“We all belong and we’re building community.”
That was Terra Weaver, minutes before the beginning of the 15th annual Inspiring Women Conference at the Lloydminster Exhibition.
The event sold out with more than 300 attendees packing the venue.
Read more: Women’s conference meant to inspire
For Weaver, who is one of the event organizers and co-owner of KT and Company, the inclusivity of the event is important, searching for women from all walks of life to attend.
“I remember being a young mom at home with my kids and you’d see conferences and think, oh that’s not for me, I’m not at the stage of my life,” she said. “But we all do belong at this. This is fun, this is community building. We want everybody to come and connect with their neighbours and meet people.
“We want women in business (to attend), we want entrepreneurs, we want new moms, we want moms who have older kids and we want people who are unemployed.”
She says the key to the events’ long-lasting success is the community.
“All of the community buy in; all of the community support it,” said Weaver. “The community comes out and they want to be here and we’ve sold out the last three or four years.”
The event’s other organizer and co-owner of KT and Company, Kelly Sidoryk, says the formula for the event hasn’t changed.
“Our template for the day has not changed in 15 years,” she said. “We start out with a panel of local women and then shift into breakouts that you can choose from. Have a lunch, bit of a program at lunch, repeat the breakouts, then we conclude the day with a keynote speaker.”
The event has always been planned in careful detail to ensure the best experience for those going.
“The day starts off, registration goes for an hour, so it’s a little bit leisurely, you’re not feeling rushed,” Weaver explained. “If you come with a group of friends, let us know and we’ll have your seating arranged for you. You don’t have to worry about getting here early to get a good spot, that’s all taken care of.”
The event kicked off with Emcee Tess Wack introducing the event before welcoming Lakeland College students Grace Churchill and Gracie Lilienskold to moderate the panel comprised of Jill Kelly, Justina Sather and Liliia Omelchenko.
Weaver and Sidoryk took to the stage to welcome everyone with Sidoryk pointing out there has been more than 150 local women present or lead a workshop over the 15 years the conference has been going.
“We know we’ve only scratched the surface with the amount of inspiring women in the community,” Weaver noted.
Breakout sessions were led by Rikki Ducharme, Sherri Husch-Foote, Dr. Kathryn King and Sierrah Bennett. The day concluded with keynote speaker Beth Hanishewski speaking on the joy solution.
Read more: Women connect at conference
