Author of one of Canada’s best selling books, David Chilton, spoke before a sold out crowd recently at the City Centre Stage downtown.
The Canadian author, investor, and television personality originally from Sarnia, Ontario, said he was delighted to be back in Red Deer to speak on entrepreneurship, his past best selling book The Wealthy Barber, and his upcoming book The Wealthy Barber Returns.
Chilton was the first speaker to appear in the Red Deer College Donald School of Business Distinguished Speaker Series this fall.
“I don’t think any speaker in the country’s history has been to Red Deer as many times as I have, and I love it out here in the prairie provinces, I get spoiled when I come out here,” said Chilton, during a press conference before his talk.
“It is nice to be back giving public speeches again, because I haven’t given one out here since the early 90s so I’m glad the College has brought me back.”
With a mix of students, faculty, business owners, and the public all in attendance, Chilton said that he wasn’t hoping to get own single message across. Rather through a retelling of his own experiences in a comedic and common sense manner, he hoped that attendees would “Draw their own messages from that and take little parts and apply them to their own situations and life.”
Having become a regular on CBC’s Dragon’s Den in 2012, Chilton is no stranger to the business world.
Darcy Mykytyshyn, RDC Donald School of Business dean, believes Chilton’s talk gives students an opportunity to hear about how people in the real world are applying what the students have been learning about in classes.
“What I’m very interested in hearing about is how Dave has been able to take his experience as entrepreneur,” said Mykytyshyn. “Because that’s really what he is, and how he can help entrepreneurs in the audience turn that into something that is powerful for them.”
Mykytyshyn explained that one of the main reasons for hosting the speaker series is to bring the community into the school of business and “Try to build better relationships with the people and companies who are going to employ the people we teach.”
While no other speakers have been announced, the School of Business hopes that names like David Chilton will draw more attention to the series and continue to build on its success.
jswan@reddeerexpress.com
