20 March 2009
Choosing projects that make a difference in your community can be profitable and rewarding.

Through my 9 years volunteering in my local industry by educating, training and building the industry in areas of interactive web development I have also been building myself both professionally and as an individual.

I’ve been a mentor to many students who aspire to move into interactive which has now become a large part of my career. Currently I am an advisor for an Aboriginal Challenge through ICTAM where I am teaching an Interactive Business course to students both in the city and in an Aboriginal community, reserve, Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) about 6 hours outside of Winnipeg.

Not only am I supporting and inspiring young adults but also I am supporting the growth of a community keeping their talented young adults in the community by the promotion of working remotely. This is what the community needs and I am grateful to be part of this project.

When you strategically align your community passions to your business need, you in turn gain respect from your community and industry especially outside of your industry. Competitors quickly become colleagues and the need to collaborate and refer each other grows rapidly. Before you know it your industry has grown, which in turn grows your business and the opportunities for business because of the niche you have created.

For the first 5 years I did not realize this was what I was doing, but I made sure to do what ever I needed to in order to continue my work in the community even when this meant working an 80 hour week to do so.

My latest project, Aboriginal Challenge (http://www.ictam.ca/index.php/programs/aboriginal-initiative.html), is a new program utilizing my skills and expertise I have been building for years. I am exhausted at the end of my days, and the days I travel to OCN I need to be up at 5am to catch my flight and I get back that night around 930pm. I should point out I am not a morning person I am more a night hawk so being up early is very difficult. I have however find the needed energy to get through the day every class easily.

Yesterday I was at a conference, http://www.newmediamanitoba.com/content/view/125/1/, and there was a serious games company called Virtual Heroes (http://www.virtualheroes.com/) and they are also working within this same means of making a difference in business not just doing business.

This company like mine continues to be successful because if the content created to make a difference in the communities they work with. Who knows with similar thoughts on business perhaps there is opportunity for us to collaborate…