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Image courtesy of Growing the North
By Liam Verster
Virtual Conference

Growing the North Conference is going virtual for 2021

Jan 24, 2021 | 10:04 AM

The 12th edition of the annual Growing the North Conference will look a little different this year, as the organizers have decided to hold it virtually.

The Conference will run from February 16-18, and will be half-days each in order to reduce ‘virtual fatigue’ in the attendees.

Tanya Oliver, the CEO of the Grande Prairie and District Chamber of Commerce and chair of the Growing the North conference, says though it will be held virtually, the conference will be similar to those of years past.

A number of speakers have been booked for the conference, including author and NYU instructor Dan Lerner; Alfredo Tan, the Senior Vice President of Strategy, Data and Partnership at Rogers Sports and Media; the CBC’s Debaters and host Steve Patterson; Dr. Jody Carrington, a psychologist and best selling author; Craig Elias, an entrepreneur and Canada’s #1 B2B sales expert; ATB President and Chief Economist Todd Hirsch; best-selling author and Certified Executive Coach Janice Otremba; and Maggie Hanna, President of Innovation and Technology Scout at Energy Futures Lab.

Oliver says this year will also feature presentations from Premier Jason Kenney, and select members from the UCP caucus, including Grande Prairie – Wapiti MLA and Minister of Finance Travis Toews. Oliver couldn’t confirm how many UCP officials will be in attendance or what they will speak about, but she does say they will all relate to issues and topics that relate to the region.

Oliver says since they have moved to an online model, they were able to book more speakers for the conference, and come up with ways to ensure the attendees catch each presentation.

“With the new addition of break-out sessions this year, we haven’t had that in the past, so during one time spot there’s three different time presentations happening at the same time,” says Oliver.

“So, even though you can only choose to go to one live, everybody who’s in attendance at the conference will have the recording from the other sessions, so you get even more of the quality speakers and presentations than in the past.”

Oliver adds that though it’s being held online, the conference will still provide attendees with networking opportunities, as well as a function to ask questions from the presenters.

“There’s only a couple [presenters] I believe that don’t have the capacity to do questions and answers, but most of them will have the opportunity for questions and answers and also interactions between participants, so that’s really exciting to be able to have that interaction between the audience and the presenters.

“We have a few [presentations] that we will just be pre-recording for logistical purposes, but even the ones that are pre-recorded, the presenter is going to be on live, to be able to answer questions.”

The cost of admission to the conference has been decreased to reflect the move to the virtual format.

Oliver adds that with the event being held online, she hopes it means more people can attend.

“We’re hoping that that’s going to be a silver lining to the whole having to go virtual, because of course before some of the limitations or barriers would be the extra time for travel, the extra budget to attend and have people away from their communities. So now we’re hoping to open it up to a wider, well it will open it up to a wider range of people that might not otherwise be able to take the time to travel before.”

The full conference schedule, as well as registration details, can be found at the Growing the North website.

by Liam Verster