Mayor Callioux, Councillor Laurin, and I are attending the national Rural Matters conference in Edmonton. The theme of the conference is "Forging healthy Canadian communities," and the variety of speakers shows the many ways in which a healthy community can be viewed.
At the opening gala on Saturday, we were entertained by a wonderful Cree singing group called Asani, which aside from performing internationally, has, according to Councillor Laurin, also been to Peace River for a performance at one of the schools.
I met a young woman from Newfoundland, one of the youth delegates from across the country and we sat together for the gala. She represents a provincial level youth organization called FINALY (Futures in Newfoundland and Laborador's Youth). Seems like a great idea to have a provincial youth network that is developing future leaders and is perhaps something for Albertan youth to consider.
Day 2 (Sunday) included an inspirational speech by Rex Murphy--funny, insightful, sometimes profound--all that I expect from Rex. There was a second keynote address by Dr. Mark Partridge entitled "Building Vibrant 21st Century Communities: Skip Hot Fads and Lose the Rearview Mirror." There was plenty of provocative information and statements to consider, but I take issue with a number of assumptions, including the desirability of commuting.
the two afternoon sessions included one presented by Ross Risvold, former mayor of Hinton, that looked at what Ross calls "virtual clusters" as a way of tying together rural communities and promoting innovation and opportunities. This is a concept worth exploring further and I'll be talking to Ross about the idea.
The second session was entitled "Tools to Build Entrepreneurial and Vital Communities" by Mike Stolte of the Centre for Innovative and Entrepreneurial Leadership (CIEL), based in Nelson, BC. He gave us some great tools for gauging a community's business friendliness, quality of life and discussed ways to assist communities to thrive in this constantly changing 21st century.
That's it for now--I'm heading off to Day 3 in a few minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment