Partnerships, Commitments and Dreams: A day of networking, learning and inspiration - Co-sponsored by MEDA and Mennonite Foundation Canada

Waterloo, ON – Seventy per cent of family businesses fail to make the transition to a new generation, but an upcoming workshop will show business owners how to keep their enterprise alive by planning now for a smooth succession.

John Fast, the Family Business Doctor, will help take family business owners From Parenting to Partnering during one of three workshops he'll present at Partnerships, Commitments and Dreams, a one-day mini-convention co-sponsored by MEDA – Mennonite Economic Development Associates – and the Mennonite Foundation Canada.

Keynote presentations include Connecting Faith, Business and Development in a Needy World, by MEDA chair Dr. Mel Stjernholm, of Boulder, Colorado, and Everest: Living a Dream – A 20-year Personal and Medical Journey, by Dr. Bill Hanlon, pharmacist, family physician, travel and tropical medicine consultant from Cochrane.

Dr. Stjernholm, a native of Colorado, received his MD degree from the University of Colorado and has specialized in endocrinology, with a practice in Boulder. Stjernholm, who has been involved with MEDA for the past 30 years, currently chairs the bi-national board of directors. He has visited MEDA programs in Paraguay, Nicaragua and Tanzania.

Dr. Bill Hanlon is the founder and medical director of the Basic Health International Foundation located in Cochrane. He is particularly interested in the culture, health and spirituality of people living in remote villages in the high mountains of the world. Hanlon has climbed the highest mountain on every continent including Mount Everest in 2007.

Other seminars will focus on smart ways for business people to give, business as a calling, and partnering and investing in developing countries. The event will be held March 8 at the Radisson Hotel Calgary Airport. For more information go to www.meda.org or call 1-800-665-7026.