Creating Energy Northern Resource Conference returns
After being cancelled last year, and some upheaval during the Covid years, the Fort St. John and District Chamber of Commerce’s Creating Energy Conference is back with an informative two-day line up of speakers followed by a golf tournament at Lakepoint Golf and Country Club.
“We are excited to bring back the Creating Energy Conference in-person, after a four-year absence,” said Chamber Executive Director Tiffany Hetenyi. “Thank-you to Energy Safety Canada for their partnership and to our speakers for providing the knowledge and time to make this event happen.”
The Fort St. John Chamber has collaborated with the Chetwynd Chamber of Commerce, Tumbler Ridge Chamber of Commerce and the Dawson Creek and District Chamber of Commerce to put on this event.
This year’s theme is Building Better Relationships for a Brighter Future, and organizer Stacy Freeman says that they’re asking everyone in their presentations “to either completely focus, or include a component of partnering and relationships, and the importance of those to their organizations or what they perceive for our communities in northeastern BC, and for the province in general.”
To that end, one of the presenters on Day One is Karen Ogen CEO of the First Nations LNG Alliance. The Alliance, says Freeman is about First Nations creating partnerships with industry, with municipalities, with other local communities and how everyone can work together to benefit from the energy sector.
That’s what the conference is about, says Freeman. It’s about how partnering benefits everybody.
On Day One, participants will delve into the latest advancements, innovations and collaborations that are driving the energy sector forward. There will be networking opportunities designed to foster meaningful conversations among the attendees.
In addition to Ogen, keynote speakers will include President and CEO Chris Riley of BC Hydro, who will be speaking about the electrification of BC and what BC Hydro is doing to answer the call for more electricity, and the increased demand on our power system.
Mary Mytting, the Executive Director of Hubspace, is also coming. “Hubspace is a tech accelerator that helps business embrace and create technology-based solutions.”
Hubspace’s mission is to help the technology sector in northern and central BC grow and help the business community adopt technology into their operations.
“They help people come up with, create ideas, make the right connections to see their ideas turn into reality,” said Freeman.
Jen Simmons with Forefront Energy will be there with Hubspace and will have a “dual presentation about their story and how we can take emissions issues and find a technology solution to move forward.”
Hydrologist Ryan Rolick from the BC Energy Regulator will also be attending. Freeman says MLA Dan Davies is lining up someone from the Ministry of Energy to speak, while she rounds out the panels with representatives from TC Energy, the in-coming chair of the BC Chamber of Commerce and local First Nations representatives.
While the first day is the Chamber’s day, Day Two is hosted by Energy Safety Canada, and consists of safety-related presentations and workshops which they’re organizing.
Safety topics and speakers will include:
· Michael Landsberg, founder of #sicknotweak and former host of TSN’s Off the Record discussing mental health awareness;
· Peter Dalton from the BC Energy Regulator, James Bergen, BC Wildfire Service, and Kait Hogg of Tourmaline Oil on Wildfire Awareness;
· A BC Regulatory Update from Egan Wuth of WorkSafeBC;
· And a discussion of Human and Organizational Performance from Jeffrey Lyth of Learning Teams Inc.
The golf tournament takes place on Friday May 24 at Lakepoint Golf and Country Club. Many local companies have stepped to sponsor both the conference and the tournament, but there are still more sponsorship spots available, said Freeman.
In particular, the Chamber is still looking for a title sponsor and a platinum sponsor – at $10,000 and $7,500, respectively. The majority of sponsorships have come in at the $5,000 Gold sponsorship level, and $2,500 Silver level.
The deadline for sponsorships to be included in the promotional material for the conference is May 14th.
For registration information, and links to the sponsorship opportunities go to the Creating Energy Conference page on the Fort St. John and District Chamber of Commerce website.