Metis conference inspires entrepreneurs, hopefuls

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If delegates to the recent Metis Economic Development Conference are any indication, the business forecast for Metis entrepreneurs in the 90s has nowhere to go

but up.

The 400-plus Metis who attended the May 16-28 Metis Nation of Alberta Economics Development Conference 1992 forged through a punishing three-day conference slate with energy, determination and enthusiasm.

The conference theme of self-determination through self-sufficiency reflects

Metis efforts to overcome an uncaring society's treatment, said Thursday morning speaker Thelma Chalifoux, co-chairman of the Metis Elders Senate.

In a voice alternately ringing with a call to action and rough with emotion, Chalifoux charged Metis has been spurned and ignored by both their white and Native cousins.

"We were never accepted by either race. We walked a lone path."

She challenged Metis youth to rise above such attitudes to carry out the example of the founders of the early Metis communities.

It was Metis entrepreneurs who founded St. Alberta and other western communities, she said.

"They were the shopkeepers, the teachers, the clergy. They were the ranchers,

the farmers...the dominant force in the west before the formation of the provinces."

Roland Duplessis, Metis Nation spokesman, said MNA conference organizers think the challenge for Metis business people in the next few years will be to get a cohesive support network going.

The MNA executive also wants to get the message out to the Metis entrepreneur that there is more to creating a business than mere money.

"Management, education and training are also important."

Right now, Metis business people are dispersed throughout the province with no business organization providing a network. The conference would begin to redress that problem, he said, with the creation of a standing registry of Metis business people.

"Duplessis added MNA would sponsor workshops in every zone in the coming year to help people keep up contacts made at the conference and to bring facilitators into the communities.

Speaking at Wednesday's lunch, Mayor Jan Reimer encouraged the Metis to use the conference as an opportunity to build a supportive network.

She urged them to recognize the importance of joining forces, and pledged her support to Metis entrepreneurs.

"If any one of you finds doors slammed in your face, I want to hear about it."

In a schedule designed to have lesser mortals dropping like flies, the Metis entrepreneurs trooped from workshop to speech-filled luncheon with unflagging enthusiasm.

They listened to opening speeches with their breakfast, took notes during the following workshops, crowded into wrap-up sessions for more note-taking and did it

all over again in the afternoon sessions.

Delegates came from all over Alberta, from communities as small as Elizabeth

and as large as Calgary.

They had business portfolios as little as $197 and as large as $1 million, or they had nothing but a dream.

But they came with common goals: they either wanted to know how to start up businesses, or how to better run those they had.

All they had to do was listen.

From the opening moments of the Metis anthem to the final closing words in the Metis elders' prayers, the Metis Nation executives saw to it that the fledgling or seasoned businessman or woman would either find out what they needed to know or find out where they could ask.

The 23 workshop subjects included such diverse topics as how to identify an opportunity, what types of financing are available for Metis, how to market and advertise your business and why businesses fail.

Conference co-ordinator Larry Donald said organizers wanted to keep the delegates busy, and busy they were.

A sparse 15-minute break morning and afternoon had to suffice until the slightly longer break between supper speeches and the evening reception or banquet.

Although some conference-goers admitted to feeling a bit limp near Thursday's dosing session, they said they had gleaned much useful informatio.

Co-ordinator Donald said this first-ever Metis Nation economic conference will be followed in two to three year's time with a conference put together by a general council of Metis business people.

"We (MNA) wanted to get it going and let them take it next time."

He said organizers hoped above all that the conference would get people together so they could help each other out.

It happened.

In workshops and in hallways, Alberta's Metis networked. They exchanged names and business stories and the phone numbers of hunters who could provide them with wild meat.