YES, the conference is still happening!
PLEASE NOTE, however: our January 2022 conference series has been postponed to September 2022.
More details are to come soon regarding this modified timeframe.
Although ACSioN Canada would technically have been able to proceed with holding the conference series in January 2022 according to a 100% virtual format, the disruption caused by the recent wave of the COVID-19 Omicron variant created steep logistical challenges for many of our stakeholders at a critical time.
ACSioN Canada’s constant aim is to execute its activities with a level of quality that sufficiently meets our standards as well as those expected by our partners and community members. Any conference is only as amazing as its participants, and we want to make sure that all key actors in our talent ecosystem will be able to bring their A-game at the right moment.
While this was a difficult decision, we believe it was the correct one. Even if there are no simple answers for community organizations such as ACSioN during this uncertain time, we have been reassured by your enduring and enthusiastic support. We eagerly look forward to bringing our entire community together again very soon!
Simply make your partnership official with ACSioN Canada, and you’ll get a headstart on reaching the most outstanding up-and-coming African-Canadian professionals – both now, and throughout the entire year.
1. We’ll be happy to share your open roles on our job board and directly publicize them among our membership so you can hit the ground running!
2. As an official partner of ACSioN, you’ll be more than welcome to participate in the other activities we’ve got coming up in the late winter, spring, and summer. You definitely won’t want to miss the 2022 ACSioN Leadership Summit this May!
3. Even if you might not have entered the Fall 2022 recruitment phase just yet, now is the time to prepare! Remember, sourcing top African-Canadian talent increasingly requires long-term approaches that leverage the entire ecosystem, particularly with key partners like ACSioN. (But you knew that already. 😁) Together, let’s craft an all-weather African-Canadian talent strategy! Contact us today.
YES!
The conference series has been crafted during the COVID era, for this time and well beyond.
Accordingly, all major sessions of the “African-Canadian Careers: Partout Chez Nous” conference series have been designed for both virtual and in-person delivery.
We are closely monitoring Québec’s evolving public health directives and if necessary, will switch any affected conference activities to their 100% virtual mode. With very little turnaround time, ACSioN will be able to offer attendees and speakers an outstanding virtual experience.
If possible, we do intend to keep a small core group of volunteers and staff on-site, in order to simplify the management of the event and provide visual depth to certain activities which will be broadcast live via virtual platforms.
ACSioN is currently finalizing the list of partner organizations for this event series. To respond to the diverse employment needs and aspirations of ACSioN’s cross-sector membership, we’ve reached out to major Canadian employers in many industries, with particular emphasis on the following:
– Financial services
– Professional services
– Information technology
– Management consulting
– Engineering
– Logistics & transportation
– Pharmaceuticals
“Partout chez nous”, a French phrase which translates to “[we’re] at home everywhere” in English, is a play on words referring to:
1. A celebration of the amazing professional successes achieved by African-Canadians across the globe, as well as our outstanding adaptability and creativity in the face of steep challenges wherever we may find ourselves.
2. The above-average bilingualism of our African-Canadian communities.
3. The fact that during this COVID era of uncertainty, whether we’re working on-site or remotely, we’re always in our element!
Bien sûr, la conférence sera bilingue! (Of course this conference will be bilingual!)
As with past ACSioN Canada conferences, all participants – including speakers – will be encouraged to express themselves using the official language which they speak most comfortably – Français or English.
We aim to provide bilingual hosts and discussion moderators for all major sessions of the conference, as well as live captioning and/or translation (subject to the availability of skilled personnel).
ACSioN offers so much value through this conference series in so many ways, that we’ve condensed the overview into a PDF guide while providing the finer details on this website. We thought we’d save you the trouble of sifting through a static document which would be several pages long!
In addition, our web platforms allow ACSioN the flexibility to provide rapid updates and in-depth communications regarding all aspects of the conference series. The COVID era demands nothing less.
All our packages have been structured to provide solid opportunities for partners to connect with participants.
Note that some packages have a significantly more comprehensive offering that allows for extended engagement with the ACSioN community, both during this conference series and well beyond!
For assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out via email.
The “sale price” actually reflects a discount on the total value of the individual products and services included in each package. Each package consists of a logical combination of products and services that provides outstanding value for any partner who chooses one.
If you can’t see the prices, please refer to the partnership guide which provides the login details.
In the event where any product and/or service cannot be delivered at the initially-expected time due to public health restrictions, ACSioN will transfer the approximate value of such an undelivered product/service to the next most appropriate product or service associated with either this conference series or another event planned for the near future, subject to availability.
Most of our student members will be looking for full-time internships (especially students who are in co-op programs) and/or roles in which they can work part-time during their studies. Our recent graduates and young professional members generally seek full-time permanent roles.
While ACSioN members vary widely in their aspirations – especially at the alumni level – the largest proportion of student members is most interested in full-time internships for specialist roles, or management trainee/rotation programs.
Roughly 60% of ACSioN members are bilingual (Français-English), according to the latest statistics on our community.
ACSioN will have collected more precise data regarding the conference attendees and the types of employment they are seeking once the official conference registration has been open for some time (by the second week of September 2022).
Once a upon a time, to anyone who knew…
“Tesla” was merely the name of an immigrant college dropout.
“googol” simply referred to a very, very large number only mathematicians would ever use.
An “apple” was only a common fruit recommended for daily consumption.
“Shopify” was just another made-up word.
Everything must start somewhere.
The largest, most powerful organizations in almost every sector have historically undervalued African-Canadian communities, which has led them to overlook a colossal amount of business value, talent, and opportunity for growth. While industry leaders have recently begun addressing such market inefficiencies as a business imperative, ACSioN has been quietly working in these spaces for years without necessarily being on the radar. Sounds familiar?
Like most other grassroots social enterprises focused on our community, ACSioN’s growth has been driven by the passionate efforts of people who intimately understand African-Canadians in all our complexity. Our asset-based community development (ABCD) approach has principally relied on the organic development of peer support networks and homegrown social capital. Because ACSioN has always believed in the outstanding brilliance of African-Canadians, we’ve been able to do some excellent work – without mega marketing budgets, major corporate sponsors, or billionaire patrons.
And now – just imagine what we will accomplish with your support?
Thank you for accepting our invitation to join this table – we’ve been expecting you. We will continue to do this important work with as many allies as we can muster.
Because African-Canadian leadership has always mattered – and it always will.