The Lakeland Women’s Conference was held this past weekend at the C2, and people are already hoping for another one.
“It went amazing,” says organizer Diahann Polege-Aulotte. “We had close to two hundred ladies there and we had requests to do it again for next year. The local speakers that we had did an amazing job, it was just amazing across the board.”
Former RCMP Commissioner Beverley Busson served as the keynote speaker.
“It was so good to hear about her story and her trials and tribulations as she went from entering the police force into retiring out as a Commissioner,” adds Polege-Aulotte. “It was wonderful.”
The conference did what it set out to do. “We got the sense that the conference was a safe place,” says Polege-Aulotte. “Some of the ladies expressed more than they were planning to. That was very nice to get a little bit deeper into the stories on a more emotional level.”
As for the hopes of another conference next year, Polege-Aulotte says that’s being looked into.
“Funding is the issue, but I’m just going to be putting my ear to the ground to see if [the Ministry of] Status of Women is going to be putting the grant out again or if there’s other funding sources I could do proposals. We set the bar really, really high and I’m sure we can meet or exceed it for next year too.”