Workshop: Crisis Management: Recession-Proofing Your Business
PLEASE NOTE: This training has eligibility requirements for participation listed below - please read carefully
Join us as Symplicity Designs will deliver an intensive, one-day masterclass that equips business leaders with a proven playbook to survive, stabilize, and ultimately thrive during economic downturns. Drawing on the same frameworks we used with more than 400 organizations in crisis, the session moves quickly from insight to action, arming participants with the tools to safeguard cash, protect customers, and seize opportunity, even when the market contracts.
What Will Be Covered
▪ Setting the Stage: Adopt the Safety-Liquidity-Creativity mindset and align leadership on a clear purpose.
▪ Forecast: Build weekly rolling forecasts for Customers, Cash, and Constraints to see trouble before it strikes.
▪ Plan: Use the Triple C framework (Cut, Control, Continuously Improve) to unlock working capital and fund
smart bets.
▪ Execute: Establish a consistent meeting rhythm with brief daily check-ins and weekly reviews to keep teams
aligned and informed.
Participant Takeaways:
▪ A customizable 30-day recession-response plan ready to deploy the next morning.
▪ A cash-flow dashboard template that pinpoints burn rate and credit headroom in minutes.
▪ A catalogue of low-cost, high-impact improvement ideas proven to release trapped cash during past crises.
▪ Meeting scripts and agendas to install a high-velocity communication rhythm that keeps teams focused when
it matters most.
▪ Access to our digital toolkit—worksheets, calculators, and video refreshers—to reinforce learning long after
the session ends.
Symplicity’s crisis work has helped owners unlock multi-million-dollar exits and scale revenue 4× in turbulent times.
MEET YOUR FACILITATOR
Symplicity Designs
Matt Symes is the CEO and founding partner of Symplicity Designs. He has guided 600+ private and public-sector organizations through strategic transformation, unlocking over $1B in profitable growth and helping Symplicity earn and sustain B-Corp certification—with impact that places the firm among the global top decile for the triple bottom line. As a serial company builder, he has started, acquired, and scaled a diversified portfolio—from a specialty coffee roastery to professional services—giving him credibility that most consultants can only reference.He is the AI Entrepreneur-in-Residence at UNB’s Technology Management & Entrepreneurship (TME) program, a transformation strategist, and an AI-first organizational architect. Matt’s point of view is direct: AI is no longer an IT project; it’s a management discipline. Since 2023, he and the Symplicity team have introduced practical AI to more than 300 organizational leaders. Their deeper deployments have produced millions of dollars in unlocked productivity and capacity by redesigning workflows, compressing cycle times, and instrumenting decisions with data. His playbook blends leadership behaviors, change mechanics, and hands-on systems integration so teams can ship value on Monday—not someday.
His operating experience includes stepping in as COO to help scale a CPG firm from $20M to $155M in revenue, doubling a global IT firm’s revenue in less than three years, and has supported systemic performance improvements in education and healthcare. His grandfather was a roofer who started a roofing company and his heart lies with helping small business owners. That breadth informs how he mentors founders and executives: align on a compelling future, make the few hard choices that matter, and build an environment where execution becomes routine.
An award-winning CEO and award-winning educator, Matt was named Business Leader of the Year by the Halifax Chamber in 2021 for his role in helping the region navigate the Covid-19 pandemic and he has been recognized four times as Atlantic Canada’s Top 50 CEOs (2022–2025). Through keynotes, workshops, and his 12-month Levership™ cohort, he distills what works in the field into pragmatic tools leaders can use immediately to scale—without sacrificing their desired lifestyle. Offstage, you’ll find him enjoying his own espresso, logging miles as he works toward seven marathons on seven continents, and living a life of intention and adventure with his partner Emily and their two young daughters. Matt’s a business builder, a curious human, and proud girl dad—committed to showing up with purpose (and not just talking about it).
ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES
As per the guidelines for LSI funding, there is eligibility criteria for participants. **
A business is eligible to participate if it:
- is located in Nova Scotia
- is registered and active in the Nova Scotia Registry of Joint Stock Companies or incorporated by an Act of the Nova Scotia Legislature
- has a direct workforce development need (like upskilling employees, adopting new technologies or addressing critical skills gaps within their industry)
Date and Time
Friday Apr 10, 2026
8:30 AM - 4:00 PM ADT
Schedule of the day:
8:30 AM - Check in, form submission
9:00 AM - Course starts
12:00 PM - Break for Lunch
12:30 PM - Training resumes
4:00 PM - Course finishes
*Lunch will be provided. (Please email cailin@halifaxchamber.com with any dietary and/or allergies asap)
Location
Halifax Chamber of Commerce
Lighthouse Boardroom
32 Akerley Blvd
Dartmouth, NS
Fees/Admission
In partnership with the Department of Labour, Skills, and Innovation (LSI) the Halifax Chamber is able to offer this training to members and non-members.
Contact Information
Cailin Winters, Event Specialist
Send Email
Printed courtesy of www.halifaxchamber.com – Contact the Halifax Chamber of Commerce for more information.
32 Akerley Blvd Suite 100, Dartmouth, NS B3B 1N1 – (902) 468-7111 – info@halifaxchamber.com