ESTEVAN — The Estevan Chamber of Commerce is celebrating 120 years of serving the community in May. To mark the milestone, they are bringing two major events on May 30.
First up will be the Southeast Success Summit – a day filled with informative sessions at the Southeast College's Estevan campus. Following that will be a 120th anniversary banquet at the Beefeater Plaza featuring special greetings from Premier Scott Moe; guest speaker Steve McLellan, who is the former CEO of the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce; and other dignitaries and surprises during the celebration of the chamber, its history and the local business community.
Chamber executive director Jackie Wall said the business summit was started as a recurring event, but it has been on pause since 2018 due to outer circumstances. They decided to bring it back this spring under a new name.
"We thought, let's go back to the business summit, but instead of calling it that, let's call it a Southeast Success Summit. And the reason for that was we wanted to be able to celebrate the success that we have within our region. There's been a lot of stakeholders that are working on really exciting projects. So, let's see if we can highlight that. And let's see if we can also highlight different sessions that business owners can use to further their success," Wall explained.
The summit will feature a variety of sessions. Andria Brady with Community Features Sunrise will speak about their unique Go Digital Sask. program that is changing the lives of rural entrepreneurs across the province. David Hammermeister will make a speech on behalf of MNP.
Guests will also have an opportunity to listen to the Community Changemakers and the Creation of a Tourism Destination in SE Sask presentation by Trevor Keating of the Southeast Sask Economic Partnership. Aron Bacon, Business Development Bank of Canada's Business Centre manager in Regina, will talk about ways to protect profits against rising costs. Gordon More of the Southeast TechHub will speak about innovation creating jobs in southeast Saskatchewan.
The day will also see a Success in the Southeast panel with Estevan MLA and Minister of Highways and Infracture Lori Carr, Christina Birch of CF Sunrise, Monica Osborn of the Weyburn Chamber of Commerce and other panellists. The panel guests will discuss where they are seeing success in our region and how people can continue to work together to collaborate for continued success.
In the evening of the same day, the community is invited to join the chamber for the celebratory banquet.
"They are two separate events," Wall underlined. "We knew that people have different capacities and it's a different focus. Of course, the summit is focused on information sessions and networking. And the banquet also will have networking, but it's celebrating the chamber. So, we thought we would do them as separate registration items. And people also might be available in the evening and not during the day and vice versa.
"Our main focus is let's celebrate where we're at and where we're going in this community and let's have some really good valuable positive conversations," Wall noted.
Both events are open to anyone in the community, but there are special rates for chamber members. To register, people can go to the chamber's website at www.estevanchamber.ca.
"I just really would encourage people to get registered as soon as possible because there is always a limit to the amount of people that can attend," Wall added.
Registration ends on May 23 at noon.
