CANDO heads north for 10th annual conference

Circle of Trade Show Guide Supplement

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Aboriginal economic development officers and leaders from across Canada will be gathering in Whitehorse in September to share their experiences and expertise and celebrate their successes, as the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (CANDO) hosts its national conference.

Also attending the conference will be youth, entrepreneurs, and representatives from the corporate and government sectors and from post-secondary institutes, who will take part in the annual networking opportunity, learning what works and what doesn't in the area of Aboriginal economic development.

The Drum is Calling ... Journey to New Horizons is the theme of this year's conference, the tenth to be organized by CANDO.

The conference will be held Sept. 16 to 19, and will be hosted by Dana Naye Ventures, a Yukon-based, Aboriginal owned and controlled institute that works to help the people and communities in the Yukon become more self-reliant.

Dana Naye means "making money grow" in the Kaska language, and that is what the institute works to do, by providing developmental finance, business training and advisory services to Yukon businesses and entrepreneurs.

This year's conference will use the medicine wheel as its framework, with each of the wheel's four quadrants-mental, physical, emotional and spiritual-representing different aspects of economic development.

This year's Economic Developer of the Year awards will also be handed out at the conference. This is the second year awards will be handed out in two categories-Individual, and Business/Community. Delegates at this year's conference will be choosing the award winners, voting on whom among this year's nominees they think is most deserving of the recognition.

A pre-conference golf tournament is planned, to be held Sept. 15 at the Mountain View Golf Course. The conference itself will kick off on Sept. 16 with opening ceremonies, followed by the CANDO annual general meeting and an ice breaker reception.

On Sept. 17 and 18, the trade show will be open and the conference workshops will be held.

One of the new features for this year's conference will be the use of "open space technology" in two of the conference sessions. Through the open space approach, which is based on Aboriginal ways of meeting and organizing, the participants create the agenda for discussion. The group is then divided into smaller groups for discussions to take place, then the outcome of those discussions is recorded. The process ends with a closing circle.

One open space session is scheduled for Sept. 17 and another for Sept. 18. The themes for the sessions are based on the medicine wheel and are designed to allow for a holistic exploration of economic development.

Post-conference activities are scheduled for Sept. 19, allowing conference delegates to visit the Teslin Tlingit Council in the morning, and then the Champagne and Aishihik First Nation in the afternoon.

Registration for the conference is $300 plus GST for members who register before July 31. After that date, members must pay $350 plus GST to attend. The non-member fee is $425 plus GST, and the registration fee for students and Elders is $175 plus GST.

You can register for the conference in one of three ways: by faxing your registration to 780-429-7487, calling CANDO at 1-800-463-9300 to have a registration form mailed out to you, or visit the CANDO Web site (www.edo.ca) to register online.