The 11th annual Economic Partnership Summit, presented by the Lloydminster Chamber of Commerce, featured an Indigenous Innovation panel moderated by Wendy Plandowski from StartUp Lloydminster. From left are James Ouellette, senior director of employment and strategic initiatives at SIIT, Justina Sather, GM of the Gold Horse Casino and Beau Gadwa, an apprenticeship consultant with TeamsAlberta. The event took place last Wednesday at the WLS Convention Centre.
The 11th annual Economic Partnership Summit checked off a lot of boxes for a three-person panel on Indigenous Innovation at the WLS Convention Centre.
It gave high-profile Lloydminster residents Justina Sather and Beau Gadwa, and James Ouellette from Saskatoon, the opportunity to relate how they bring innovation into their different organizations.
They also took advantage of the summit opportunity last Wednesday to develop Indigenous partnerships with industry.
“It’s bringing people together,” said Sather, the general manager at Lloyd’s Gold Horse Casino and an employee of the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA).
“It’s a privilege to be here and speak on how SIGA looks to innovation and looks to incorporate that with our culture in the gaming industry. We use innovation in different ways,” said Sather.
She noted, for example, SIGA launched playnow.com in November 2022 as the first legal online gambling site in the province.
Sather says to support innovation, they recently appointed a new executive position for the department of digital strategy and i-gaming with the role of unifying the player experience between SIGA casinos and i-gaming channels.
“We will be looking at ways to build the singular player experience and ease of use between land-based casinos and playnow.com for existing and joining club members,” she explained.
Innovation was also top of mind for Ouellette, a senior director of employment with the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies (SIIT).
“People often gravitate to technology when you talk about innovation. But innovation really means taking something you’ve used in the past and you want to improve upon it,” explained Ouellette.
Ouellette says he came to speak about how SIIT uses innovation to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to new business arising, and what students will need when they leave the school.
“How do you create that environment where students and others in your staff can generally say ‘hey I have a good idea let’s explore it and see if it works better,” he said.
Ouellette says SIIT has a ‘maker lodge’ where entrepreneurial students can use different technologies like 3D printers or any of the digital tools they need to start exploring their ideas.
“We’re always trying to make sure when students leave the institution, they have the ability to grow with their career—part of that growth is seeing the bigger picture,” he said.
The third panel member, Gadwa, is an apprenticeship consultant with TeamsAlberta who also values the networking opportunities at the annual summit.
“Oh, it’s good,” said Gadwa. I’m able to form partnerships around the area here. There’s a few people I’ve been meaning to talk to and I’ve been able to find them here.”
Gadwa’s role with the company is to guide apprentices through their trades training.
“So I mentor them, guide them and I tutor them if I have to. Then we have employment liaison workers and career counsellors on staff as well,” he said.
TeamsAlberta bills itself as the future of employment services with innovative services for job seekers and employers including pre-employment assessments and cultural competency training.
He also shared some innovation tips during the panel discussion about how to hire for diversity, using the analogy of putting ducks and wolves together in a workforce.
“When you are talking about innovation and bringing diversity in the workforce, you need to ensure when they are sitting around the table, it’s not all the ducks sitting at one table and talking because they’re going to talk duck talk,” said Gadwa.
“You actually have to have the wolf and the duck talking together, so creating those types of environments is important.”
