Recap: 2019 Pictures & Videos of Experience Your Life Expo

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our five year history, Experience Your Life Expo 2019 was our BEST EVER! Our next event is 4th October, 2020 and it will be sold out again. RSVP on eventbrite

We are proudly one of the largest youth employment, empowerment and entrepreneurship events in Canada with the highest representation of youth focused federal employers and programs in any single event in Canada. It was amazing to host iconic organisations, leaders from the government, academia and industry executives who flew in from across Canada to make a real difference in 1100+ young lives.

We had a lineup of hundreds even before the expo opened and we opened it together with a first nations ceremony followed by every one in the room proudly singing O Canada! Cambrian College and Laurentian University among several other colleges, schools and universities organized group travel to the event from Sudbury and other places. The energy was incredible!

2019 Opening Ceremony

2019 O Canada

Mark your calendars to experience it in person on Sunday 4th October 2020 at our NEW location in Mississauga. RSVP on eventbrite as an attendee.

In addition, you can be a part of this even in three ways:

Sponsor – The Expo is not just one of the largest youth empowerment events in Canada, it is one with one of the highest quality of organisations. We have one of the highest representation of Public Sector employers and tier-1 organisations. Email info@experienceyourlife.ca for sponsorship details.
Exhibit – If you are a Public Sector or tier-1 employer (ranked by employees in major industry surveys), please send us an email and we will be happy to extend you an invite. We only have 50 booths mostly for returning exhibitors and have no plans to expand beyond that to keep the quality high. We are sold out of exhibit space months in advance each year.
If you are a college, university or high-school or an organisation that works with youth (16 to 30) then contact us for group tickets at info@experienceyourlife.ca
Attend the Expo. It is sold out each year, you can RSVP on eventbrite . Registration for 4th October, 2020 is now open.

Main Expo Hall – Video and Pictures

(Click pictures to enlarge)

We want to recognize the following individuals who made this event successful :

Our leaders : A BIG thank you to all the pubic and private sector executives who took time out and led the various roundtables. As you experienced through the real nature of the conversations, you made a big difference in the lives of youths.
Our Exhibitors: Thank you for the opportunities they provided to the youths. You made a real difference. We are an invitation-only event and you truly represent some of the best employers and government programs.
Our Academic Partners including University of Toronto Mississauga for being a sponsor, Sheridan College, Queens College, Lambton College, Cambrian College and Laurentian University Faculty of Management for organizing bus travel for students from Sudbury and United Nations Association in Canada for bring your cohort of social entrepreneurs.
Our Attendees: We were thrilled to have a high caliber of attendees that are real change makers and risk takers. We are proud to be surrounded by incredible people who believe in our mission. The attendees came from as far as Montreal and Ottawa to connect with the opportunities.
The Team: The absolutely incredible Experience Your Life Team. Your positive energy, professionalism and sincerity made the event what it was! They came from as far as Singapore, Edmonton, North Bay, Sudbury, Montreal, New York and believe in the vision.

The Experience Your Life Team

Breakout Rooms Videos

The breakout rooms were sold out a month in advance. So many reached out to the the team and expressed how life changing this session has been. The energy again is hard to describe but here some videos and pictures that capture some moments.

This room has changed lives over the last five year by connecting youths with senior executives for an authentic round table conversation. Below was one of several incredible moments that took place where a high school student broke down to express how awesome this experience has been for her.

For 2020, we will be mostly working with colleges & universities to pre-allocate group tickets. Please email us at info@experienceyourlife.ca to ensure your students get a spot. For individuals, you can RSVP on eventbrite. There are only 200 spots for 2020.

Breakout Rooms Pictures

Toronto Student Media Network interview with Sultan Akif

This will never be just another event for us. It is all about making a real difference. Read the full story of our founder in his book Boy in the Library (available on Amazon worldwide)

If you made it right till the end of this post, you have the Experience Your Life spirit :)! We put a lot of heart into this Expo and are always looking for people to join the event who share our vision and are willing to put in the effort to make their dreams a reality. Join us on Sunday 4th October, 2020 by registering on eventbrite today!

Visit http://www.libraryinaweek.com and http://www.twosistersonamission.com to see how our impact is not limited to this expo. We are on a mission to build 100 libraries around the world and have built 32 in 9 countries so far. In addition, we are on a mission to spread social entrepreneurship and empowerment with youths so more can follow their dreams.

Attendee Testimonials

Now for the most moving part! Here are the student testimonials from 2019.

” I wanted to thank you again for helping me come to terms with much of the doubt I carried until that day. I didn’t know where to turn for inspiration or guidance until I heard you speak. Like Sharon Babineau, you’ve given me hope for my future and valuable insight I will use to push myself to excel. I’ll admit that it wasn’t easy for me to open up as I did. However, I feel as though a large weight has been lifted off my chest, and I’m forever grateful. I’d also like to say that I will do my best to not limit myself. Up until I saw you and our speakers, especially those who were so young, find ways of becoming leaders, I never saw myself as one. I hope that someday I can become a leader and inspire others as well.”
“The only words that come to mind again are thank you. What you said touched the soul in many ways”
“I wanted to thank you once again for the opportunity to exhibit today. We are deeply grateful for all that you have done for us and hope that we can work with you in the future.”
“I was at the Experience Your Life Expo this past Saturday. I wanted to say thank you for organizing such an amazing event for youth. The round table discussions were so insightful and all the leaders were very knowledgeable”
“I really enjoyed it, it was great for networking and reminded me that all this hard work with school is leading somewhere. It was inspirational and I would definitely recommend returning next year. “
I am very happy I was able to attend. I would definitely recommend it to other people. My breakout session with Yvonne Osagie was very insightful and I learnt a lot about networking and goal setting.
I definitely recommend this event to be provided again for students next year. I have learned a lot from the experience that the leader shared with us regarding their personal life and business life. It helps give us a guide for our future career planning.
I learned that to become successful, there are many skills required of us that not only relate to the job itself, but skills that allow us to be able to connect with other people and to deepen our connection with others. I learned some valuable skills with respects to networking, that I will need to learn how to apply into my daily life, from the talks with the leaders.
I would recommend this event again, I learned a lot from these leaders.
This was an amazing experience. Meet all these persons was a real inspiration for me, I learned a lot from them and am pretty sure that it will be a plus for me. Thank you so much for allowing us to have this opportunity.
Je recommande cet évènement car elle permet aux étudiants de rencontrer des professionnels et de se faire également un bon réseau pour le futur. En ce qui concerne le bus, c’est une très belle initiative car ça a permis aux étudiants qui n’ont pas de moyen de déplacement de se rendre mais surtout de participer à cet événement constructif.
I wanted to say that this event was really a big shock for me and I have learnt a lot from this experience. Meeting Helen Dai was really interesting and she succeeded to inspired me for my personal life as well as for the professional side. In fact, her story looks a little bit like mine because she has been an international student before. She became such a powerful and kindhearted leader that I have been inspired and encouraged to continue on my path. I have received a lot of advices not only from her but also from Rob at the beginning of the expo and I had the opportunity to talk with Yvonne and honestly, I was super happy to be a part of this experience. Let’s say that the experience gave me a push up and helped me to have the ambition and courage to achieve my goals.
There was a lot of love and encouragement that we are all on a journey to become our best selves. I have been able to carve my own path out in life, however there are so many youths without hope and opportunity. We see this in most of our Canadian small towns and also increasing in our cities in the last few years. It can be tough to make it and to gain productive employment in their field of work. I also was touched with Rob’s story and the others at the end of the challenges they have faced in their lives. It is all about how we deal with these challenges is so important. On a professional level events like this connect us with the potential of great future opportunities. We may end up working with some of these leaders in our futures. Event’s like this can give us the key to the next chapter of our lives.They really can be life changing.
It was an amazing experience and I would definitely recommend that this event be provided to future students. It was truly inspirational and engaging which made me understand how important it is to find something you are passionate about. I learned many important lessons which I will carry with me for the rest of my career.
I do recommend this trip for future business students as I found it very motivational and inspiring. Hearing what these successful individuals had to say about how they got to where they are really made an impact. One of my biggest takeaways was the advice Rob and my leader for the roundtable discussion Griffith gave. This advice was that it’s okay to not like the career you thought you were destined to pursue and that’s it’s okay to switch directions. Hearing that it’s okay to switch from successful individuals made an impact on my morale with regards to the program and made me feel more comfortable with the direction I am heading. From a professional level, I learnt more about directions I can go after my undergrad and job opportunities related to my program that I can apply for during the summers off. I found it very helpful to learn about the job opportunities out there and had a chance to network.

ENERGY BUILD UP! Experience Your Life Dinner

This year was special as it was our 5th year anniversary. It was also special as we simply trimmed down any negative energy and doubled down on positive organisations and people across the year. We only invite organisations that resonate with our unique energy, attendees who are excited and a team of volunteers that is a joy to be with. The expo was only 4 hours, but the events and energy started building up 48 hours ago. People started flying in from around the world. The energy you experienced at the expo started building several days ago when people flew in from around the world. If you are joining us from far for 2020, reach out in advance. The dinner is a private event but we are always open to grow the tribe of sincere change makers one person at a time.

Every year, we host a dinner the night before the event. This is when our tribe of change makers comes together from around the world before the busy Expo day. This is an invitation only dinner. Email us at info@experienceyourlife.ca to apply if you would like to join in 2020. Please note that while incredible leaders from across Canada are present in the room, it is not for businesses development or networking but for a much deeper level of connection. It is predominantly for our tribe of change makers but each year we open it to a few new people that are all looking for a community of sincere change makers who are taking action.

This was also the launch of Fatima Sultan & Amna Sultan’s book that is now available on Amazon in Black & White and Color . They will be on Dragons Den on 24th October at 9:00 p.m. Their role models all came together from as far as Singapore to support their launch.

Team Only First Nation Ceremony

We were honored to be welcomed by the Indigenous Advisor of the university for a traditional pipe ceremony with sacred tobacco to bless the events that will follow the weekend. Jason Fobister from Grassy Narrows sang a song to add his energy to the ceremony. It was incredible to experience this before the busy weekend and it really centered our energy on purpose and impact only.

We had to turn down 11 exhibitors this year and the rooms were sold out months in advance for breakout rooms. We will never expand to a point where the energy of the event is diluted. We have decided to grow a little bit bigger and are THRILLED to share the new location is Mississauga Grand Banquet and Event Center. Here is a sneak preview of the location for October 4th 2020. See you then!