Jeanette Ryan

One of TACC's newest employees is our
Business Services Officer

She attended this years' 14th Annual
National CANDO Conference

Here is her review....

Hi my name is Jeanette Ryan, Business Services Officer, for Tale’awtxw Aboriginal Capital Corporation (TACC).  I just recently started my position here at TACC and was privileged to be sent to the 14th Annual National CANDO Conference in Kamloops, BC on October 22-25, 2007. The purpose of the conference was for the delegates, stakeholders, speakers and trade show exhibitors to meet, share, learn, honour and celebrate the growing successes of Aboriginal Community Economic Development in Canada.

The conference was great! I have been a delegate at various conferences in my time but I have to say this one stood out. As I sat on the plane back to Vancouver still glowing from the four days I asked myself why this one stood out over the others. Was it the community tours we took to see for ourselves what the Skeetchestn Indian Band is doing regarding the Mountain Pine Beetle problem, or the NRCan Tour of the New Gold Mine or the BC Wildlife Park where we seen endangered species like the burrowing owl? Could it have been the wildly exciting community rodeo and BBQ where we saw real local cowboys and cowgirls braving the bucking bulls and horses?  Yes, it was all of those and I have to say for sure it was the excitement of meeting delegates from places like Arizona, Nova Scotia, Vancouver Island and even as far away as Australia. 

One aspect of the conference that really stood out for me was the youth panel speakers. Every one of the panellists shared amazing stories of how they as young people came to be where they are today and their vision for the future. They all have jumped wholeheartedly into starting businesses, breaking new ground in politics and doing things that other Aboriginals have never done before.

One common thing we all shared was a vision for Aboriginal communities both large and small to be independently and efficiently moving forward.  Aboriginal people have such a wealth of knowledge and history that we can draw on and share with each other and the world.  I was moved by the words of each speaker, given great ideas from each site we visited and challenged to chase my dreams.

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it