Speaking Engagements

Julie Hartley is available for speaking engagements at schools, colleges and education-related events. While subject material can be tailor-made to suit each organization, the following is a specific talk currently being offered to high school students across the GTA.

 

Making It Happen: Building the Life YOU want to LIVE!
A Keynote Presentation for High School Students

Length - 45 mins to 1 hour, as required

How do you begin to shape the kind of life YOU want to live? This is a presentation that explores the possibilities - and challenges - of entrepreneurship, using as its model an industry most teens understand well - Summer Camp! Sixteen years ago, Julie and Craig Hartley emigrated to Canada with next to no money and a seemingly impractical dream: to open a sleep-over summer camp that would specialise in the arts. Eleven months later, Centauri Summer Arts was born, and has since grown into a leader in the camping industry. But exactly how does a personal dream get born? Is it really all about the success story? This personal keynote presentation explores the reality behind entrepreneurship - the hard work, the failures and the challenges - by using personal anecdotes and often-hilarious stories. At the heart of the message is the idea that running your own business is about far more than making money - it's about hard work, perseverance, believing in yourself and - more than anything else - shaping the life YOU want to lead.

Julie Hartley is the co-director of Centauri Summer Arts Camp, which has welcomed thousands of teens from all over the world. Centauri's endeavors have included a successful arts retreat for adults and international performance and writing tours for teens. Julie is also a poet and a playwright, and has taught guest workshops in schools across Ontario. She is a sessional instructor for the theatre schools at the University of Waterloo and George Brown College. Her summer camp business has allowed her to follow other dreams, too: including fundraisers to build a school in India, and becoming a storyteller.