Hello, Friends! What’s new with ONABEN? On Monday, Selena and I will travel to beautiful, Santa Fe, New Mexico, for the Administration for Native American’s Grantee Meeting. We are always excited to network with our peers, many of whom are more like life-long friends than colleagues! And we are honored to have been asked to sit on two separate panels to share ONABEN’s ANA funded project. As you all know, I am always excited to share the stories of our work in North Carolina, North Dakota, and Hawaii.
Our staff continues to plan our annual event and Marketplace, Trading at the River. As you may recall, this year’s event will take place in my neck of the woods – Tulsa, OK! This year’s conference theme is, “Aspire to Inspire: Arts…Culture…Entrepreneurship.” We are so grateful to the Muscogee Creek Nation for hosting this year’s conference! They have been wonderful to work with and are so accommodating, and we hope that all of you can join us for this 1.5 day event! It is a great opportunity to expand your network, learn from leaders in the field of business development, become more familiar with cultural tourism and movements in Native arts initiatives, grow your capacity to effectively market your business endeavor, and even pick up a tip or two on video production!
Tony Johnson, Artist of the Year. 2015
Don’t forget that February 1st kicks off our early-bird registration, and we have some amazing rates! Our conference site is up, so check it out at wwww.tradingattheriver.com. Look for our conference agenda to be posted soon! And, the marketplace? Well, just let me say, we have some space for the marketplace – our partners have graciously allowed us to use the Riverwalk as the site of this year’s Native Marketplace! We will be able to accommodate more vendors than we have in the past, and we are working hard to find some entertainers to keep the Riverwalk stage hoppin’! I recently met a very talented singer in Nashville, turns out she is Choctaw…and, just happens to be in Oklahoma this week. Keep your fingers crossed that the lovely and talented Lainey Edwards will join our festivities and share her musical talents at the Marketplace on May 6th. I will keep you posted, as I am meeting with her tomorrow. Let’s hope that I am extra charming and persuasive!
But, seriously, Trading at the River is the place to be, on May 5 and 6, at the River Spirit Event Center and Riverwalk! A place to gather, exchange and grow, Trading at the River, Tulsa, OK-2015! For now, I will close. But, I will keep you abreast of our event and our travels to New Mexico!
“Talk” Soon!
