Danish Canadian Museum hosting national conference

DICKSON - The Danish Canadian Museum is inviting citizens in Innisfail and throughout the region to Step into the Saga in 2017 for its 25th anniversary that will be highlighted with its first-ever hosting of the Danish community's national conference.

The event will be held May 25 to 28 at the Sheraton Red Deer Hotel, with at least 100 delegates attending from across Canada and as far away as Denmark.

The museum will host the conference under its own Step into the Saga branding theme that celebrates the story of Danish Canadians of the past and present.

"Instead of coming up with a whole new different theme for the conference, what a great fit it would be to use our theme for the conference itself," said Brian Desjardins, the museum's executive director. "Step into the Saga, step into learning more about what the Danish-Canadian people have contributed to Canada. Come step into our museum, come step into the saga, the story from all the sessions, workshops and the events that we will be hosting for three days."

The national conference will follow a year of tremendous success and recognition. The museum, located just over half a kilometre south of Dickson on Rge. Rd. 31, won the 2017 Wynn McLean Rural Tourism Champion Award and 2016 Heritage Recognition Award for new developments, including an authentic Naust Ship House and the Freydis Joanna Viking Ship.

"So what does it mean to us? We are just very proud, with winning awards, the 25th anniversary and we are going to correlate this with Canada's 150. What better year to host this," said Desjardins, noting the annual national conferences are traditionally awarded to larger urban centres, including in Montreal last year. "It is pretty cool that we are able to host a pretty fair sized conference in a smaller centre as opposed to the big cities."

For more information on the national conference go to the museum's dedicated page on its website at www.stepintothesaga.com