Acknowledgements

This conference was made possible by the generous support of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Connection Grant. We are also grateful to Dr. Jaigris Hudson, RRU Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair, who was Collaborator on that submission and provided advice in so many other ways.

Kim Poduch, Program Coordinator for the RRU DBA, and Carole Sandhu, Manager, RRU’s College of Interdisciplinary Studies, worked tirelessly on every detail of the conference, no stone was left unturned. We cannot thank them enough. Because of them we were able to move from the original plan for an in-person conference to a virtual conference given the pandemic.

We thank the Conference Editorial Committee comprised of Dr. Bill Holmes, Dr. Brigitte Harris, Dr. Rob Mittelman , Dr. Jaigris Hodson, Dr. Hassan Wafai and Dr. Mary Bernard.

For their support and addressing the conference, appreciation is also expressed to: Dr. Philip Steenkamp, President and Vice-Chancellor; Dr. Veronica Thompson, Vice-President Academic and Provost; Dr. Pedro Marquez Vice-President, Research and International; Dr. Brigitte Harris, Dean Faculty of Social and Applied Sciences; and Dr. Rob Mittelman, Acting Dean, Faculty of Management.

Compiler, Paulina Ortlieb, was instrumental in bringing these Proceedings together. We thank you Paulina for your thoroughness.

Communications and marketing support was graciously provided by Jennifer Rathwell, Ali Blyth, Manoela Wagner and Karen Sequeira, whose work helped develop a strong event brand and campaign.

Thank you to Cathy Pretorius and Keith Webster for supporting the conference website with many hours spent behind-the-scenes. Your mentorship and support is deeply appreciated.

The conference was hosted as an online event with the exceptional support of Kees Dekker and Neil Davies of the Royal Roads media support services, as well as Nancy Provost-Maurice and Jamie Ferguson of the events management team, whose expertise ensured a smooth and seamless event.

                                                                   ~ Hassan and Mary