There were many highlights of our CSA 2023 Conference at the beautiful Lord Elgin Hotel in downtown Ottawa!
Based on feedback from attendees, the venue and food were excellent, as were the illustrious keynote speakers, Joze Piranian and Daniel Allen Cox, both of whom generously waived their speaking fees in support of the CSA! THANK YOU BOTH for your AMAZING and INSPIRING Keynotes! Everyone loved having time over breakfast, lunch and breaks to network with each other, to touch base with old friends and meet new ones! AND, the numerous workshops were well received. There were so many great workshops, it was difficult to choose which one to attend at any given time! Thank you to all the presenters and panelists for making the conference such a great success! This year we had a great program for families and youth, thanks to Alexandra D'Agostino, Family and Youth Programming Coordinator, and her AMAZING team! The kids loved their workshops and were especially excited about drawing comics with Franky Banky's creator, Daniele Rossi! A highlight was Cynthianna, a formerly shy 10 year old, who took the microphone at the final Open Mic session and spoke about her conference experience, pointed out new friends in the audience who enthusiastically responded, and sang for us all! It warmed all our hearts, as did the final Open Mic speaker, Don McLean, who experienced his own 'aha' moment after speaking is own adventure at the conference!
See some photos on our 2023 Conference album on our Flickr page here. (More to be added later). At right are some members of the CSA Board of Directors, (CW from left) Arun Khanna, Michelle Weinshtein, Eeva Stierwalt, Catherine Moroney, Katie Miller, Carla Di Domenicantonio, Lisa Wilder, Amreen Valiulla, Alexandra D'Agostino. Missing: Suhail Ravjani.
At the Saturday night banquet, Berenice Edima and Friends shared their amazing musical talent at the Conference Banquet, which was so generously donated to the CSA by Berenice Mengo, our very own CSA Marketing and Communications Coordinator! What a great performance! Thank YOU!
AND, the biggest highlight of all was to hear all the attendees 'speaking their own adventure' loudly and clearly throughout the conference! We look forward to our CSA Conference 2024!!!
Thank YOU to all the volunteers, Conference Planning Committee members AND the CSA Board of Directors for creating another transformational, inspirational, and enjoyable CSA Conference!
Eeva Stierwalt
National Coordinator and Board Chair
Canadian Stuttering Association (CSA)
eeva.stierwalt@stutter.ca
https://stutter.ca