Lake Effect
Dinner with people who get it
On Lake Ontario
An evening of real conversation with other owners. One talk, no pitch, no name tags.
Seating is deliberately limited · Dinner, open bar and ferry included
Why we are doing this
Running a business is lonely.
The people who understand it are busy running theirs.
So we are taking a small group of owners to an island for one evening. Dinner, drinks, and four conversations with people at your stage — the kind you cannot schedule and rarely get.
5
Per table
Small enough that everybody actually talks
4
Conversations
A new table with every course
1
Ferry ride
Far enough from the office to switch off
The format
talk, and that is the whole programme
name tags — we will already know who you are
The best conversation you have tonight
still will not come from the stage.
You will not sit with
the same people twice.
Four courses. Four tables. A new mix every time.
One question
What brings you to a room like this?
Pick whichever is closest to the truth.
Why most of these evenings do not work
Everyone is selling
A room full of pitches is not a room full of conversation.
You never get past hello
Twenty introductions and not one real exchange.
Nobody is at your stage
Advice from people solving completely different problems.
It goes nowhere
You collect a few cards, and then nothing happens.
How the evening works
Four courses. Four tables.
Five to a table, reshuffled with every course. One question each time. Tap a card.
Who is on
One talk worth sitting still for.
Then the tables.
The evening opens with a keynote, and after that nobody presents anything. The rest of the night is four courses and four tables.
Keynote
Jim Harris
Author, Blindsided!
One of North America’s foremost thinkers on AI, disruption and innovation, and a working keynote speaker at more than sixty events a year. He is the reason this evening has a stage at all.
- Speaker of the Year 2024, TEC Canada
- Blindsided! — #1 international bestseller, published in 80 countries
- Ranked a top-ten North American speaker by Association magazine
- Has worked with American Express, IBM, GM, SAP and Walmart
Founding sponsor
Tanya Hilts, CPB, FCPB
Cloud Business Services · Bookkeepers’ Bootcamp
An award-winning Canadian bookkeeper who built a practice and then built the training programme she wished she’d had. Bookkeepers’ Bootcamp is a thirteen-week course for bookkeepers across North America who want a bolder, more ethical practice of their own.
- Founder and CEO, Cloud Business Services
- Grand prize winner, Firm of the Future — QuickBooks Connect 2018
- Speaker, CPB Canada IGNITE
The room
A short ferry from the city,
and a different kind of room.
The Royal Canadian Yacht Club, Toronto Island. Far enough that the phone stops mattering. Close enough to be home the same night.
You will leave with
- A handful of owners genuinely worth knowing
- One introduction somebody promised to make
- At least one problem you stop carrying on your own
- A clearer head than when you got on the ferry
Included
Dinner + open bar + ferry
Tables of five, reshuffled each course Optional 5 PM Island Reset Guided walk before dinnerStudents
A few seats are free for students
If you’re a CPA or CPB student, you don’t pay. A number of seats at every Lake Effect are held back for people who are still qualifying — because the conversation is more useful to you than to anyone else in the room, and because you shouldn’t have to be established to get into it.
By application
Seating is deliberately limited.
We read every application and use it to seat the tables. It takes two minutes.
Students apply the same way — say so in your elevator pitch and your seat is free.