Organizers of a community development conference are pleased with how the day-long event rolled out and are now looking at the next steps.
“It was fabulous,” said Alison Taplay, who helped organize the Groundswell Conference held at Vancouver Island University (VIU) Powell River campus on Wednesday, January 29. “People have been emailing me and dropping off their feedback forms. It’s caused quite a buzz.”
Taplay said since the conference she has run into many people in the community who said that they had a great day and wondered if it would be organized again next year.
“There’s a real level of excitement going on from a real cross-section of people,” she said.
During lunch, tables for a variety of businesses, community and advocacy groups were set up in various rooms and participants were able to stop, chat and learn about aspects of Powell River they may have not known about.
The success of the conference is a strong indication that people want to talk about the future of Powell River, she added.
It was designed to bring together a broad group of people and act as a catalyst to discussions about how the town will move forward, she said.
“I think one of the most exciting things for me is this message of people contributing from all walks of life and working collaboratively,” she said. “It really buzzed with people.”
Young Adults Community Kitchen (YACK), a youth program which operates through Powell River Community Resource Centre, catered the event for the 150 participants.
“I think the young adults community kitchen has really put themselves on the map,” said Taplay. “The food was delicious—people raved about it. They did a remarkable job.”
Vanessa Sparrow, coordinator for YACK, said that the eight program participants had never catered an event on this scale before.
“The cooperation in the kitchen is totally in the spirit of the conference,” said Sparrow. “We went from making food for 10 people to 150.”
Sparrow said that the catering worked so well because of the team that has built up in the group over the past few months.
YACK member Marie Little, who has been attending the group since last May, said that the experience of preparing for the conference was positive.
On the lunch menu was potato and leek soup, chicken salad and hummus and veggie wraps, kale, walnut and goat cheese salad with a vinaigrette and gluten-free brownies for dessert.
Sparrow said one of the biggest challenges to catering the event was that the YACK kitchen was too small and they did not have access to the same kitchen tools a professional catering company might.
Taplay said the conference organizers are meeting next week to debrief and start to look at what the next steps are. A number of “artifacts” were created during the conference, some of which helped document what was being discussed, and they will give the community a milestone to help take those next steps.
A 10-minute documentary made of footage of the day is planned. “It will show us where we were and help us move to the next thing that can make our community better,” she said.
