What a week – conference week, that is! Our 13th Annual Indian Country Affordable Housing & Economic Development Conference was a week of learning, networking, laughs and Kansas City barbeque!
We kicked off the conference with our annual welcome reception. Since we hosted the event in our hometown, we invited everyone to our office for a barbeque showdown. Attendees tried barbeque from three local restaurants – Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque, Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue and Oklahoma Joe’s Kansas City Barbeque.
In between the barbeque, mingling and funnel cake truck, Bill Picotte, executive director of Yakama Nation Housing Authority, gave a warm welcome to all of our attendees. Read his full speech here.
Tuesday morning we were honored to have the Haskell Indian Nations University Veterans Color Guard in attendance to perform the opening ceremony.
After all of the introductions were said, we began our sessions with a skit. Our employees put on their acting hats and performed a skit that chronicled the step-by-step process of building a community using the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program. Other sessions that day included: Low Income Housing Tax Credits 101, Our Projects: Housing Authority Staff Panel, and New Markets Tax Credits: A Roadmap.
Tatanka Means, actor and comedian and our keynote speaker, performed during Tuesday’s lunch. The room was all smiles! Mr. Means was a great guest speaker, and we were happy to have him.
We ended our first full day with a dueling piano event in the Kansas City Power & Light District. We were happy to show off a little bit of Kansas City’s nightlife. With all of the singing and dancing, we’re sure that everyone had a great time!
Wednesday was a full day of sessions and guest panels. We discussed the housing construction process, asset management, a New Markets Tax Credit project case study, environmental reports and Bob Gauthier was our lunch keynote speaker. Thank you, Bob, and all of the panel participants. All of you deserve another round of applause! Our day concluded with a tour of the American Indian Art Gallery at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. It is such an amazing collection, and we are so happy we were able to offer this to our attendees.
Thursday, our final day, began with a session on procurement and TERO from LindaLee Retka, training and technical assistance specialist with the National American Indian Housing Council. We were also lucky to have a great New Markets experts panel that answered numerous attendee questions and provided sound advice. This panel of professionals included: Darryl Jacobs, Lance Morgan, Ryan Rieger and Ingrid VanBiber. Our last session was a discussion on regulatory affairs for housing. We ended the conference with a performance by the Red Buffalo Dance Troupe. Their performance was informative and exciting.
That concluded another successful conference!
Want to relive the fun or see what you missed? Check out this short video of images and footage. We hope to see you again next year.
If you have suggestions on next year’s conference location, sessions, keynote speakers or activities, please send us your ideas to info@travois.com.