Women entrepreneurs and business people gathered on Wednesday (May 30) in Crossfield for the second annual Rural Women in Business Conference and, if the feedback they provided was any indication, they liked what they heard.  

The conference was presented by the Crossfield Chamber of Commerce.  Nicole Vandenberghe is the Chamber's Executive Director and one of the organizers of the conference.  She says last year, about 100 women attended the first event and she was hoping to eclipse that number by about 50 percent in 2018.  In the end, they came pretty close to achieving that goal.

"We had 120 spots on the workshop sign up, thinking we would have to add a bit more as we went.  I know two of our workshops were full, standing room only when they went on, and the other two were very close to being full."

Vandenberghe explains that the theme for this year's conference was "Awaken Your Inner Entrepreneur  "The goal we had for the conference was, we wanted to motivate everybody in attendance, we wanted to celebrate everybody in attendance and we wanted to arm them with the tips and the tools and those tricks that they need to continue going forward in their business and making sure they continue to succeed in their business."

She says, if the feedback cards turned in were any indication, they were successful in doing that.  None of them contained suggestions on what they could do better but only suggested making the conference longer, turning it into a two-day conference, or had even more workshops.

Vandenberghe says, unfortunately, the venue in Crossfield isn't large enough to bring in additional workshops.  She says she'll be meeting with her committee to try to dream of ways of making the conference even more beneficial to the women who attend.  The conference will be held each year going forward on the final Wednesday of May.

Vandenberge believes they've achieved another of their goals.  Making the conference not just a Crossfield event, but one that encompasses much of central Alberta.

"That was a question we had on the feedback forms was where everyone was from.  I had Calgary, Airdrie, Crossfield, Cremona, Didsbury, Carstairs, Strathmore, I think we had some Olds too.  Kind of right in and around those areas.  I was very excited yesterday when I saw some people from Calgary coming here.  We were really focused on making this a central Alberta conference and I think we are there.  I'm hoping, as we grow, that we get more people coming to the region and seeing all we have to offer." 

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