Transgender frequently asked questions

How did you choose your name Cynthia Alison Fortlage?

I kept my last name as I wanted some connection to my birth name. Many trans people change it completely.

I chose my first name because it was my paternal grand mothers name that I never met.

My middle name is Alison, according to my Mom that was my first name as she thought for sure that I would be born a girl, just took me 50 yrs to figure that out.

Wow, so you wanted to be even trendier than Ellen DeGeneres?

It's nothing new, but it's been in the media more lately. Transgenderism appears throughout history and is documented worldwide. Medical advances in this century have made it possible for male-to-female transsexuals to achieve nearly identical physiology as genetic females.

Most people don't differentiate between sex and gender. Basically, sex is biological, gender is social. There really isn't much difference between men and women physiologically-- just a chromosome and a couple of chemical levels. The bulk of the difference is social. From the earliest age, boys are expected to act this way, and girls are expected to act that way. Because these social pressures are so pervasive, they almost seem natural unless you step back and think about them.

So, this is a sex issue?

Because the word transsexual has the word "sex" in it, people often think it's mostly about sex. While that's sometimes part of it, transsexuals are usually more interested in getting their bodies to match their feelings. For me, it's really about how I am perceived in day-to-day situations.

So, this is a gender issue?

Yep. There are many kinds of transgender people, and among them are transsexuals. transgender is a general term for crossdressers, transsexuals, female and male impersonators, drag queens/kings, intersexuals, gender dysphorics, and those for whom other gender labels do not fit. I usually tell people I'm a transgender women to be specific, and that I'm part of the transgender community, which encompasses all of us.

I totally understand your situation. After all, I saw "Tootsie."

No, it's not like "Tootsie," or "Some Like It Hot," or "Bosom Buddies" or "Mrs. Doubtfire." Comedies like those are funny because the male characters are forced by necessity to dress as women, after which the hilarity and hijinks ensue. The Ladies' Night guys for Bud Light are funny in the same way, because in the real world they would never pass as women. Let's hope I'm not humorous for the same reason.

So, more like RuPaul?

Um, no. RuPaul is a drag queen, as is Dolly Parton. They are entertainers who use excessive femininity in their acts. Torch Song Trilogy, La Cage Aux Folles, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, the Birdcage, Paris Is Burning-- they're all about drag queens. In the same vein are female illusionists whose goal is to portray a convincing act of femininity onstage and sometimes off. Maybe you saw The Crying Game or have been to the Baton nightclub. Those would be examples of very good female illusionists (they get touchy about the word "impersonator," and you don't want one of them mad at you.

So, more like Marv Albert?

Um, no. Marv had a crossdressing fetish of some sort. Same with Dennis Rodman, J. Edgar Hoover, and a huge list of other rather masculine men. Crossdressers get sexual or emotional satisfaction from touching or wearing women's clothing. Almost all are straight males. The generally accepted number is around 1 in 50 men.

So, like a hermaphrodite?

I've been describing what I'm not to clear that up first. One last thing I'm not is intersexed. An intersexual (hermaphrodite) is a person who is born between (inter) sexes, having partially or fully developed pairs of female and male sex organs. "Intersexual" is usually preferred over the word "Hermaphrodite". These conditions are genetic and occur about as frequently as twins.

OK, OK, you're a transsexual. What does that mean?

Transsexuals feel their body does not match the way they think and feel, and they seek to remedy this by changing their body to match their mind. There are almost as many female-to-male transsexuals as there are male to female. For some reason, FTMs are largely ignored-- probably because they almost invariably are indistinguishable from genetic men. The effects of testosterone on females is more dramatic then the effects of estrogen on males (think East German olympic swimmers). Plus, I've never met a female-to-male whom I could tell without their outing themselves to me.

As much as I hate to admit it, Yes Caitlyn Jenner and I have this in common that we are both transgendered women.

So are you, like, gay or something?

Gender identity and sexual orientation are separate traits, although most people don't think about them as separate. There are straight transsexuals and gay transsexuals, etc. I am in a committed 30 yr marriage where I am fully committed to continuing to be Monogamous.

While transsexuals are different from gays and lesbians, we have many of the same issues, since we are all going against what society has constructed as appropriate gender behavior. The Stonewall Riot that sparked the gay rights movement in this country was instigated by drag queens, which is why they marched first in the Stonewall 25 parade. Several women's groups have also embraced our issues, most recently the National Organization of Women. NOW has acknowledged that transsexuals totally disrupt gender-based stereotypes by forcing people to think about how much of it is merely social instead of "natural."

How did you get this way?

Plain truth is, nobody knows what causes this, although theories abound. Many people believe there is a biological component. The most common theory involves hormones affecting fetal brain development. But again, no one knows for sure. Personally, I don't really care what the cause is, anyway. I've felt this way as long as I can remember, and I think it's better to look forward than backwards.

I don't think of being transsexual as a blessing or a curse. I just think of it as a trait, like being right-handed or tall. Unfortunately, any trait carries with it certain social stereotypical presumptions. The misconceptions transsexuals have to deal with are that it's all about sex, or that we're just gay people who hate being gay. I just find that living and interacting with others as a female feels right.

How did you know?

I knew something was up from earliest memory. I have several specific memories from around age 9. I was scared to death to tell my parents how I felt, though. By the time I got to middle school, I was starting to have a lot of problems with classmates because I was effeminate, so I made every effort to act the way boys were expected to. This strategy worked, and I decided that I'd be better off putting all that behind me. Eventually, I decided I could manage my feelings without doing anything about them.

By a few years ago, I started to realize that I was getting more and more unhappy because I wasn't addressing those feelings. I started therapy and quickly concluded what I suspected early on.

I have begun planning for transition, getting everything taken care of prior to going full-time. This includes telling everyone outside of work, having laser & electrolysis to remove my body hair (yeouch!), having manicured nails, piercing my ears, cleaning up my brows, starting hormone therapy, growing my hair, developing a female voice, and some cosmetic surgery. I will also legally change my name on all documents.

How did you go about this?

The medical community has developed its own standards of conduct regarding sex reassignment surgeries. They were created at a conference in the mid-60's and were adopted as the world standard for sex reassignment surgeries. My transition will be done according to these standards.

How long have you been doing this?

I got serious about it two years ago, and I've been living as female outside of work for almost 5 months now. All my family know, and everyone has been great so far. I hope you'll continue that trend.

Why are you switching at work?

The final stage of the Standards of Care is the Real Life Test (RLT), which involves living as a member of the desired sex for a period of time. This is to help transsexuals determine if sex-reassignment surgery is right for him or her. Most psychiatric professionals require a minimum of one year RLT before giving their approval for sex-reassignment surgery. That's the stage that I will communicate with you again in future as I prepare to arrive at work as Cynthia to begin my Real life test.

Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) is the final event in the sex-reassignment procedure. Although transsexuals have no reproductive organs (uterus/ovaries) the final result is cosmetically and functionally indistinguishable from that of genetic females. Some decide not to have this surgery, at this time I anticipate that I will have that surgery.

What bathroom are you going to use?

I don't want people to feel uncomfortable about this, there is no gender neutral bathroom in the building that I can use to avoid the issue. When I am dressed as Cynthia I've been using women's restrooms when necessary without any problems-- it's just a bathroom, after all.  When dressed s Nigel I use men’s restrooms. I will attempt to find a bathroom on another floor that can be used without issue before I appear at work as Cynthia, in the case of an urgent need I will use the one closest to me.

So, when do you appear on Jerry Springer?

Every group has its share of kooks and idiots. Unfortunately, that's true of transsexuals, too. Problem is, the morons who go on shows like Jerry Springer end up getting more media coverage than the doctors, lawyers, and other professionals I know.

For example, my four closest transsexual friends are: a bus driver, an engineer, a teacher, and a computer programmer. They lead very normal lives and seek to blend into society rather than stand out. That is my goal as well.

The other group of transsexuals who get noticed are those who are visibly gender variant. While they should get as much respect as those who are accepted as female, they must deal with additional discrimination and harassment. They also have become the cliché of what a transsexual is, since those who are accepted as female well do not get noticed.

I'm sure you have encountered several transsexuals without even knowing. I have been fortunate enough to go about my life without getting "read" or "clocked" very often. While I'm not ashamed to be a transsexual, I hope it eventually becomes a very incidental part of my life so I can get on with more important things.

What if I call you the wrong name?

I know that's going to happen. Don't worry about it. You'll use the other name, other pronouns etc., even if you're trying hard. I'm not touchy, and I try to have a very good sense of humor about the whole thing. I know this is prime comedy material, and I can laugh along with good-natured joking.

What should I do if I have other questions?

1. Everyone is welcome to stop by and talk with me. I'm happy to answer any questions (well, almost any), and I assure you I will tell no one what you asked me. Obviously, I'm pretty good at keeping things secret.

2. If you don't feel comfortable talking with me, you may ask Jocelyn, who can then get an answer from me and get it back to you anonymously.

3. If you need to talk with someone we have the new Solareh service available to help you talk through your questions.

4. If you don't feel comfortable talking with Jocelyn or I, check out the list of books available the Rainbow Resource Library here in Winnipeg. They also provide resources for friends, family, and co-workers who need support.

My most helpful book to date is:

True Selves: Understanding Transsexualism--For Families, Friends, Coworkers, and Helping Professionals

by by Mildred L. Brown (Author), Chloe Ann Rounsley (Author)

Can be found on Amazon.ca link:

https://www.amazon.ca/True-Selves-Understanding-Transsexualism-professionals/dp/0787967025

In Winnipeg, Rainbow Resource Center, 170 Scott St, (204) 474-0212

PFFOTI: PARENTS, FRIENDS AND FAMILY OF TRANS INDIVIDUALS

2nd Tuesday of the month. 7PM-9PM. The Qube. Year round. Social support group for parents, friends and family members of trans individuals. Open to the general public. Group facilitators can be reached at pffoti@gmail.com.

The Winnipeg Transgender Support Group has a list of reading materials that you may wish to look up, many of these titles are available from the Rainbow Resource Centre library. Links to both are provided below.

http://winnipegtransgendergroup.com/resources/books/

http://www.rainbowresourcecentre.org/library/

What's in a name, quite a lot actually . . . .

On Friday, May 20th, 2016 I shared this communication with my GHY family . . .

By now there might be some information circulating around the office about me and if not, well, this should be an interesting read for you.  I am about to share some personal information with you and although I do want to be up front with everybody that I work with, some of you might think that this information is a joke.  I assure you it is not.  Comprehending this information, in fact, may take considerable patience, understanding and compassion.  I expect that some of you will require a longer time to fully process this as it is not a minor issue like a haircut or a bit of nail polish.

I am transgender.  Specifically, I am male-to-female transsexual. I have been aware of being different most of my life, but only came to a realization in the last few years that it had a name and the extent to which I felt like this. This has caused me an almost inexpressible degree of personal grief and confusion.

After many decades of struggling with my gender identity, I have finally come to grips with who I am.  I have been in therapy since the beginning of this year and it has become very clear to me that I cannot continue with the status quo in regards to my life without creating a union between my body and my spirit (for lack of a better analogy, my mind, heart and soul do not coincide with the physical body that I was born with).

Fortunately, transsexuality can be treated.  Most of those who have embarked upon their journey of “transition” do go on to live fulfilling and joyful lives.  I have support from my wife, family and close friends and for that I am very lucky.  This is not always the case for some.  There is a well-established protocol for treating those with the condition of “Gender Dysphoria” (pretty fancy words!) that has been adopted by the Canadian Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, as well as many other mental health care associations.  This protocol is known as the “Benjamin Standards of Care,” and it constitutes a rigorous set of procedures, ensuring that the patient is an appropriate candidate for gender affirmation.

If you have read this far, it’s quite possible you feel the top of your head is about to blow off.  Most of us have no personal experience with transsexuality, and lack even a basic language for talking about it.  If you find this strange, embarrassing, or even wonderful, you should know that your reaction is not atypical.

GHY executives have all expressed their respect and understanding for the journey that I will be embarking on, and have pledged their support.  To some degree, all of you will be embarking on this journey with me and I will apologize now for the potential chaos that the hormone treatments will put me through.

I am confident that my transition at work will be relatively smooth once the initial surprise wears off.  I expect the first day that I present as female will cause some disruption, but I will give everybody sufficient warning so said disruption can be minimized.  That being said, even though I will definitely look and sound different I am still the same person I have always been.  You will however notice a few different mannerisms.

You might be wondering what you can or should do next:

First, if you wish to learn more, check out the Frequently asked questions attachment I have posted seperately for you.

Secondly, please ask questions.  Knowledge is power and the key to understanding and compassion.  Ignorance and hiding yourself is the path to hate and mis-communication.  I am completely open to answering any questions you may have in regards to the process, or whatever else you may be curious about.  I also want to be very clear, I am still the same person you have known up to this point, and will remain relatively unchanged, well, with a few distinct changes of course.

I realize that jokes may be made and while humour can be a therapeutic tool, I do not want to be the object of malicious intent.  My adventure (and yours too) in the coming months will require honesty and courage.  I am hoping that with your understanding and acceptance, I will be able to complete it.

It has been a pleasure to work with you all over the last 28 years, and I look forward to continuing to work with you as your colleague for many years to come.

As I noted, I will give plenty of notice to everybody prior to the new me showing up for the first time.  When that day comes I will be going by my new chosen name Cynthia.

A Nondenominational Holiday Greeting . . . Bah! Humbug!

The ultimate Politically Correct Greeting!  Please appreciate it for the humor it is . . .

Please accept with no obligation, implied or explicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2012, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere.

This wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

My best to you and yours,

This is why I wish everyone a Merry Christmas!!

Empowered IT executive leading social media change - Page 3 - IT Workplace

Empowered IT executive leading social media change - Page 3 - IT Workplace

A Week with IBM Power Systems and Linux

Insights from the road…

The temperature wasn’t the only thing that was hot when I visited Austin, Texas, and LinuxCon 2011 North America in Vancouver, Canada, this past week. I took to the road to share insights from GHY International, which uses the powerful combination of Linux, the open-source operating system, on IBM Power Systems  in a production environment. I also wanted to get a sense of the current state of Linux on Power hardware.

From a corporate perspective, GHY has invested in state-of-the-art technology that allows it to seamlessly communicate with its customers and customs offices in the United States and Canada. It also prides itself on providing its customers with the human touch.

“We offer the best of both worlds: As companies look at their options for trade services, they’re looking for partners that can deliver all the important technology-based solutions but also maintain close personal relationships and accountability for performance,” says Reynold Martens, executive vice-president.

GHY International is in its second decade of using Linux in the enterprise, the last nine years on IBM Power hardware. Approximately two-thirds of our server environment consists of virtualized machines running on our IBM Power 750 server. We use SUSE Enterprise 11 Linux on our server instances.

We run very diverse workloads from core network services including a firewall on an IBM Power LPAR, to email and Web services, and finally to an application-development platform based upon the industry-standard LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack.

Using this powerful combination we have created solutions that save the organization hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. These savings are calculated in real hard dollar savings from licensing, maintenance costs, training, etc., to FTE savings. As an example managing email, spam, anti-virus, context filters, etc., saves us an estimated 9.5 FTE annually.

It’s because of our use of Linux that I attended LinuxCon an event of The Linux Foundation, which is a non-profit consortium dedicated to the growth of Linux. This year’s North American event was held in Vancouver, BC, Canada, from Aug. 17 through Aug. 19.

Of special note during the LinuxCon North America 2011 event was a keynote with Dan Frye, vice president, Open Systems Development, IBM Systems and Technology Group; Jon “Maddog” Hall, executive director, Linux International; and Eben Moglen, director-counsel, Software Freedom Law Center. The keynote was moderated by Jim Zemlin, executive director, The Linux Foundation. From a commercial position it was the feeling of the group that Linux is where it is today because IBM stepped up and made its original $1 billion commitment back in 2001.

News of the Week was poorly timed when Phil Robb, director of the Open Source Program Office at Hewlett-Packard presented his keynote the morning of Aug. 18, just as the news broke from HP corporate about the company’s withdrawal of WebOS based products, The audience, which was plugged in, was aware of this news before the keynote even wrapped up. Unfortunately for HP the keynote was all about how the Linux technology-based WebOS was so great. Needless to say, HP’s booth at the event was bare after that.

I did some recon at the event to understand how the market sees the IBM Power platform’s position. In light that the “Jeopardy!” playing computer, Watson, is an IBM POWER7 processor-based system running Linux that speaks volumes to the masses, IBM has a home run with Watson.

Currently, Red Hat and SUSE are the IBM enterprise partners that provide distributions for Power Systems. Red Hat is the North American market leader in x86 Linux workloads, while SUSE, the new/old standalone business unit from the recent acquisition of Novell by Attachmate leads in non-North American markets as the choice for enterprise Linux, but during a conversation with one executive from SUSE he indicated that their figures indicate that the company also accounts for at least 50 percent of the IBM Power market and more than 80 percent of the IBM System z marketplace. Of special note for me is the fact that historically SUSE has been in step with IBM Power hardware releases and not a fast follower like Red Hat.

For those wondering, yes I did have very detailed discussions with SUSE executives about the whole Attachmate deal. While a number of issues that reassure me of SUSE’s future in this market were discussed, such as Attachmate is investing, not divesting of this product portfolio, some nagging questions still need to be answered as to the long-term future impact to the open-source marketplace and potential indemnification that vendors will still need to put in place for enterprise users. If anything I think it plays very well for SUSE, which holds perpetual rights to use all products and their intellectual property without license.

Surprises and Delight

It was with great surprise and delight that I found some interesting tidbits that the IBM Power community should be aware of.

Gentoo, which is generally regarded as the Linux distribution that is like getting a box of Legos without the instructions for those who like to build things, has a community build of its distribution for IBM Power Systems.

Canonical, the distributors of Ubuntu, also have a community build for IBM Power Systems available. Since Canonical is already in the business of selling enterprise distributions, maybe the company will consider a future opportunity to make its community build an enterprise offering.

The last tidbit is more a future opportunity than a solution for today, maybe. IBM’s love/hate relationship with Oracle is no secret. It’s also widely known that IBM Power Systems with enterprise Linux can be a good solution for Oracle application users. Oracle, of course, bought MySQL, the “M” in the LAMP stack abbreviation. IBM has offerings to migrate to DB2 (a great database) but that breaks the industry standard of the LAMP stack, and at this time I am not aware if the DB2 team has done anything to make DB2 more of a drop in replacement to MySQL. The original developers of MySQL now have an offering called Maria DB, only available in an x86 distribution directly, but it is a direct binary replacement to MySQL, thereby preserving the LAMP stack and requiring no re-development while migrating to a different database, away from future concerns of what Oracle may do with MySQL. I found it interesting that this may not be as hard as it sounds as Gentoo’s public distribution already contains the IBM Power version of Maria DB. This is definitely one case that requires some R & D to understand what it can do and again increase choice in the IBM Power market.

About GHY International

GHY International has pioneered customs broker and international trade solutions through Canada and USA borders while providing trade compliance solutions to meeting the trade needs of our clients. Since 1901, the depth and breadth of our services at GHY have expanded to create one of the most successful, knowledgeable, and experienced customs brokers and trade compliance specialists in Canada and USA.

Video Games Future in Doubt

Online Game Play Future Cash Cow

I am sure that those that read this may think I am crazy, but from my own personal experience as a player and parent of an AVID player, the future of video games is in doubt because of the many enterprise players who are trying to figure out how to monetize the future of video game play. IE: we pay way more for broadband connections than we pay for a game itself, who wouldn't want a residual model for game sales?

Combine that with my belief based upon interviews with gamers that today most game sales are made to players wanting access to the online play world, that's where the real game play happens.

In my home that is Xbox Live and to a much smaller degree the Nintendo WII world.

The Current Money Pit

Xbox live has a tidy additional sum of $60/yr for access to play and interact with friends, regardless of interface used including the newest Kinect type interactions, why else would skype be so appealing to an organization where they sell a simple audio/video interface into the home for game play that could be leveraged with a Kinect device to be the core VOIP/Video station to the home. That means new services on the backbone of that and perhaps future acquisitions of broadband service providers so they own the future of the last mile to the home?

The Real Money

Regardless the real money they seem to be focusing on based upon all the chatter is subscription based online play. The chatter is in some cases just noise, in others a real concern as leading titles may become free or less expensive in order to draw a larger audience who start by paying for premium access to dedicated game servers, additional game content not already in the online store’s, or even access to play online. This last point is the real crutch of the matter.

As identified earlier, I believe that the bulk of game sales today are to players who go online, so removing online access, as a standard part of the game you buy will detract from future game sales. The strategy may be to reduce the cost of a product for replaced revenue for online play, BUT I would argue that no one talk about online play as a 1 time cost, the SaaS software market has already proven that. It is a subscription service model that really works for software developers, and games are after all just another type of software.

Future Implications

Sure there may be subscribe and get games for free models, Gamefly already has a simple model that can be used to understand how that could work, but the real question is what does that new model mean to game companies? Do we see title being retired and even though you love playing it, if not supported you can’t play it anymore? Then you need to get more content?

Summary

This is an area to watch, my predication is watch what the game console companies do an the top 5 game developers in each platform market, folks like EA are in everyone’s top 5 virtually as a simple example. The companies actions in the next 1-3 yrs will dictate the next 5-10 yrs of what will happen with game sales and if they can master that content, watch out Video producers as that is next target, but due to bandwidth concerns in just North America alone, it is doubtful if even 10% of the population could get enough bandwidth to service all the video, audio, game, voip needs. That is another story.

20 Things I heard at TEDx Manitoba

I was privileged to be selected as one of 100 attendee's at today's TEDx Manitoba, held at the Park Theatre.  Now the last time I was at the Park Theatre, I was about 30 yrs younger, lived in the area, and it was a still an active local movie theatre. Now it is a chic renovated destination for entertainment and cultural events. I never visualized the potential of the location, it was great!

Back to TEDx Manitoba

Our MC, Kevin Hnatiuk did a great job keeping things going today.

 

The day began with some African drumming from Chango. A great way to get the day going, although I felt rhythmically challenged first thing today :-)

Next up was Robert Sawyer, SCI Fi Writer. He talked about consciousness and how the internet if the first technology approaching the number of synapses, in discussing his concepts with other attendee's it would appear that there is a shared belief that the internet could be considered a growing shared global consciousness.

 

Not as impactful I  believe was our second speaker Nicole Buckley, from the Canadian Space Agency.  What she did share was that the amount of research that must go into addressing the challenges still ahead of us if we wish to consider travel to distant planets. Most uniquely was the research to solve those issues appears to have a correlation to solving diseases associated with ageing.

 

Kerry Stevenson raised some very interesting questions to which there are no immediate answers related to the impact of 3D Printing.  Yes 3D printing.  If someone can print a knife that is banned in a country, how to we control that if the 3D model is a file shared online?

 

For me one of the most emotional stories shared was that from Karen Latourneau, Ultrasound technician. She initiated a review of procedures (protocols) in order to improve the discovery of prenatal heart disease. Her initiative and review with her peers resulted in a drop of infant deaths from approx. 27 deaths a year in Manitoba to ZERO, her dream is to share the simplified protocols they created with other jurisdictions.

 

Len Brownlie, shared his insight in Olympic sport. It was interesting to note that the time differential between gold medalists and silver medalists was .measured in hundredths or thousands of a second.  Using sport technology can contribute to that success.

 

Dr. Frank Plummer shared an interesting story about sex trade workers in Aftrica that appear to have natural immunity to the HIV virus.  The story isn't complete regarding his research and we were left hanging.  The implications to the developers of vaccines is huge as this heads in a completely different direction than they have ben going.

 

A very encouraging story was shared by Shaun Loney, BUILD project. It makes me wonder why I never heard of this yet and why we aren't endorsing projects like this?  Maybe electoral votes has something to do with it?

 

Phil Doucette, shared a strong and impassioned story about Forgiveness and Monopoly.

 

Lin-Lin Wang, Chinese Musician impressed all with her performances on the 2 stringed Chinese instrument called Erhu.

 

Rick Van Eck, educational reform enabled through the use of concepts from Video Games.

 

John Weigelt, a National Technology Officer from Microsoft Canada came to share the understanding he has over the development of the economy that is recovering and rather than talking about a "Digital Economy", he talked about an economy enabled through technology.

 

Leslie Silverman & Columpa Bobb, I am sorry I didn't understand this session and what message they were trying to share. As an artistic dialogue it was very engaging and enjoyable.

 

Scott Striton, As CEO of local Smith Carter Architects he talked about Intelligent Buildings. It made a lot of sense and was an impressive approach that he shared.

 

I had a chance to talk to the father of HannahTaylor. Her presentation about caring and how such a small act of recognizing a homeless person can make a difference was inspiring. As her father shared, Hannah shares an insight and maturity not found elsewhere, she may just be an "old soul"

 

While I will admit I am a listener of Terry MacLeod's morning radio show on CBC, the story he lead with his 3 Guests left me awestruck at the back ground and  brutal honesty of his 3 guests, all former gang members. They also deserved the standing ovation they received as I believe there is hope and they are striving to be better citizens as they re create their lives for the betterment of them and their families. POWERFUL

 

Les Foltos, Peer Coaching for teachers. Interesting concept that delivered a part of the solution on how to transform education to utilize 21st century techniques to educate our youth.

 

Bernard McCoy - He is a monk and CEO of lasermonks.com, His presentation about Social Entrepreneurism was very intriguing. Basically a concept of creating for profit business that fund non profit organizations.  This idea of doing things for the GOOD of the masses was a new approach to the perpetual question of funding for non profit organizations that do social good in our communities.

 

The final high energy presenter was Terry Godwalt - Teacher and contributing founder of DeforestAction.  He presented so much high impact material, I am still absorbing it. But  basically the message was about developing meaningful ways to have children invloved in global issues. The key here is that they get to see meaningful results as part of their contribution thereby reinforcing the message that they can bring change.

 

The final item that I heard was not from any speaker but from discussing these ideas with others in attendance. We have so much to contribute and now the goal is to decide how each of us will play a part.  It was inspiring to see that we do have a hidden resource in Manitoba with so many great thinkers, now it's time to share these idea's, and I am beginning with this post.

 

Thanks for listening . . .