2nd October 2015, Vancouver Club

Over 50 guests sat in awe at the wisdom shared by former Olympian Clara Hughes, President of Hockey Operations Trevor Linden and Canadian Women’s Soccer Coach John Herdman.

We started with a great breakfast Vancouver Club style. Our guests were able to mingle and talk with Trevor Linden prior to the event beginning.
Our event started off with John Herdman sharing his story of how he was approached in New Zealand and his first experiences with the Canadian Women’s Soccer Team. He went to explain how they totally turned their attitudes around and won Bronze medal at the next Summer Olympics. John’s talk was so engaging and full of great take aways. By the time he’d finished our audience had already said that coming out was worth it already.

I next got to interview Trevor Linden. He shared about his career and his vision for the future of the Canucks. rebuilding the team with new players was bringing a new energy to the dressing room. Trevor also went on to share how he had met my son Michael at the Telus  skins Golf tourney and what an impact he had had on him because of his strength. Michael was in the final stages of cancer and still found the reserves to be Trevor’s caddy for the day.

Then came our very guest speaker Clara Hughes. Clara spoke of her troubled family upbringing and how she overcame so many personal obstacles to be able to skate at the Atlanta Games. She said that her desire to win came out of seeing Africa children features by Right to Play and how she skated for them with purpose. She went on to donate her $10,000 prize money to the cause, despite that being her only income at that time. She had a long and decorated career but behind the scenes she suffered many dark nights of depression and family battles. Each guest was thankful to receive their own autographed copy of Clara’s book “Open heart, open mind”

We broke for the mid morning break when our guests were joined by their management colleagues to hear more from John & Clara.

By now the room was filled to capacity and we heard more from John on Leadership

Clara then returned and went so much deeper about her mental health struggles and her ride across Canada with Bell and how she spoke in 120 different city’s dispelling the stigma of depression.

We were delighted to support several of my favourite charities Canuck Place, Ronald McDonald House and The Michael Cuccione Foundation

We have been overwhelmed with messages of congratulations and messages of support from attendees. They said it was

“Well worth the effort to come out and hear such inspiring, world-class speakers.”

“Thank you for getting me out of the office – amazing event!”

I was also able to share the Quilly award I had just received for my best selling book with Brian Tracy.

My thanks goes to Jonathan Christian from We Make Stuff Happen and my daughter Zoe for making this event a reality and having it run so smoothly