Strathmore Women’s Conference returns

By John Watson Local Journalism initiative Reporter

After a stint of hosting the event online due to COVID-19 concerns, the Strathmore Women’s conference is preparing to once again be held in person this April.

Lynne Walker, committee chair for the Strathmore Women’s Conference, said the team as well as attendees are excited to once again be able to come out and experience the event.

“The women’s conference, now that COVID-19 is over, we’re finally able to get back into the swing of things… we’re able to offer to women in our area,” said Walker.

According to Walker, the Women’s conference occurs every two years, being offset by the team’s senior’s conference that they host in opposing years. 

“This year, we’re starting off with the women’s conference and it’s a day away to allow women to refresh and revitalize and just have time for themselves to feel better and have a day away,” said Walker. “We have quite a variety of vendor tables that will be in our vendor hall … our keynote speaker for the day is Jocelyn Hastie, who is a local author and she has written ‘The Keys to a Cowgirl’s Confidence.’ She is going to be speaking to us about the things that we can do to just be better, stronger women.”

The conference is an event for women to get out, network, socialize and spend time for themselves.

During this year’s conference, there will be eight different breakout sessions that attendees can opt in for during their registration of the event.

According to Walker, these include, though are not limited to, intuitive eating, cannabis, Indigenous ways of empowering women and flower arranging. 

Keynote speaker Jocelyn Hastie has also authored ‘The Cowgirl’s Code,’ and ‘As Buck Would Have It: A Cautionary Tale of Mature Online Romance in Cowboy Country.’

“I really am very excited. I’ve been working on my programs for a couple of years and am just absolutely chomping at the bit to be able to share some of these messages,” said Hastie. “What I’m going to be speaking about is … once you establish who you are and your own values, you can establish a code of conduct for your own life that will clarify things, give you peace in your mind and align your actions with your own personal values.”

Hastie explained that much of her presentation and writing from ‘The Cowgirl’s Code’ stems from her own thoughts and experiences.

Walker added all of the previous iterations of the Women’s Conference were very positive events for those who were in attendance and she hopes to see much of the same this time around, with a large number of attendees.

“We’re hoping, we’re planning for 100. Maybe we’ll make it, maybe we won’t, but we will be glad with whatever we get because we will be able to share all of these very rich sessions and give women a chance to visit,” said Walker.

The women’s conference will be hosted at Hope Community Church on April 9 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Those who are interested are requested to pre-register online before attending.