Members of the Steinbach Chamber of Commerce heard some inspiring words about innovation Tuesday night at their annual spring banquet. The guest speaker was Kirstine Stewart, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tribal Scale, a company that helps businesses move forward through innovation. Stewart was previously the head of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation before moving on to be the head of Twitter, Canada, then Twitter North America. She says innovation requires people to open up a new perspective on the way they do business.

"Many people confuse innovation with a technology. They feel that they need a technology to drive innovation. You can use technology when you implement innovation, but innovation starts with yourself. Innovation starts with your mindset and your position on how you see a problem and you decide you don't see the problem, you actually see the opportunity within it. You see that as the driver to create something to address it. So, I think innovation is a real motivator for people to push themselves in business and to change business in a way that we never become redundant."

Stewart adds, previously you had to live in a large city to be able to access technology to accommodate your innovative ideas. But not anymore.

"Technology has really broken down the barriers. You can set yourself up in a space as you are doing today with your radio interview, sitting on the side of a table with your iPhone. We have capabilities now that we never had before that were really concentrated in big cities. They are now open to all. That creates a huge opportunity for smaller communities to thrive."

Stewart also says that our country is in a unique place in the world right now, opening the door to all kinds of opportunities.

"Canada is very much on the world map right now. We are considered to be a very fascinating, interesting and forward-thinking country and I think that is something to take advantage of. It doesn't matter whether you are in Toronto or in Steinbach, there is opportunity here to be part of this collective story about how successful Canada is. It takes all of us."

Stewart notes some businesses are increasingly concerned about using social media because of all the negative news surrounding the use of people's data. She has the following advice on that issue.

"The best way for businesses to thrive on social media during this time of uncertainty is to position themselves as a place of safety. If you are respectful of your users, if you understand that you want to protect their data, that you don't want to step over any kind of boundaries, that you can be that safe space, I think there's an opportunity for all business to create that haven for their clients and their customers."