have all the information - read at your own risk because all mistakes are mine. They will be posting a report on the website once they compile all the information so you don't have to rely on my bad typing, but I thought it was important to get it up here to get you folks thinking about what went on and maybe motivate you to participate in any future activities that come out of this.

• Let's see what we've done ....
• Here is a SAMPLE of the dialogue...
• Since we have a collective responsibility to achieve RESULTS from today's dialogue, think of how you could contribute to making these recommendations come alive in the area you know best ...
• Youth Friendly Work Places
  • Group Statement: Provide flexible benefits for today's young workers
  • Recommendations:
    • Business
      • advertise flexible options offered through engaging current employees
    • Municipalities
      • support businesses by providing resources and incentives
    • Youth
      • take action and become involved to affect change
    • Labour
      • engage and involve youth in committees and activities
    • Government
      • Set the standard by being an example as a preferred youth employers
    • Training Institutions
      • offer flexible, accessible education and training options
• Youth Friendly Work Places
  • Group Statement: Create additional flexible training and development opportunities
  • Recommendations:
    • Business
      • create partnerships with labour, government, EI and training institutions to expand mentorships, internships, co-op placements and permanent entry level positions
    • Municipalities
      • fund training seats with a return for service commitment for the sponsored position
    • Youth
      • volunteer to expand your experience
      • take initiative and be open to taking risks
    • Labour
      • facilitate the entry of youth into the workplace and award seniority to intern positions
    • Government
      • expand funding to internship and co-op opportunities
      • continue to expand training initiatives
    • Training Institutions
      • creating partnerships between education and employers
• Cool Communities
  • Group Statement: Build the technological infrastructure and increase accessibility to technological innovation
  • Recommendations:
    • Business
      • utilizing new technologies as much as possible
      • invest in research and development of new technology
    • Municipalities
      • invest in the infrastructure through initiatives such as matching grants
    • Youth
      • engagement of technology through teaching those with less technological skills and through the early adoption of new technologies
    • Labour
      • enabling organizations to hire youth through programs such as designating a portion of positions for youth
    • Government
      • fund the expansion of the technological infrastructure in the province
    • Training Institutions
      • provide training for the development of technological skills in rural and urban areas
      • provide training in technological fields which correspond with the business climate
• Cool Communities
  • Group Statement: Make our communities cooler and safe by focusing more on neighbourhoods
  • Recommendations:
    • Business
      • supporting programs through sponsorships and partnerships (i.e. Recycling, festivals, etc.)
      • selling local products
    • Municipalities
      • make our communities more pedestrian and cyclist friendly
      • increase co-operative housing
      • vibrant downtown cores
    • Youth
      • take action, be involved in the political process at all levels (speaking up to elected officials, voting, etc.)
    • Labour
      • encouraging members to be involved in the community (i.e. Lending organizational expertise
    • Government
      • increase resources in the form of money, human resources and infrastructure
      • consulting and connecting more with young people and providing more opportunities for them to participate
    • Training Institutions
      • integrate services more into the communities so that they are not so segmented
• Inclusive Saskatchewan
  • Group Statement: Make access to education more inclusive
  • Recommendations:
    • Business
      • provide mentorship programs in the workplaces
      • implement mandatory diversity training
    • Municipalities
      • provide easy access to communication within different segments of the community (eg. Youth groups)
    • Youth
      • getting involved and through communication
    • Labour
      • including representative workforce language in collective bargaining agreements
    • Government
      • stop fighting about jurisdictional boundaries (i.e. who pays for what).
    • Training Institutions
      • Derek can't type that fast
• Inclusive Saskatchewan
  • Group Statement: Create an integration strategy for new residents in transition to employment
  • Recommendations:
    • Business
      • assessing the needs and communicating them to government and communities
      • funding commitment for retention and support of new employees
    • Municipalities
      • simplification of transitional processes to make more citizen-centred (i.e. housing, daycare, schools)
    • Youth
      • create connections between new and existing residents (i.e. a buddy program
    • Labour
      • creating mechanisms which allow youth to contribute ideas and effect change
    • Government
      • increase access to the communication of current programs
    • Training Institutions
      • Derek can't type that fast
• Making It Happen
  • Group Statement: Create a small scale / low-risk entrepreneurial program that is accessible to different ages / skills levels and a more diverse group of people
  • Recommendations:
    • Business
      • provide free advertising / promotion of the program
      • provide resource people and mentors
    • Municipalities
      • identify entrepreneurial opportunities
      • provide resource people
    • Youth
      • participate in programs, be available for focus groups, surveys, mentorship and succession
    • Labour
      • identify areas of opportunity
      • provide funding for scholarships
    • Government
      • funding or subsidization of programs
      • promote / market the program within the province
      • staff the program and report on its results
      • can promote this as a life-long education to other stakeholders
    • Training Institutions
      • to provide space and infrastructure to make something like this happen
• Making It Happen
  • Group Statement: Build on the Sask Youth Summit by having yearly meetings and continue the online discussion forum
  • Recommendations:
    • Business
      • sponsorship of the summit and the opportunity fair
      • providing mentorship or apprentice opportunities
    • Municipalities
      • youth advisers on board or city council
      • help distribute information about the summit
    • Youth
      • take it to your community, spread the word
      • research and participate
    • Labour
      • participate and spread the word through their membership
    • Government
      • advertising, awareness
      • continue to provide funding
    • Training Institutions
      • to teach leadership and research skills
      • have on-campus groups pre- and post- conference
• Saskatchewan in 2020
  • Group Statement: Saskatchewan becomes a world centre for excellence in environmentally driven social and economic development
  • Recommendations:
    • Business
      • invest in communities, harness the energy and potential of our environmentally and socially aware youth
    • Municipalities
      • combine resources to reduce environmental impact and barriers to growth
    • Youth
      • encourage each other in the places that we work and study to become part of the longer term solution
    • Labour
      • move beyond wages as a primary concern in collective bargaining in an effort in better understand and articulate the role of its membership
    • Government
      • rebuild infrastructure to encourage environmentally drive social and economic development
    • Training Institutions
      • Derek can't type that fast
• Saskatchewan in 2020
  • Group Statement: Foster a life-long education system that is inclusive and adapts to the needs of local communities
  • Recommendations:
    • Business
      • acknowledge the value of a wide variety of experiences
    • Municipalities
      • create partnerships opportunities to meet local demands
    • Youth
      • take responsibility to inspire and communicate ideas to each other
    • Labour
      • promote civic engagement and professional development
    • Government
      • make education more accessible for all individuals, families and communities
    • Training Institutions
      • Derek can't type that fast
• Where do we go from here?
  • Report will be written containing a complete synopsis of all the ideas / recommendations created in the breakout
  • posted on the website
  • distributed to all Summit participants
  • Today is only a start
    • we all have a shared commitment to building a better Saskatchewan
    • we all have a shared responsibility to act upon the recommendations both just reviewed, and contained in the report.

That's all for the meat of what happened today. As you can probably tell from my postings, I didn't have Internet today, so I had to type and crank this stuff out back at my hotel. I am now on my way back to the convention centre to enjoy a banquet and a meal before hitting the sack and heading to the bus depot super early in the AM to get back to Regina

When I return, count on some follow-up thoughts from me ... in the meantime, have any thoughts of your own?

This session was a lot more focused than the first one that I went to, which was surprising given the fact that there was a lot more diversity in the opinions that were offered. The idea behind this session was to talk about what Saskatchewan should be like in 2020. We went through a brainstorming session and identified a few core ideas that came out of that, specifically things like sustainability and value-added services. We ended up after some debate coming to a core statement around which we based our recommendations to the stakeholders:

"Move forward passionately and collectively to build innovatively an inclusive community and self-perpetuated (value-added) low (no, sustainabile!) impact economy."

This was the first session of the day where we got to actually participate. My session was titled "Youth Friendly Work Places". It was more or less an unstructured discussion about what the stakeholders can do to get workplaces more in-tune with work. Our dialogue centred around the need for workplace education and the end of temporary work. Most everyone was on the same page except for one guy who was pretty bitter that he got an education degree and now has a job that has nothing to do with that and his employer doesn't recognize his skills – well, you work in a career you weren't trained for? What do you expect?

While there was an attempt to steer the conversation in a particular direction, it was pretty unstructured in terms of facilitation. The facilitators had more input into the conversation than they probably should have. Either way, I'm not sure how concrete or pragmatic the recommendations from our session are going to be at this point – we'll find out later today.

It was an early start this morning – so much so that I didn't make the shuttle to the convention centre since I slept in and got out of my room in the middle of a 40-minute gap in the shuttle schedule. Actually, I did make the shuttle – the organisers impressed me again by their round-the-clock shuttle service in the morning so I didn't need to venture into the brave cold world.

I sat down at my table and introduced myself to my tablemates: a student studying nursing in Saskatoon and a couple nice girls from Estevan, along with a lady from SGI working her their booth here. There was quite the spread of booths outside in the lobby. Just before we get started who sits down at our table (of 7)? Glenn Hagel, the Minister of Culture, Youth, & Recreation! The lights go down for the presentation and who else sits down at the table, but Warren McCall, the Minister of Corrections and Public Safety! I couldn't ask for more access to the current (and soon to be former! And then current again, since that's the way this ridiculous country works!) powers-that-be. We didn't get a chance to talk, though.

We watched a short “rah-rah” video about how awesome it is to live here before our host got things started. Our host for the event is Kaveri Bittara, who is a Saskatoon-based, hot young journalist on the CBC, or at least that's what they tell me, since I don't watch CBC News on TV (sorry, but give me Angel Sombrutzki anyday, although I do have a fondness for brown girls!). She kicked off the event with a brief introduction and then launched right into her own version of the "rah rah Saskatchewan" spiel, filled with the same wonderful facts in the brochure that was part of the registration package.

The first speech of the day was from the Premier. He told his usual jokes about Saskatchewan being the hardest province to spell but the easiest to draw, and then went about welcoming us in great detail. He said we were a part of history - "the most representative group that has come together in the history of this province". Told us the room was filled with over 160 sponsors, political leaders, leaders from the trade union movement – leaders from all political, economic, and educational realms in our province. He said their job was to “duct tape” their mouths – that this was their time to listen. He also highlighted the over 475 applicants in the room between 19 and 30 that "almost precisely represent the demographic of our province" by self-application, without any engineering of the numbers or selection process. That's interesting, but I know that the representative population was a goal of the organisers and they did a significant amount of outreach to ensure that representation. As I mentioned before, they also paid expenses for those travelling to make sure they could come. In the middle of his quips, he described the Province as “so flat we can see the future coming”. I would venture to say that it's so flat you can see a lot of things, like people leaving, but I digress. He also spoke about the fact that we have "more opportunities than we have people" and that "our future is wide open". Blatant political propaganda subsidized by the people of Saskatchewan aside, I don't mean to make it look like I don't agree with everything that he's said. We're in an unprecedented time of opportunity in this province – it's just that I think we are succeeding in spite of the policies of the NDP, not because of it. He spent a good deal of his speech talking about Saskatchewan in the context of the recent leader's trip to Calgary to advertise the province and a lot of the statistics and "facts" presented in his speech were obviously one-sided, but getting us pumped up about Saskatchewan is not a bad thing.

Next up was Don Atchinson, the mayor of Saskatoon. He had a lot of cool information about the stuff happening in Saskatoon. He declared the city as "Canada's Science City". One thing I wasn't aware of was that the Synchrotron was completed on-time and on-budget – a testament to the engineering professionals in this province and the country, if I do say so myself. I took a few key things away from his speech. The first was his reference to "balanced growth". I think this is very true – the incredible boom happening in Alberta is fundamentally unsustainable. The full-speed-ahead growth there in "boom" times will have serious repercussions for that province during the inevitable "bust" times. The second thing I took away from his speech was a very unique thing I had never heard before: the mayor talked about how we Saskatchewan people now have a large network of relatives and friends across the country and the world, and that we should take advantage of those networks to our benefit. Let me get this straight – now the incredible amount of people who have left this province are an advantage? That's one amazing way to take a "silver lining" approach, if I do say so myself.

The next speeches were from the Co-Chairs of the Sask. Labour Market Commission (a group of people from business, labour, and training institutions), Holly Hetherington and Larry Hubich. It was interesting to see both the labour movement and business coming together to speak about the value of this summit.

We had two youth speakers in the morning. The first was Chris Richards, a Masters Engineering student passionate about the environment and human development and poverty. He volunteers with a group called Engineers Without Borders. He had the most powerful message of the speakers so far. He showed a moving graph illustrating the GDP and life-expectancy rates of all the countries in the world over time from 1960 to 2001, and highlighted in a very visual way the differences between a great country like Canada and a country that has been challenged (and who's score on both counts has dropped) like Botswana. I honestly heard gasps from the crowd about the level of poverty they suffer from – lots of "woah!" exclamations were to be heard. He was not only a great speaker, but also thanked the sponsors and the taxpayers for putting this on, which was great. The second speaker was an artist, Bevin Bradley, talking about the community and youth outreach happening in the province through groups she has been a part of, like the Saskatoon Community Youth Art Project.

We were supposed to participate in an activity called “Walking in my Shoes”, but it was cancelled due to time, so we got a condensed overview of the activities of the day given by Susan Jarvis and Christina Phipps (sp on both?):

• 5 topics: Come up with ideas of what will get us closer to making Saskatchewan More youth friendly
  • solutions not issue identification
• Select one as a priority recommendation
• 6 stakeholders – youth, government, business, labour, educational institutions, cities
• 10 ideas back to you at the end of the day

Quote of the day: "Sorry, I just spit on the Premier" - Susan Jarvis

All in all, even though it might not sound like it, it's been a pretty positive start to the event – I'm pretty pumped about our work today and it's going to be an exciting time.

7:30PM (not exactly live, eh?)

I'm sitting on an STC bus right now on my way to Saskatoon. The government bought me a $75 return bus ride to Saskatoon from Regina. It turns out that this is an “express” ride so we're not making any scheduled stops on the way there so it will be a fast trip. Other than the lack of beer (a usual component of any prior bus rides I've been on ), it's been ok. It was a cramped ride to begin with (even though I've logged hundreds of thousands of air miles in my lifetime I still am not used to sitting in such close proximity to others) but some girl got dropped off somewhere halfway through the trip so I got to move and now I've got a couple seats to myself – ah, elbow room!

The only thing I can really comment on specifically at this point regarding the summit is the organization. I was impressed with the website and the agenda overall (it sounds like a pretty full day), but so far I've felt pretty in the dark about the whole logistics surrounding it. I found out about the summit through an e-mail from the president of my union. His e-mail, for the most part (to me, anyway) highlighted the fact that it was all-expenses-paid, even though I'm sure the focus was getting more young members of the labour movement to attend. Since I haven't had to worry about expenses, it hasn't really worried me much that I'm not sure how I'm going to get to the hotel from the bus depot and that I only found out about the shuttles back and forth from my hotel to the convention hall a few days ago. Still, when I go on trips or to conferences (especially the internal conferences I go to for work) there is a ton more detail given to potential or confirmed attendees. For example, even though I know I have a hotel booked in Saskatoon, I have no idea if I will be sharing it with anyone. I have no idea of the amenities of the room or the hotel. I have no idea what's close to the hotel or who to contact in an emergency. Now, most of what I just listed could probably be gotten pretty quickly from a quick web search, but that's besides the point. The goal of the conference is not to worry about facilities or accommodations; the goal of the conference is for us to participate. If all of the information isn't available up front as part of a registration package, it makes it that much harder. If I had one recommendation so far for the next summit (if there is one), it would be a more complete itinerary for attendees.

The other thing that comes to mind is that I would really like to know more about the people that are attending the conference with me. The whole idea reminds me of the “Leadership Conferences” that we used to attend as part of our SRC activities in high school. Was I chosen to attend at random? Are they looking to populate the room with leaders from around the province? To me it's not very clear at this point, but it brings up probably the most important question about the whole thing: just what exactly is the point of this whole thing? Is this summit supposed to motivate us, motivate government, inspire government, inform government, inform ourselves, or are all of the above relevant goals?

So far I really couldn't tell you anything about the summit beyond the agenda; to be honest with you, I'm not sure what to expect. I am debating in my mind whether to bring my laptop to the convention centre since a) it's an incredibly expensive brand-new laptop b) it's not my laptop and c) I'm not sure if using it is going to be even practical since I'm really not sure what's happening tomorrow. I think I will get more out of the whole thing if I'm free to think, listen, and speak without my “website” voice on. For those of you who were there in the many, many years where we did things just to write about them on a website, you might know what I'm talking about. By the same token, I'm absolutely amazed at how the Summit Coordinator reached out to me and offered me Internet access to facilitate me bringing the summit to the unwashed masses. We'll see ...