September 14, 2025 • 28 mins
Derek Young – Tourism and Events Marketing | Episode 33 | Sudbury Interviews | September 14, 2025 | Host: Dani Star (Canadian Idol, Season 5) | Find us on Sudztown and join the conversation | If you would like to be a guest on the show, please reach out | Listen on: Sudztown | YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | iHeart Radio | Pocket Casts | Amazon Music | Audacy | Audible | Listen Notes | Overcast | RSS Feed| Website: https://sudztown.com/show/
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hi everyone, welcome to Sudbury Interviews.
Today we have Derek Young from Derek Young Tourism and Events
Marketing. He's a very well known event
promoter and marketing guy in Sudbury and we'll be discussing
his his journey today. Before we begin, you can find us
on Sudstown and join the conversation.
If you would like to be a guest on the show, please reach out.
(00:23):
Hey, Derek Young, how you doing?Good, Danny, how are you?
Good. So what have you been up to?
Just keeping busy, man, Just living the dream, having fun.
And yeah, that's really what it's all about.
Just just having fun and try to keep busy.
Did you always know that you were going to be like an event
(00:43):
marketing person? You know, I guess it was
something I, I guess sort of by accident that I had fallen into.
So going back to I guess, well, I guess if, if we want to even
just look at high school as as an example, right?
Like I, I was sort of always involved in student government
(01:04):
and things along that line. And, and then as a result of
being involved with student government, you know, like very
simple things like, you know, organizing guest speakers at
school or being part of a student food drive, different
fundraising events that we'd be doing at the school.
So, you know, that's I guess kind of where, where some of it
(01:25):
basically started more so from like an organizing perspective
and, and just sort of getting a paste of those events.
And then from there, it's sort of led to my college experience.
You know, I, I had enrolled at Cambridge College.
I was in the business administration program and then
(01:47):
I was asked to become the the chief returning officer for the
student government elections at Cambrian.
And then that led to me being involved in student government.
You know, I take it on the role as chairperson.
And my best friend from college who had actually met during that
campaign, he was elected as the vice president of social
(02:10):
affairs. And earlier in that school year,
our our student programmer had went on a on a sabbatical to
work with a large concert promotions company out of the
United States. And that basically left Kyle to
take on the whole social events portfolio on his own without the
(02:31):
support of a student programmer.So that's kind of where I just
kind of stepped up and, you know, worked alongside Kyle to
be promoting like Frosh weeks, concerts, pub nights and and
then as as that relationship hadgone with Kyle after college,
(02:52):
we'd still remained really good friends and we're best friends
to to this date. And a lot of my experience in
the event industry, I kind of owe it to Kyle has throughout
college, I kind of beaten becamehis right hand on some of the
stuff and had a lot of fun doingit.
And one of the things that we talked about at college was, you
know, our model was keeping it real.
And that's, that's one thing that I've that's that stuck with
(03:16):
me for the last 2530 years. It's just coming back to those
principles. Like even at Cambrian, right?
It wasn't what we learned in thetextbooks.
It was what we learned outside of college by doing that, that
that was more beneficial, right?Like at 22 years old, I was
president of the student government and we had a quarter
(03:38):
$1,000,000 budget. Like what 22 year old has the
experience of managing a quarter$1,000,000 corporation?
You kind of look back on that now.
It's like, wow, that was actually pretty cool.
So, so I've always sort of stayed true to, to that event
stuff and, you know, tried to make a goal of it as as an
(03:58):
entrepreneur and as an entrepreneur, you know, we, we
do struggle, but you just never know what sort of life path is
going to take you on. And then outside of college, we
continue to do some events together.
And then he ended up moving to Guelph and I stayed behind and
(04:20):
just continue to do event stuff.And from there, it sort of led
to a variety of different things.
Would it be, you know, getting involved with the Arts Council
or getting involved with the Downtown Association?
Those experience sort of helped to strengthen my role in the
events community, you know, and,and then that sort of led to
(04:43):
festival planning. Back in like 2008, I'd, I'd
started the Sudbury Celtic Festival and, you know, tried to
do my best with that, with the best of, of intentions.
And unfortunately that ended in 2011, but it was a really
valuable experience at the time that sort of led to new
(05:04):
opportunities, you know, workingwith like organizations like
Little Ray's Reptile Zoo, which is like the largest exotic
animal rescue in Canada. And then that led to, you know,
relationships with the Super dogs and, and, and and the
Knights of Valor. But had it not been for college
and Celtic Festival, you know, Iwould not have had those
(05:26):
experiences and I would not havehad the journey that that I've
been on. So you mentioned the Moto
keeping it real. What does that mean to you?
Well, I think for us, it's, it'sjust about, you know, like just
trying to keep things into its perspective and, you know,
putting in an honest day's work,hard work and perseverance.
(05:50):
And you know, at the end of the day, we, we sort of ended each,
each day with a handshake and like, hey, good day today and on
to tomorrow. Nice.
Did you, did you have a political run at some point?
I think I remember you running for office at one point, no?
(06:11):
Yeah. So, you know, politically, you
know, I I'd ran for city councillor a couple times, once
in 2006. And then in 2010, I decided to
go for the gusto and actually put my name on on, on the
marriage ballot. There were 12 candidates on the
(06:32):
ballot at that time, and I finished fourth overall.
But again, you know, like, that was a really good experience.
And, you know, like, but up until that point, there were two
veteran counselors, you know, that that we're running.
You know, one was Ted Callahan and the other was Mayor
(06:57):
Rodriguez. And then just out of nowhere,
Marianne Matichuk came into the picture and you know, she just
cleaned right up on on that particular election.
But you know, Marianne and I haddeveloped a friendship after
that. And but the whole experience of
even running for mayor, right? Like I remember my very first
(07:20):
debate and the headline in the subway star that day was young
shines that at debate. I'm like that.
That's me felt really good like knowing that here it is, I'm
standing my ground. I'm debating a 16 that 16 year
veteran on City Council and a current mayor and former member
(07:43):
of federal parliament. And I was standing my owner and
I was actually starting to get some some good support and some
good momentum. But, you know, Marianne was just
very well organized at the time and she had a message that
resonated with the people. And, you know, we became the
city's first elected female mayor.
(08:04):
Is that something that still interests you, do you think or
at some point? I think it is something that is
still of interest to me because again, right, like throughout
the the event work that I've done, there's always sort of
communities always being at the heart of all of that.
And that's, that's the one thingthat that I do like about
(08:26):
politics is that, you know, you can sort of look at both sides
of the story. I've also been one of those guys
that kind of works quietly behind the scenes to get things
done. So from, from that perspective,
you know, like, like I look at guys like Jerry, Jerry Lockheed,
right? You know, we were at an event
(08:49):
one day and a lot of people try and encourage Jerry Lolley to
get involved in politics. And Jerry's like, you know what
I'm more effective on on the outside just because you, you,
you have greater influence on actually helping to shape policy
sometimes as, as, as opposed to being sitting right at the
table. So I think at some point I, I
(09:10):
still do have political aspirations, you know, but it's,
it's, it's, it's again, it's going to be finding the right
ward, the right time, the right messaging that's going to
resonate with with the community.
The politics now is just so different too, right?
Like when you just sort of look at what's going on in in the
(09:33):
world with a lot of very strong political views and, and how in
some ways, you know, people may have just become disenfranchised
with a system that is broken. And you know, it's, it's like
even now, right, Like, like I look at while I just look at the
city as a whole, There are some very interesting things that are
(09:57):
happening in our in our city. And so every sort of in a bit of
a resurgence in Renaissance kindof idea, you know, like there's
there, there's so much positive that is going on, like new Event
Center, new library, art gallery.
The current mayor is quickly approaching the goal of 200,000
new residents in the city of Sudbury.
(10:21):
And, and, and those are all goodbig picture things that are
happening, But unfortunately it's, it's, it's being
overshadowed by a lot of realities on the ground and,
and, and on the street as it relates to, you know, vagrancy
and, and, and, and downtown and people wanting to feel
comfortable in investing in our city, right?
(10:42):
Like, you know, the, there are new businesses that are coming
to the downtown and, and it's great to promote that, that,
that this growth is happening. We've got a vibrant patio
program, but you know, unfortunately the reality is
that that's being overshadowed by.
And I'm not saying anything out of turn.
(11:03):
You just got to take a walk downthe street and take a good
whiff. You know, like businesses that
are invested in in the downtown and simple things like urinating
on a sidewalk and the sidewalks reek of of urine outside of
beautiful patio that someone hasinvested their heart and soul
(11:25):
into and and where is the support for that person right.
So great awesome beautiful patioprogram.
But the reality is we have people that are urinating on our
downtown streets. The streets reek of urine and
there's no bathroom. And businesses, when we talk
(11:45):
about being open for business, many downtown businesses have
decided to lock the door. And you have to ring.
You have to ring a doorbell to get customer service, right?
Like that, that, that was stuff that we used to do after
midnight when the stores would close because you had a 24 hour
convenience store, right? But that was fine after 12
(12:06):
midnight for the safety of the store worker.
But now, like when you have businesses that are leaving the
downtown that don't want to be downtown, that are paying double
the rent just so they could havea better experience, you know,
all the wonderful things that are happening, right?
Like we talked about building anElder St.
(12:27):
Greenway and, and, and how that would be a wonderful attraction
to the downtown and have like this downtown Green Park.
But we can't do simple things like fix your retaining wall and
cut the grass. So how are we going to maintain
a $40 million Elgin St. Greenway, right?
So from a political perspective,yeah, there's a lot of good
(12:50):
things happening. But there's some very simple,
basic things that we got to maybe come back to basics and
take care of the simple things on the street so that the growth
that we're poised to have is notbeing overshadowed by the
reality of what's actually goingon on the street.
And I know it's a very long political rant, Danny, but you
(13:11):
know, and I don't want to get too off, off topic about that.
But you know, we we do have to face the realities that yes,
there is growth happening and there's a lot of positive things
happening, but there's also a lot of negative things that are
happening that are negatively impacting and overshadowing the
skills that people aren't seeing.
Well, you know, to be honest, I don't know anything about
(13:34):
politics. I'm clueless about it all and
but I I understand what you're saying.
I didn't know about the the stores like locking their doors
and I didn't know about any of that.
Well, yeah, you know, like in inmy mom's office building,
they've had people during the day come into the office and
(13:55):
steal, steal the ladies purses like they're they're working at
their desk. They leave the desk for 5
minutes. Someone snuck into the office
and stole on a purse. Those types of things are
happening. Our own MP, Vivian Lapointe for
Sudbury moved her office from downtown to Bouchard Street, You
know, and that office is occupied by Rick Bartolucci for
(14:17):
a very long time. And So what is that saying,
right? Like, those are the things that
we're not talking about. But that is the reality that our
politicians and people that should be helping us to address
these issues, even they're saying like, even I don't want
to be downtown, right? Like when our own member of
federal parliament decides to move their office out of
(14:38):
downtown. But at the same time, Oh yeah,
we believe in downtown and we got to support the downtown and
we got to do this and that. But you've moved your office out
of the downtown. What it what kind of a political
statement is that making? Right.
And then that just shows the reality of what's actually
happening. But you know, things like the
new arena and an Event Center, that's, that's definitely going
(15:01):
to help to revitalize to downtown and, and hopefully put
more faith in in the downtown. But again, there's a lot of
things that are going on on the street that aren't being talked
about that are overshadowing allthe good positive things that
that are happening. And, and I love the downtown as,
as do a lot of people that are invested in it, But I we're sort
(15:25):
of in that weird spot, Danny. We're like, you know, we're sort
of on the verge of something really big happening.
But it's gotten to a point whereit's like people have just had
enough to So like how, how do you balance that, right?
Like you, you're trying to balance growth with people of
that have just become apathetic,right?
(15:46):
And just, they can only believe so much and have so much
strength and courage. And then eventually it's like
I'm done. So when it comes to community, I
know you're a big community guy.Like what motivates you?
Like what motivates you in termsof community?
Like how? How do you stay motivated with
(16:07):
all that? I just try and keep the faith
really, you know, starting in January, I, I actually started
attending All Nations Church andthat, that, that for me has been
a real eye opening experience. And it's, and it's helped to put
(16:27):
a lot of things into perspectivefor me.
And one of the things that I like about all nations churches
that for me, it doesn't come offas as being preachy.
It's more about the life skills and the experiences, you know,
So there are things that are said in church that I can relate
(16:50):
to. Like I, I remember a long time
ago I was talking with Jeremy, Jeremy Mahood, who was our
pastor at the time. And like Jeremy, when I come to
All Nations Church, I feel good.This feels like a Dale Carnegie
motivational workshop. It's not stand up 316.
John said blah, blah, blah, likethis to me.
I, I leave church on Sunday and I, and I, and I feel motivated
(17:14):
and, and I feel a connection to the Scripture and to what's
being said. And he said, Derek, that's my
job. My job as a preacher is not to
come here and preach scripture to you.
It's to help connect you to scripture and to see yourself in
Scripture. So every Sunday sermon, I kind
of take something away from it. Like, like a couple weeks ago,
(17:35):
Pastor Brandon was talking aboutcommunity and loneliness.
And you know, how 60% of humans identify as being lonely, 70% in
a leadership role. And so, but, but we do need that
sort of community around us. But you know what, What he was
(17:58):
saying about Sunday sermons is that the Sunday sermon prepares
us for the week ahead. And, and again, that, that was
sort of a message that resonatedme, right.
So you go at church, you're going to hear some great things
going to leave them motivated. What are you doing on Monday
morning, right. So that, that kind of sets us up
for for the week ahead. So, so for myself, like, as, as
(18:23):
far as community goes, right, like I just, I want to see a
better Sudbury. I want to see a more happy
Sudbury and some of the experiences that I've had to
travel to other cities and, and and work in other cities.
I sometimes go like, why can't that happen here?
Right. So yeah.
(18:44):
So part of it is seeing those opportunities, what other cities
are doing and try and bring someof those ideas back back home
and, and just slowly keep chipping away and perseverance
and, and I'm just trying to bring those types of experiences
back home. When I was working with super
dogs, one of the things that they instilled in me was
(19:07):
functioning at enterprise level,which at that time I wasn't
quite familiar with the term. But when I first started working
with him, he says, Derek, you function at a certain level that
we call enterprise level. And I come from a background of
Fortune 500 companies. And when you send me an e-mail
communication, it's clear, it's concise.
I know exactly what I have to do.
(19:29):
When you function at enterprise level, you don't settle for for
mediocrity and you get to a certain point where things
become predictable and you know they should be something to be
called a hot plate. So it was one thing to do an
event budget, but on this hot plate it had every possible
(19:50):
expenditure that you could thinkof, right down to toilet paper
for the dressing rooms. And when we hit certain sales
targets, here's what our expenses are, here's what our
revenues are, here's what our net revenue is.
And then you're sort of looking at that hot plate budget then to
make the make make decisions to say that does this make good
(20:12):
financial sense to want to continue with this project.
So when it comes to that enterprise level, those are some
of the things that I try and putinto my event planning.
Also looking at things more so from a patron experience, right?
Like how would a patron, you know, experience this, this,
(20:35):
this event, you know, and even, you know, just just coming back,
back to church, how it sort of changed my perspective at some
point. In the event industry, often
times we're critical of of our peers, right?
And there was one of my peers inin the event industry, I've seen
(20:56):
what they were doing and I'm like, and I go to their events
and like, how do you run a festival for 5060 thousand
people serving food and not haveplaces for people to sit right?
So great event, awesome people are showing up.
It's got food like 830 on a Sunday night.
(21:17):
They still had lines up for people to get food at the Rib
Fest. The amphitheater was packed.
The band was still playing when I was on the downtown board.
We were, when we first did Ribfest, we said, OK, well, we
were doing a Ribfest. It was kind of like a local
(21:38):
event that was promote and support local businesses, but it
wasn't really catching on. So we said, you know, we we need
to make a bold step here. And if we're going to do it, we
need to bring in professional BBQ teams and we need to create
an event. And I had suggested, well, why
don't we do it Labor Day weekend.
And I got some resistance from the board while, you know, it's
Labor Day, it's back to school. People are going to camp and
(22:00):
they're getting their kids ready.
Probably not the best weekend. And Jack the Riber said, well,
it's actually the only weekend we have available.
So we gave it a go. But we rolled up the sidewalk at
6:00 in the afternoon after a three day rib fest.
So to see now that it's experienced that growth to the
point now where it's now attracting thousands more people
(22:24):
and they're going solid till 10 o'clock 11:00 at night for three
nights in a row on a Sunday, on a long weekend in September in
Northern Ontario, and everybody's supposed to be at
Camp church changed my my perspective.
And I reached out to that promoter and I said, you know
what? Yeah, we, we've been critical,
but good job, right? So part of going to church and
(22:47):
part of being in this industry, sometimes you just got to kind
of bury the hatchet too, right? And, and so that's, that's,
that's one thing that that I've been trying to work on in the
last little while is, you know, changing my, my perspectives,
changing how I might interact with my peers.
And taking the experiences that that I've had by working with
(23:11):
national organizations like super Dogs, like Little Rays,
and sort of working with the next generation of, of event
planners to sort of share some of those experiences and, and,
and perhaps even explore opportunities for, for
collaboration. So Derek, I'm going to ask you
this. We've already covered, you've
already covered quite a bit of this, but it's the daily segment
(23:33):
and it's a question I ask every guest the same words, exactly
the the same every time. And here it is.
What is one thing that you feel would make Sunbury greater?
We got about 5 minutes left. Wow, it makes every greater
again. Gee, you know what I would say,
(24:03):
maybe just a shift in, in, in perception, maybe.
And just everything that I talked about in this interview,
just simple changes in, in mindset to sort of, you know,
see how we look at the world differently.
And you know, how's it again, right.
Like through the church, I, I, Ihad an opportunity to volunteer
(24:27):
and see what was going on at energy court by volunteering to
help serve a BBQ for the Elgin St.
Mission. And when we want to talk about
community, you know, spend some time in a tent city and you'll
get a really good sense of, of what community is all about,
right? Like those people stick
(24:48):
together, you know, but there are times in, in our community
when we might shun those people.It's like, well, I don't go
downtown because it's full of vagrants and beggars and I don't
want to be bothered with that. So I don't go down downtown,
right? But at the end of the day, those
(25:09):
people are also human and we allbleed red, right?
So, so I think I, I would like to see a Sudbury that is, that
is more understanding and compassionate so that it can
really harness its true growth and potential.
That's so there we go, a more compassionate Sudbury.
(25:32):
The tent city down there, I didn't know it was there until I
think yesterday or something. I drove by and I said, what are
all those tents over there? But is that like are they, have
they been given that area or arethey just kind of there?
I would probably guess to say that they're just kind of there,
right. And but again, the, the big
(25:56):
thing in that, in that industry is like meet people where
they're at, right. So, so it is sort of a bit of a
tent city. We, we know that the people are
there. At one point the safe injection
site was operating there. So yeah, you know, it's, it's,
(26:16):
it's kind of important to meet people where they're at.
And I know, I guess was part of the theming behind the BBQ that
was held last Wednesday, right. So as as opposed to everybody
going to the Mission for for dinner between the Mission and
All Nations Church, we went to where they were, we met them
where they were at and and we served dinner there, you know,
(26:42):
and and that kind of felt good, right?
Just Just to be able to do that and and, and and to sort of see,
you know, somebody from a different perspective.
Like, at the end of the day, youknow, we're all good people on a
path, you know? And yeah, but but to your point,
(27:03):
you know, what would I like to see for Sebri probably, you
know, a Sudbury that's a little bit more kinder, gentler, more
compassionate and really able toseize its full, full potential.
Good answer. Sudbury interviews everyone.
And Derek, thanks for coming on.Thanks for your your expertise.
I'd love to have you again. Maybe in a couple of months we
(27:26):
can talk more about the events because this flew by.
Yeah. Well, event wise, this Friday,
comedian Matt Desarro, he's a comedy magician and he's
performed with cruise lines, Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland
of of America, all over North America.
And he was actually recently on Penn and Teller's Fool Us.
(27:50):
And he'll be at Cousin Vinny's and Hammer on Friday night this
week for a dinner and show. And for all the upcoming details
and other events, they can visitmy website
derekcountyevents.com. Nice.
Right on man. Well, thanks for coming on today
and have a have a great day. Well, thank you so much for the
opportunity, Danny. Take care.
(28:11):
Take care, bye. Thanks.
Hi everyone, welcome to Sudbury Interviews.
Today we have Derek Young from Derek Young Tourism and Events
Marketing. He's a very well known event
promoter and marketing guy in Sudbury and we'll be discussing
his his journey today. Before we begin, you can find us
on Sudstown and join the conversation.
If you would like to be a guest on the show, please reach out.
(00:23):
Hey, Derek Young, how you doing?Good, Danny, how are you?
Good. So what have you been up to?
Just keeping busy, man, Just living the dream, having fun.
And yeah, that's really what it's all about.
Just just having fun and try to keep busy.
Did you always know that you were going to be like an event
(00:43):
marketing person? You know, I guess it was
something I, I guess sort of by accident that I had fallen into.
So going back to I guess, well, I guess if, if we want to even
just look at high school as as an example, right?
Like I, I was sort of always involved in student government
(01:04):
and things along that line. And, and then as a result of
being involved with student government, you know, like very
simple things like, you know, organizing guest speakers at
school or being part of a student food drive, different
fundraising events that we'd be doing at the school.
So, you know, that's I guess kind of where, where some of it
(01:25):
basically started more so from like an organizing perspective
and, and just sort of getting a paste of those events.
And then from there, it's sort of led to my college experience.
You know, I, I had enrolled at Cambridge College.
I was in the business administration program and then
(01:47):
I was asked to become the the chief returning officer for the
student government elections at Cambrian.
And then that led to me being involved in student government.
You know, I take it on the role as chairperson.
And my best friend from college who had actually met during that
campaign, he was elected as the vice president of social
(02:10):
affairs. And earlier in that school year,
our our student programmer had went on a on a sabbatical to
work with a large concert promotions company out of the
United States. And that basically left Kyle to
take on the whole social events portfolio on his own without the
(02:31):
support of a student programmer.So that's kind of where I just
kind of stepped up and, you know, worked alongside Kyle to
be promoting like Frosh weeks, concerts, pub nights and and
then as as that relationship hadgone with Kyle after college,
(02:52):
we'd still remained really good friends and we're best friends
to to this date. And a lot of my experience in
the event industry, I kind of owe it to Kyle has throughout
college, I kind of beaten becamehis right hand on some of the
stuff and had a lot of fun doingit.
And one of the things that we talked about at college was, you
know, our model was keeping it real.
And that's, that's one thing that I've that's that stuck with
(03:16):
me for the last 2530 years. It's just coming back to those
principles. Like even at Cambrian, right?
It wasn't what we learned in thetextbooks.
It was what we learned outside of college by doing that, that
that was more beneficial, right?Like at 22 years old, I was
president of the student government and we had a quarter
(03:38):
$1,000,000 budget. Like what 22 year old has the
experience of managing a quarter$1,000,000 corporation?
You kind of look back on that now.
It's like, wow, that was actually pretty cool.
So, so I've always sort of stayed true to, to that event
stuff and, you know, tried to make a goal of it as as an
(03:58):
entrepreneur and as an entrepreneur, you know, we, we
do struggle, but you just never know what sort of life path is
going to take you on. And then outside of college, we
continue to do some events together.
And then he ended up moving to Guelph and I stayed behind and
(04:20):
just continue to do event stuff.And from there, it sort of led
to a variety of different things.
Would it be, you know, getting involved with the Arts Council
or getting involved with the Downtown Association?
Those experience sort of helped to strengthen my role in the
events community, you know, and,and then that sort of led to
(04:43):
festival planning. Back in like 2008, I'd, I'd
started the Sudbury Celtic Festival and, you know, tried to
do my best with that, with the best of, of intentions.
And unfortunately that ended in 2011, but it was a really
valuable experience at the time that sort of led to new
(05:04):
opportunities, you know, workingwith like organizations like
Little Ray's Reptile Zoo, which is like the largest exotic
animal rescue in Canada. And then that led to, you know,
relationships with the Super dogs and, and, and and the
Knights of Valor. But had it not been for college
and Celtic Festival, you know, Iwould not have had those
(05:26):
experiences and I would not havehad the journey that that I've
been on. So you mentioned the Moto
keeping it real. What does that mean to you?
Well, I think for us, it's, it'sjust about, you know, like just
trying to keep things into its perspective and, you know,
putting in an honest day's work,hard work and perseverance.
(05:50):
And you know, at the end of the day, we, we sort of ended each,
each day with a handshake and like, hey, good day today and on
to tomorrow. Nice.
Did you, did you have a political run at some point?
I think I remember you running for office at one point, no?
(06:11):
Yeah. So, you know, politically, you
know, I I'd ran for city councillor a couple times, once
in 2006. And then in 2010, I decided to
go for the gusto and actually put my name on on, on the
marriage ballot. There were 12 candidates on the
(06:32):
ballot at that time, and I finished fourth overall.
But again, you know, like, that was a really good experience.
And, you know, like, but up until that point, there were two
veteran counselors, you know, that that we're running.
You know, one was Ted Callahan and the other was Mayor
(06:57):
Rodriguez. And then just out of nowhere,
Marianne Matichuk came into the picture and you know, she just
cleaned right up on on that particular election.
But you know, Marianne and I haddeveloped a friendship after
that. And but the whole experience of
even running for mayor, right? Like I remember my very first
(07:20):
debate and the headline in the subway star that day was young
shines that at debate. I'm like that.
That's me felt really good like knowing that here it is, I'm
standing my ground. I'm debating a 16 that 16 year
veteran on City Council and a current mayor and former member
(07:43):
of federal parliament. And I was standing my owner and
I was actually starting to get some some good support and some
good momentum. But, you know, Marianne was just
very well organized at the time and she had a message that
resonated with the people. And, you know, we became the
city's first elected female mayor.
(08:04):
Is that something that still interests you, do you think or
at some point? I think it is something that is
still of interest to me because again, right, like throughout
the the event work that I've done, there's always sort of
communities always being at the heart of all of that.
And that's, that's the one thingthat that I do like about
(08:26):
politics is that, you know, you can sort of look at both sides
of the story. I've also been one of those guys
that kind of works quietly behind the scenes to get things
done. So from, from that perspective,
you know, like, like I look at guys like Jerry, Jerry Lockheed,
right? You know, we were at an event
(08:49):
one day and a lot of people try and encourage Jerry Lolley to
get involved in politics. And Jerry's like, you know what
I'm more effective on on the outside just because you, you,
you have greater influence on actually helping to shape policy
sometimes as, as, as opposed to being sitting right at the
table. So I think at some point I, I
(09:10):
still do have political aspirations, you know, but it's,
it's, it's, it's again, it's going to be finding the right
ward, the right time, the right messaging that's going to
resonate with with the community.
The politics now is just so different too, right?
Like when you just sort of look at what's going on in in the
(09:33):
world with a lot of very strong political views and, and how in
some ways, you know, people may have just become disenfranchised
with a system that is broken. And you know, it's, it's like
even now, right, Like, like I look at while I just look at the
city as a whole, There are some very interesting things that are
(09:57):
happening in our in our city. And so every sort of in a bit of
a resurgence in Renaissance kindof idea, you know, like there's
there, there's so much positive that is going on, like new Event
Center, new library, art gallery.
The current mayor is quickly approaching the goal of 200,000
new residents in the city of Sudbury.
(10:21):
And, and, and those are all goodbig picture things that are
happening, But unfortunately it's, it's, it's being
overshadowed by a lot of realities on the ground and,
and, and on the street as it relates to, you know, vagrancy
and, and, and, and downtown and people wanting to feel
comfortable in investing in our city, right?
(10:42):
Like, you know, the, there are new businesses that are coming
to the downtown and, and it's great to promote that, that,
that this growth is happening. We've got a vibrant patio
program, but you know, unfortunately the reality is
that that's being overshadowed by.
And I'm not saying anything out of turn.
(11:03):
You just got to take a walk downthe street and take a good
whiff. You know, like businesses that
are invested in in the downtown and simple things like urinating
on a sidewalk and the sidewalks reek of of urine outside of
beautiful patio that someone hasinvested their heart and soul
(11:25):
into and and where is the support for that person right.
So great awesome beautiful patioprogram.
But the reality is we have people that are urinating on our
downtown streets. The streets reek of urine and
there's no bathroom. And businesses, when we talk
(11:45):
about being open for business, many downtown businesses have
decided to lock the door. And you have to ring.
You have to ring a doorbell to get customer service, right?
Like that, that, that was stuff that we used to do after
midnight when the stores would close because you had a 24 hour
convenience store, right? But that was fine after 12
(12:06):
midnight for the safety of the store worker.
But now, like when you have businesses that are leaving the
downtown that don't want to be downtown, that are paying double
the rent just so they could havea better experience, you know,
all the wonderful things that are happening, right?
Like we talked about building anElder St.
(12:27):
Greenway and, and, and how that would be a wonderful attraction
to the downtown and have like this downtown Green Park.
But we can't do simple things like fix your retaining wall and
cut the grass. So how are we going to maintain
a $40 million Elgin St. Greenway, right?
So from a political perspective,yeah, there's a lot of good
(12:50):
things happening. But there's some very simple,
basic things that we got to maybe come back to basics and
take care of the simple things on the street so that the growth
that we're poised to have is notbeing overshadowed by the
reality of what's actually goingon on the street.
And I know it's a very long political rant, Danny, but you
(13:11):
know, and I don't want to get too off, off topic about that.
But you know, we we do have to face the realities that yes,
there is growth happening and there's a lot of positive things
happening, but there's also a lot of negative things that are
happening that are negatively impacting and overshadowing the
skills that people aren't seeing.
Well, you know, to be honest, I don't know anything about
(13:34):
politics. I'm clueless about it all and
but I I understand what you're saying.
I didn't know about the the stores like locking their doors
and I didn't know about any of that.
Well, yeah, you know, like in inmy mom's office building,
they've had people during the day come into the office and
(13:55):
steal, steal the ladies purses like they're they're working at
their desk. They leave the desk for 5
minutes. Someone snuck into the office
and stole on a purse. Those types of things are
happening. Our own MP, Vivian Lapointe for
Sudbury moved her office from downtown to Bouchard Street, You
know, and that office is occupied by Rick Bartolucci for
(14:17):
a very long time. And So what is that saying,
right? Like, those are the things that
we're not talking about. But that is the reality that our
politicians and people that should be helping us to address
these issues, even they're saying like, even I don't want
to be downtown, right? Like when our own member of
federal parliament decides to move their office out of
(14:38):
downtown. But at the same time, Oh yeah,
we believe in downtown and we got to support the downtown and
we got to do this and that. But you've moved your office out
of the downtown. What it what kind of a political
statement is that making? Right.
And then that just shows the reality of what's actually
happening. But you know, things like the
new arena and an Event Center, that's, that's definitely going
(15:01):
to help to revitalize to downtown and, and hopefully put
more faith in in the downtown. But again, there's a lot of
things that are going on on the street that aren't being talked
about that are overshadowing allthe good positive things that
that are happening. And, and I love the downtown as,
as do a lot of people that are invested in it, But I we're sort
(15:25):
of in that weird spot, Danny. We're like, you know, we're sort
of on the verge of something really big happening.
But it's gotten to a point whereit's like people have just had
enough to So like how, how do you balance that, right?
Like you, you're trying to balance growth with people of
that have just become apathetic,right?
(15:46):
And just, they can only believe so much and have so much
strength and courage. And then eventually it's like
I'm done. So when it comes to community, I
know you're a big community guy.Like what motivates you?
Like what motivates you in termsof community?
Like how? How do you stay motivated with
(16:07):
all that? I just try and keep the faith
really, you know, starting in January, I, I actually started
attending All Nations Church andthat, that, that for me has been
a real eye opening experience. And it's, and it's helped to put
(16:27):
a lot of things into perspectivefor me.
And one of the things that I like about all nations churches
that for me, it doesn't come offas as being preachy.
It's more about the life skills and the experiences, you know,
So there are things that are said in church that I can relate
(16:50):
to. Like I, I remember a long time
ago I was talking with Jeremy, Jeremy Mahood, who was our
pastor at the time. And like Jeremy, when I come to
All Nations Church, I feel good.This feels like a Dale Carnegie
motivational workshop. It's not stand up 316.
John said blah, blah, blah, likethis to me.
I, I leave church on Sunday and I, and I, and I feel motivated
(17:14):
and, and I feel a connection to the Scripture and to what's
being said. And he said, Derek, that's my
job. My job as a preacher is not to
come here and preach scripture to you.
It's to help connect you to scripture and to see yourself in
Scripture. So every Sunday sermon, I kind
of take something away from it. Like, like a couple weeks ago,
(17:35):
Pastor Brandon was talking aboutcommunity and loneliness.
And you know, how 60% of humans identify as being lonely, 70% in
a leadership role. And so, but, but we do need that
sort of community around us. But you know what, What he was
(17:58):
saying about Sunday sermons is that the Sunday sermon prepares
us for the week ahead. And, and again, that, that was
sort of a message that resonatedme, right.
So you go at church, you're going to hear some great things
going to leave them motivated. What are you doing on Monday
morning, right. So that, that kind of sets us up
for for the week ahead. So, so for myself, like, as, as
(18:23):
far as community goes, right, like I just, I want to see a
better Sudbury. I want to see a more happy
Sudbury and some of the experiences that I've had to
travel to other cities and, and and work in other cities.
I sometimes go like, why can't that happen here?
Right. So yeah.
(18:44):
So part of it is seeing those opportunities, what other cities
are doing and try and bring someof those ideas back back home
and, and just slowly keep chipping away and perseverance
and, and I'm just trying to bring those types of experiences
back home. When I was working with super
dogs, one of the things that they instilled in me was
(19:07):
functioning at enterprise level,which at that time I wasn't
quite familiar with the term. But when I first started working
with him, he says, Derek, you function at a certain level that
we call enterprise level. And I come from a background of
Fortune 500 companies. And when you send me an e-mail
communication, it's clear, it's concise.
I know exactly what I have to do.
(19:29):
When you function at enterprise level, you don't settle for for
mediocrity and you get to a certain point where things
become predictable and you know they should be something to be
called a hot plate. So it was one thing to do an
event budget, but on this hot plate it had every possible
(19:50):
expenditure that you could thinkof, right down to toilet paper
for the dressing rooms. And when we hit certain sales
targets, here's what our expenses are, here's what our
revenues are, here's what our net revenue is.
And then you're sort of looking at that hot plate budget then to
make the make make decisions to say that does this make good
(20:12):
financial sense to want to continue with this project.
So when it comes to that enterprise level, those are some
of the things that I try and putinto my event planning.
Also looking at things more so from a patron experience, right?
Like how would a patron, you know, experience this, this,
(20:35):
this event, you know, and even, you know, just just coming back,
back to church, how it sort of changed my perspective at some
point. In the event industry, often
times we're critical of of our peers, right?
And there was one of my peers inin the event industry, I've seen
(20:56):
what they were doing and I'm like, and I go to their events
and like, how do you run a festival for 5060 thousand
people serving food and not haveplaces for people to sit right?
So great event, awesome people are showing up.
It's got food like 830 on a Sunday night.
(21:17):
They still had lines up for people to get food at the Rib
Fest. The amphitheater was packed.
The band was still playing when I was on the downtown board.
We were, when we first did Ribfest, we said, OK, well, we
were doing a Ribfest. It was kind of like a local
(21:38):
event that was promote and support local businesses, but it
wasn't really catching on. So we said, you know, we we need
to make a bold step here. And if we're going to do it, we
need to bring in professional BBQ teams and we need to create
an event. And I had suggested, well, why
don't we do it Labor Day weekend.
And I got some resistance from the board while, you know, it's
Labor Day, it's back to school. People are going to camp and
(22:00):
they're getting their kids ready.
Probably not the best weekend. And Jack the Riber said, well,
it's actually the only weekend we have available.
So we gave it a go. But we rolled up the sidewalk at
6:00 in the afternoon after a three day rib fest.
So to see now that it's experienced that growth to the
point now where it's now attracting thousands more people
(22:24):
and they're going solid till 10 o'clock 11:00 at night for three
nights in a row on a Sunday, on a long weekend in September in
Northern Ontario, and everybody's supposed to be at
Camp church changed my my perspective.
And I reached out to that promoter and I said, you know
what? Yeah, we, we've been critical,
but good job, right? So part of going to church and
(22:47):
part of being in this industry, sometimes you just got to kind
of bury the hatchet too, right? And, and so that's, that's,
that's one thing that that I've been trying to work on in the
last little while is, you know, changing my, my perspectives,
changing how I might interact with my peers.
And taking the experiences that that I've had by working with
(23:11):
national organizations like super Dogs, like Little Rays,
and sort of working with the next generation of, of event
planners to sort of share some of those experiences and, and,
and perhaps even explore opportunities for, for
collaboration. So Derek, I'm going to ask you
this. We've already covered, you've
already covered quite a bit of this, but it's the daily segment
(23:33):
and it's a question I ask every guest the same words, exactly
the the same every time. And here it is.
What is one thing that you feel would make Sunbury greater?
We got about 5 minutes left. Wow, it makes every greater
again. Gee, you know what I would say,
(24:03):
maybe just a shift in, in, in perception, maybe.
And just everything that I talked about in this interview,
just simple changes in, in mindset to sort of, you know,
see how we look at the world differently.
And you know, how's it again, right.
Like through the church, I, I, Ihad an opportunity to volunteer
(24:27):
and see what was going on at energy court by volunteering to
help serve a BBQ for the Elgin St.
Mission. And when we want to talk about
community, you know, spend some time in a tent city and you'll
get a really good sense of, of what community is all about,
right? Like those people stick
(24:48):
together, you know, but there are times in, in our community
when we might shun those people.It's like, well, I don't go
downtown because it's full of vagrants and beggars and I don't
want to be bothered with that. So I don't go down downtown,
right? But at the end of the day, those
(25:09):
people are also human and we allbleed red, right?
So, so I think I, I would like to see a Sudbury that is, that
is more understanding and compassionate so that it can
really harness its true growth and potential.
That's so there we go, a more compassionate Sudbury.
(25:32):
The tent city down there, I didn't know it was there until I
think yesterday or something. I drove by and I said, what are
all those tents over there? But is that like are they, have
they been given that area or arethey just kind of there?
I would probably guess to say that they're just kind of there,
right. And but again, the, the big
(25:56):
thing in that, in that industry is like meet people where
they're at, right. So, so it is sort of a bit of a
tent city. We, we know that the people are
there. At one point the safe injection
site was operating there. So yeah, you know, it's, it's,
(26:16):
it's kind of important to meet people where they're at.
And I know, I guess was part of the theming behind the BBQ that
was held last Wednesday, right. So as as opposed to everybody
going to the Mission for for dinner between the Mission and
All Nations Church, we went to where they were, we met them
where they were at and and we served dinner there, you know,
(26:42):
and and that kind of felt good, right?
Just Just to be able to do that and and, and and to sort of see,
you know, somebody from a different perspective.
Like, at the end of the day, youknow, we're all good people on a
path, you know? And yeah, but but to your point,
(27:03):
you know, what would I like to see for Sebri probably, you
know, a Sudbury that's a little bit more kinder, gentler, more
compassionate and really able toseize its full, full potential.
Good answer. Sudbury interviews everyone.
And Derek, thanks for coming on.Thanks for your your expertise.
I'd love to have you again. Maybe in a couple of months we
(27:26):
can talk more about the events because this flew by.
Yeah. Well, event wise, this Friday,
comedian Matt Desarro, he's a comedy magician and he's
performed with cruise lines, Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland
of of America, all over North America.
And he was actually recently on Penn and Teller's Fool Us.
(27:50):
And he'll be at Cousin Vinny's and Hammer on Friday night this
week for a dinner and show. And for all the upcoming details
and other events, they can visitmy website
derekcountyevents.com. Nice.
Right on man. Well, thanks for coming on today
and have a have a great day. Well, thank you so much for the
opportunity, Danny. Take care.
(28:11):
Take care, bye. Thanks.
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