Photo: Marketplace Leaders

Attendees at a past Marketplace Leaders session.

An entrepreneur presenting as part of a speaker series aimed at Kamloops business and community leaders says he hopes attendees will come away with the tools they need to help them achieve their own visionary ideas.

Leonard Buhler is taking part in next week’s Marketplace Leaders speaking event, and will be discussing how to take a big idea, make it happen, and manage challenges along the way.

Buhler said entrepreneurs and leaders trying to gain traction with visionary ideas will encounter “a bumpy road in the middle” they will need to learn to navigate.

“I’m going to talk about what it takes to take a big idea, execute on it, and what are the leadership principles that you have to apply to build ownership in people, build culture in organizations, and make sure you look after stakeholders,” Buhler said.

Marketplace Leaders is led by a volunteer committee, and offers speaker events aimed at helping business leaders connect and learn.

Buhler, past president of Christian organization Power to Change Ministries, said he will share some of his own entrepreneurial experiences with attendees, including a project which resulted in irrigation reservoirs constructed across southern Manitoba, a well-drilling project in Benin, and a new venture centred around industrial equipment sales.

He said it takes visionary people to help solve prevalent issues in their communities.

“There’s real opportunity in Kamloops for visionary leadership. And my hope is that somebody in the room would be inspired to solve some of those problems, and that they might have some tools to do it,” Buhler said.

The Marketplace Leaders event is being held at the Sandman Signature Kamloops Hotel on Wednesday.

The event will take place from 6:30 a.m. until 8:30 a.m. — ending in time for people to get to work, organizers said — and will include a hot buffet breakfast.

Tickets are $40, and can be purchased through the Marketplace Leaders website.

Photo: Marketplace Leaders