5th annual Indigenous Business Gathering allows people to make connections

Officials say getting together to make connections in the Indigenous community plays a big role in reconciliation.

The 5th annual Indigenous Business Gathering, hosted by the government of Saskatchewan on Wednesday, allowed people to do just that.

“The more that we can get together to be able to compare notes, especially with the federal government having ideas in the province in regards to what policy they put in place, but at the same time the important part is having entrepreneurs meet and have a gathering like this to be to share stories, but more importantly, how do we… begin to create better business partnerships,” said Glen McCallum, president of Métis Nation Saskatchewan.

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Indigenous businesses and companies at the event say it’s important to them to have a place to connect.

“It’s all about relationship building in the Indigenous community. So, we get to come together, we get to see our good friends here, people we’ve worked with in the past, meet new people, see what’s up and coming in the indigenous business sector,” said Dawn Deguire, an independent consultant at Truth Inside Coaching and Healing.

“If I was looking for a screenprinting company that is indigenous owned for me to hit my targets of Indigenous procurement, I can look around a room like this and find one of them,” said Brad Spence, director of trading and employment for George Gordon Development.

With many different companies of different sizes at Prairieland, partnerships can make a big difference.

“There’s a lot of businesses that don’t have the spotlight that others do, so we try make sure that we all get that same kind of attention they need,” said Ron Hyggen, CEO of Kitsaki Management.

Watch above for more on how the Indigenous Business Gathering helps the community connect.