January 28, 2022
Message from the Chair
WELCOME!
The Western Poultry Conference was envisioned by Dr Valerie Carney and became a reality in 2015 with the support of Alberta Agriculture & Forestry, the Egg Farmers of Alberta, Alberta Chicken Producers, Alberta Hatching Egg Producers and Alberta Turkey Producers to provide education and training opportunities for poultry farmers in Alberta and across Western Canada.
The first two years of the Western Poultry Conference were heavily subsidized by grant funding and the Alberta poultry industry embraced the concept. By 2017 the amount of grant funding was reduced, and we were informed that no grant funds would be available for the 2019 event. In response, the conference organizing committee has worked hard to transition the conference to a sustainable model over the past several years through a variety of methods.
" WE WISH WE COULD GATHER IN PERSON THIS YEAR - BUT A THOROUGH REVIEW OF THE SITUATION REQUIRES THAT WE POSTPONE AN IN-PERSON EVENT UNTIL 2023. "
When the conference began, sponsorship was not required since grant funds covered most of the costs in 2015 and 2016. In 2017 the conference began requesting sponsorship, and several companies stepped up to begin supporting the conference. We are thankful to all our sponsors!
The pandemic has touched every aspect of our lives, and the Western Poultry Conference is no different. We had hoped, and planned for a hybrid event, but the current public health situation had the organizing committe make the difficult decision to produce a virtual event for the second year. We are truly in a make or break situation with the conference in 2022. There is a very real possibility that we won’t be able to return in 2023 without strong support from our industry.
We’ve done our best to put together a great program! The committee focused this year’s themes on mental health, wildfire preparation, winter brooding, poultry economics of the future, dealing with mycotoxins and we will hear from the poultry green certificate students from Dewberry School. We believe we have chosen topics and speakers that will provide inspiring messages and provide new ideas for your daily tasks.
I would like to personally thank the Committee Members for their dedicated work and input into this year’s event and a sincere thanks to Kate from ConventionALL Management for their support in handling all the logistics – in multiple iterations as plans needed to change. Lastly, I would like to thank each one of you who sponsor and attend this event, for you are the real reason for our continued success.
Regards,
Brenda Reimer, 2022 Conference Chair
Poultry Innovation Partnership