Issue link: http://tourismwpg.uberflip.com/i/976785
23 2017 Annual Report YES! Winnipeg Investor Breakfast & Ryan Kuffner Introduction On November 22, YES! Winnipeg held its annual Investor Breakfast at the Fairmont Hotel. One of the event highlights was a roundtable discussion with Growth, Enterprise and Trade Minister Blaine Pedersen, Mayor Brian Bowman and Dayna Spiring. The discussion topic was on the current state of economic development in Winnipeg. The event attracted over 150 attendees and was an opportunity to network with some of the city's most vocal and energetic business leaders. Another highlight of the YES! Winnipeg breakfast was the formal welcome of Ryan Kuffner as the new vice-president of sales and business development of EDW, and new leader of the YES! Winnipeg initiative. Kuffner is a graduate of the I.H. Asper School of Business who has spent the bulk of his career with the Canadian Foreign Service as a diplomat and trade commissioner. He officially started his term on December 11, 2017. A large part of Kuffner's mandate is to build a more strategic direction for the YES! Winnipeg initiative. This includes a renewed focus on boosting accountability with both the Investor Council and external stakeholders, better articulating and marketing YES! Winnipeg's value proposition, as well as the assistance YES! Winnipeg can provide in support of retention, expansion and attraction of companies in order to bolster the local economy. One of the first initiatives, announced by Kuffner was a commitment to inform any new strategic direction through meaningful consultation. This includes booking a meeting with every YES! Investor in 2018 to get feedback on work done since 2011, and how YES! Winnipeg can continue to improve the services it offers. Event Spotlight