The 2008 conference was a great
success and well attended. We had just over 150 folks show up -- a few weather,
illness, and travel cancellation summaries made it tricky for about another 15
folks but we were blessed with relatively good (in Prince George) travel
weather. In addition to the majority of participants from BC -- we had a good
cohort over from Alberta and then a few each from Yukon, NWT, Quebec, Alaska and
Montana. Participants came from a broad array of organizations including
provincial parks/environment departments, national parks, ngo's, univerisities
and colleges and a great complement of folks this year from protected areas
related consulting companies. On the budget note we managed to pull together a
balanced budget due in large part to the strong help of our sponsors (UNBC ORTM
program, UNBC Natural Resource and Environmental Studies Institute, UNBC
Northern Studies Program, Tourism Research Innovation Project (VIU), U Vic's
OMRN and MPARG groups, BC Parks, Parks Canada, Coast Inn of the North, and
Stride and Glide Sports) and a healthy number of conference registrants. Special
thanks to our conference volunteers from the steering committee to the student
volunteers from BC and Alberta.
