Conference Sketch

By Pat Thagard

2002 LINX Conference
Career Development…It’s Our Living a success!

The fourth annual LINX Conference was held in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories December 3 – 5, 2002. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Government of the Northwest Territories sponsors the LINX Conference. The conference brought together employment counsellors, educators, and human resource practitioners from across the Northwest Territories as well as a few delegates from Nunavut. The conference attracted over 120 delegates and over 45 presenters.

Delegates received professional development in small group workshops, cracker barrel sessions, plenary presentations, panel discussions, and interesting and unique opening and closing sessions. The conference gave all the delegates many new ideas and techniques to use in their field. This year’s conference was opened in a unique and entertaining way. Departing from the usual keynote speaker address, Catherine Boyd, Manager, Career and Employment Development, suggested and organized a new conference opening. She approached the Drama Club at Sir John Franklin High School to see if they would be interested in doing a presentation to show what career development means to high school students. The drama presentation was a huge success. It got this years conference off to a light-hearted yet thought provoking start. The conference closing was a speech by Dr. Joe Dragon, which emphasized the importance of supporting clients in their career development journey and the importance of the lessons learned along the way.

Pat Thagard can be reached at Pat_Thagard@gov.nt.ca .

Anyone interested in information about the next LINX Conference can contact Catherine Boyd, Manager, Career and Employment Development, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Government of the Northwest Territories at catherine_boyd@gov.nt.ca