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• 6pm-7pm: Networking/Cocktail Hour

• 7pm: Julie Chaisson, Executive Director, Halifax Seaport Farmers Market, Welcome to the Market

• 7.15pm: Seating for dinner

• 7.20pm: Welcome Message by Ifeanyi Emesih (Founder, The Halifax Experience)

• 7.25pm: Dinner is served

• 7.28pm: Message from the Mayor of Halifax by Deputy Mayor Lorelei Nicoll

• 7.33pm: Special Performance by the Sackville concert band

• 7.44pm: Opening speaker: Karen Oldfield, CEO and President, Port of Halifax

• 8.pm: Keynote speaker: Mrs. Anne Divine, CEO Ashanti Leadership

• 8.10pm: Entertainment

• 8.20pm: Closing speaker: Gail Adams, Marketing Manager, Halifax Chamber of Commerce

• 8.30pm: Interactive session with the audience

• 8.50pm: Final Performance

• 9.15pm: Note of thanks

Welcome.

Although not a large word, it does encompass the entire message of The Halifax Experience event. It also speaks to the ongoing mission of My Halifax Experience Magazine, the prototype of which you now hold in your hands.

I want to thank all the great people in Halifax who made both this night and this publication possible. My goal in creating The Halifax Experience was to showcase what makes this city a great place for im-migrants to flourish, and without each and every one of you it wouldn’t be possible.

Halifax has so much to offer; the various cultures, opportunities and lifestyles available here provide a unique opportunity to attract and re-tain immigrants, foreign students and young adults who can enrich our city. Going forward after tonight, My Halifax Experience Magazine will provide a place where they can share their own experiences in making Halifax their home.

I am a proud immigrant to this city who has found its entrepre-neurial spirit, which has allowed me to tap into my potential and find success. The launch of this magazine will allow those like me to tell their own stories of finding success here in Halifax and — by sharing — encourage others to stay in Halifax and take advantage of all the great opportunities this beautiful city has to offer.

So I extend my heart-felt thanks to all my partners and everyone who has been part of the journey to tonight’s event. And to everyone here tonight, I say again: Welcome.

Ifeanyi EmesihFounder, The Halifax Experience

My Halifax Experience Welcome Message

As Mayor of Halifax and on behalf of Regional Council, it is my distinct pleasure to extend best wishes to all attending The Halifax Experience.

Events, like this, play a vital role in setting the foundation and offer a framework to make connections and share opportunities. Halifax is home to the largest number of immigrants in Atlantic Canada and our ability to maintain and increase our immigrant population is fun-damental to our entire region’s economic, social and cultural success. Connections often lead to new business opportunities and sharing our efforts makes all of us stronger. We need to exemplify inclusion and equity as well as embrace the heritage, culture and pride of our diverse communities.

The Halifax Experience contributes to shaping our many commu-nities and we encourage your participation in making our municipality a great place to live, work and play.

Kindest Regards

Mayor Mike Savage

Meet the Sackville Concert Band

If Ann Divine has one message she wants to share with every immigrant that comes to Halifax, it's this: you need to be uncomfort-able.

Divine's experience, both here and growing up in her adopted home in England, is that im-migrants too often tend to only reach out to their fellow countrymen or other immigrants. This limits their network and costs them connections that could mean the difference between suc-cess and failure in their new life.

“As immigrants we may find we’re relying on a small pool of immigrants [to connect with] and just might be serving that com-munity,” she says. “We, as immi-grants, have to open ourselves to different experiences. We may not feel comfortable, but I think it’s important for us to be com-fortable with the uncomfortable.”

Divine says immigrants need to make sure they interact and connect with all kinds of peo-ple; by doing so, they’ll be able to open themselves to different and possibly better experiences in order to be more successful.

Divine knows what she’s speaking about. Born in Guyana, South America and raised in En-gland, Divine says upon arriving in Halifax one of her challenges was making connections with others in the community and learning about her new home.

“It was a new country and I had to adapt to my new environment,” she says, noting she took a step back, didn’t work for a couple years and took part in programs offered by such places as the Keshen Goodman Library.

But it isn’t just immigrants that need to be open minded. Haligonians, and Nova Scotians in general, also have to understand there needs to be ways for immigrants to succeed without losing their sense of self or their cultural identity.

“It goes both ways; it’s about more than the immigrant integrating into Canadian society,” Divine says, noting the two groups have to work together. “It’s about meeting half way… we shouldn’t ask anyone to leave their culture behind, but we should look at ways where we can build on each other’s success.”

In doing this, Divine believes it will help make Nova Scotia and Halifax more appeal-ing to newcomers and make the area a more inclusive, diverse and better society.

“We’re all contributing to the sustainability of our economy, of our community, and that

diversity and those differences are what’s go-ing to drive us and help us grow,” she says.

After all, for immigrants to contribute to this growth they need to have a good expe-rience in Halifax or another area of Nova Scotia.

“If my experience is a good one, I can give that message to my family and then they might

like to come here, but if as an immigrant my experience isn’t good, I can’t share it with my family,” she says.

The immigrant experience in Halifax may vary, but for Divine the best part about com-ing to the city was finding a community that made her and her family feel at home.

Divine immigrated to Canada in 2004 after her husband accepted the James R. Johnston Chair in Black Studies at Dalhousie Univer-sity. However, a few years into their stay her husband was involved in an accident. Without asking, her neighbours and other community members would often help Divine and her family out during the time whenever they needed it.

“There’s a sense of humanity where [for example] coming home and finding food on your doorstep from one of your neighbours,” she says. “They did what they did from the heart; that’s the best Halifax experience I’ve had.”

While Divine has a good experience living in Halifax, she knows the decision to come to a new country isn’t without its challenges and that not every immigrant experience is entirely positive. In the 1960s her parents moved their

family from Guyana to the United Kingdom during a time when there was a lot of racism and dislike of newcomers.

“Even though a lot of people, like our parents, were highly educated, they were given mediocre jobs; they’d do the jobs English people wouldn’t do, like being a bus driver,” says Divine, whose parents were a nurse and

an engineer. “They [her parents] didn’t allow it to stop them because they wanted a better life for their children.”

This better life included giving their children a quality education and a vast range of opportuni-ties.

“They wanted us to accomplish far more than they ever accomplished, so a lot of sacrifice was made on their part so we were able to do that,” Divine says. “Education is the foundation; we were always told education is the key to the world and that’s how you’re going to succeed.”

Divine adds that her family was fortunate to live in a diverse and inclusive neighbourhood when they moved to England, which is a trend she has contin-ued in her adult life. She worked as senior probation office for the North East London Probation Service — the largest bail and

probation hostel in Europe — from 1997 to 2000, and as the chief aid officer to the chief probation officer at the London Probation Trust from 2001 to 2004. She also worked as an education social worker and was the vice chair of the Association of Black Probation Officers.

It was in these roles Divine not only learned different skills, but was encouraged to interact with different types of people.

“I was encouraged to take on a diversity of work; I was encouraged to take on responsi-bilities and to work with different groups of people,” she explains.

Due to this work ethic and abilities, Divine often received reassurance and praise from peers.

“One person I worked with recognized I had leadership skills and wanted to nurture those,” she says. “Therefore there were people who were mentoring me even before knowing what the word mentoring meant.”

After two years in Halifax, Divine decid-ed to go back to work. Knowing how much it meant to her to have good mentors and teachers, she decided to take on a similar role and help other immigrants’ transition to

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Break out of the comfort zoneAnn Divine helps fellow immigrants discover it’s okay to be uncomfortableBy KATIE INGRAM

a new country. From 2006 to 2007 she was the planning and development officer for the Nova Scotia Office of Immigration and from 2007 to 2014 she was manager of Race Rela-tions, Equity and Inclusion at the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission. Currently, she’s the CEO and founder of her own business, Ashanti Leadership and Professional Develop-ment Services, which was founded in 2011.

Ashanti is a consulting service that’s de-signed to provide extensive career and profes-sional guidance for its clients. Divine’s current goals are to help women of all backgrounds and races, especially immigrants and women of colour, be successful in their own business endeavours.

As someone who has been in Halifax and subsequently Nova Scotia for more than a de-cade, Divine acknowledges there are overarch-ing issues that need to be addressed, no matter if a person is immigrant or domestic resident.

This is one of the reasons why the Halifax Experience has asked Divine to be one of its keynote speakers. Halifax Experience orga-nizer and fellow immigrant Ifeanyi Emesih says the event will help others tap into local resources they might not know are available

to newcomers. This will also help them grow their own business or build upon a pre-ex-isting career and hopefully encourage other immigrants to stay in Halifax.

“I didn’t have those resources,” Emesih says, “but I kept on believing, I kept on work-ing and I kept on asking questions… so I want to put everyone in one room where we can network, encourage each other and encourage people to stay in Halifax and help it grow.”

He also hopes Divine shows other attend-ees, through her experiences and community involvement, how far hard work, dedication and networking can take a person.

“Ann is able to look back and encourage people to believe in themselves, especially women,” he says. “She’s empowering women to be leaders [and] so her story is an inspira-tion to immigrant women and the immigrant community coming to Halifax.”

Overall, Divine says she’s looking forward to being a part of the Halifax Experience and connecting with other immigrants who may need advice or encouragement.

“Its great idea,” Divine says. “It’s like having an object in a shop; you have to display it in a way that’s inviting. So when we have the

Halifax Experience, you see individuals — like the organizers — demonstrating what Halifax is about and our experiences.”

Alongside her work experience in both the U.K. and Canada, Divine has volunteered and participated in organizations and events designed to help immigrants and women. These include helping to organize Halifax’s International Women’s Day in 2014 and 2015, founding the Black and Immigrant Women Network, being a member of International Women’s Forum Canada, being a board mem-ber for Dress for Success Halifax and leading the first Business Cohort for Women Lead-ership in partnership with the Black Business Initiative and the Department of Labour and Advanced Education.

In 2014, Divine was recognized by Diana Whalen, deputy premier and Attorney General of Nova Scotia, at the provincial legislature for “demonstrating extraordinary leadership and determination in her efforts to empower black and immigrant women to have success-ful and fulfilling careers.” In 2011 she received the Correctional Services Employee Recog-nition Award for her work with Nova Scotia Correctional Services.

Event SpeakersKaren Oldfield

As President and CEO of the Halifax Port Authority, Karen Oldfield has overseen an era of transformation at the Port of Halifax. This includes significant marine infrastructure investment to facilitate large vessels, the refinement of the cruise industry in Halifax and the strategic development of real estate assets including the Halifax Seaport, which is now a premier destination for culture, events and entertainment. Karen has been instrumental in positioning the Port of Halifax as a strategic national asset, one that annually generates more than $1.6 billion in economic impact and 11,800 port-related jobs.

Nationally, Karen is a member of the Public Policy Forum. She serves as the National Chair of the International Women’s Forum of Canada and has served as a member of the Advisory Council on National Security which provided advice through the National Advisor to the Prime Minister of Canada. Locally, Karen serves as the Vice-Chair of the Board of Governors for Saint Mary’s University. She is also an avid golfer who lives in Halifax with her husband and their daughter.

Julie Chaisson Julie is the Executive Director of the Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market. As a part of the Halifax Port Authority, Julie has led the market with her team since 2012. The Halifax Farm-ers' Market is the oldest continuously operating Farmers' Market in North America and has more than 250 farmers, secondary producers, artisans and musicians that call the market home. The Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market is a Halifax institution, welcoming thousands of dedicated customers each week. Julie has more than 30 years of retail and operational experience in senior management throughout a diverse group of industries,

including the energy, transportation, large retail and construction sectors. Julie has gained this experience through leading companies, including Superior Propane, The Shaw Group and Toys R Us. Julie is a specialist in business change management with recognized strengths in team leadership, strategic planning and implementation. Julie is proud to call Halifax home, where she lives with her husband Mike and their 10-year old daughter Emily. Julie also has two grown sons.

Paul MacKinnon

Paul MacKinnon has spent his career as a champion for Halifax’s historic, cultural and economic heart. He has been the Executive Director of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission for the past 13 years. Following a brief stint in England, he began his career with downtown revitalization with the Spring Garden Area Business Association in 1996. He has been involved with numer-ous committees over the years, with the aim of making this city a great place to live, in-cluding as the Vice-Chair of the city’s Urban Design Task Force, which created the new downtown plan, HRM by Design, in 2009.

Paul is the past Chair of Downtowns Canada and has been an active participant in championing the ideas put forth in the One Nova Scotia report, including a greater emphasis on immigration.

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