Annual General Meeting & Trade Show
This years AGM and trade show was once again held at the Victoria Inn Hotel & Convention Centre.
Over the two days of the conference we covered a wide variety of topics that our membership wanted to address.
In the morning we had our Members AGM, which included resolutions, board elections, committee reports and financials for the organization.
To kick off the day Don Lamont provided an Executive Directors Report that you can find on the Members section of the website.
This was followed by the Presidents Report.
During the lunch hour TIAM President Pit Tureene brought us up to date on the various items they were were working on. He mentioned 2025 would be a big year for the City of Winnipeg and the Province of Manitoba with many major events scheduled. These include the Grey Cup and Rendezvous Canada.
This huge international trade show will bring in tour operators from all over the world looking for new export ready product. Please contact Travel Manitoba if you are one of those people.
Jackie Storry, who markets Churchill Wild will be attending as will Aikens Lake at the event the end of May.
After the lunch break we had the Presidents Panel which featured Ken Gangler, Mat Hobson, Paul Conchatre and Pit.
This was followed up with a great presentation from Rob Olson, the chief scientific advisor for the MWF.
His one hour presentation provided our members with the most uptodate information on IPCA's and Ecological Corridars. Want to know more and you weren't at the AGM, please check out our news section of our website. All the information is there.
Please pay attention to these issues because they affect up all. That is why you need to be a member of the MLOA. Next year we want to see a full AGM!
After those two great presentations it was tme for the Allied Meet and Greet which was a huge success this year. We had many of our Allied Members surrounded by our opertators and outfitters. Of course none was more popular than Trans Canada Brewing wich provide samples of their great product.
Special thanks to the Victoria Inn for providing a wide array of delicious appettizers!
Our dinner this year was a huge success attendance wise and we had over 150 people in attendance.
The MLOA would like to thank the Hon. Nellie Kennedy - Minister of Sport, Culture, Heritage & Tourism for attending and speaking.
Our Keynote Speaker was Greg Toogood ,host of Wild TV’s Prairie Pursuit.
While our live auction started later than anticipated we still made a similar amount of money as the previous year. Thanks to Jason of Kay’s Auctions!!
Tuesday morning saw Chris Everett from Safari Club International (SCI) give us a quick update on the work they are doing in Canada to develop chapter across the country. Chris says SCI is committed to supporting the Canadian Hunting Industry.
Next was Stephen Chychota from MB Chamber of Commerce. Stephen works out of the Dauphin Chapter and outlined all the opportunites that a Chamber Membership brings to buisness in their communities.
After a short break Colin Ferguson outlined what the 20024 tourism year looked like for this province. Colin said numbers were almost back to pre Covid numbers and predications are that these will broken in 2025 with all the major attractions coming to our province.
One of the things President Melanie MacCarthy and ED Don Lamont wanted on the agenda this year was a Business Development section for the members.
Elise Wood (Travel MB) was joined by a member panel made up of some of this province's most successful operators. This included Ken Gangler from Ganglers North Seal River Lodge, Mathew Weibe from Viking Lodge, Melanie MacCarthy from North Mountain Adventures and Jon Warkentin from Harvest Lodge. Elise did a great job of asking challenging questions on things that affect our industry.
12:00 Lunch - Hon. Ian Bushie -Minister of Natural Resources & Indigenous Futures spoke for a half hour about challenges facing our industry. He also said he understands the value that we have to the province and the need for collaboration with all stakeholders.
1:00 Conservation Officer Update was provided by the new Chief Corey Meadows. Corey provide a very informative session on where the province was at with hiring 18 new CO's as well as other initiatives.
Following Corey was Erin Dunbar and Derek Kroeker as they provided a Fisheries Update. There was a lot of good news as walleye population numbers in Lake Winnipeg, Lake Manitoba and even Lake Winnipegosis were up susbstantially.
This was by Wildlife Update from Maria Arlt and Kirsten Solmundson. These include some new moose tracking study information as well as wildlife surverys. Check out the news section on the website for more information.
2:30 Wrap up & Closing remarks
Thank you for your generous support!
