Dinosaur Trail Golf and Country Club is excited to announce they have appointed a new course superintendent.
    The club has hired Mitch Davidson. For the last two years he has worked as assistant superintendant at Kananaskis, and brings an impressive resume.
    “He has a passion about it,” said Dinosaur Trail manager Scott Westman. “He is young and enthusiastic and looking to make a difference.”
    Davidson is excited to be taking on the new position.
    “I am looking forward to it, it is going to be different,” said Davidson. “I am from a smaller town than Drumheller, so I am looking forward to that aspect as well.”
    While he is young, Davidson has been in the industry for about 11 years and recently achieved his Accredited Superintendant Designation through the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association. Previous to Kananaskis, he worked at Wascana Country Club in Regina. He also worked at Banff Springs and Speargrass.
    During his studies he was nominated and awarded the Future Superintendent of the Year Award and received an  internship where he worked on some of golf’s most hallowed courses in the UK including St. Andrew’s, Kingsbarns, Gullane, Castle Stuart, and Muirfield.
    “I have had the chance to work on prairie golf courses, mountain golf courses and over in Ireland and Scotland,” he said.
    Westman said over the last few years Dinosaur Trail has concentrated on improving and building facilities. Now it wants to focus on making the course better.
    We want to direct more funds to the golf course itself. We thought we were okay, but we want to make it great. We want to be the course on your list you have to go and play,” said Westman. It’s exciting that there is forward movement. We are changing the culture and hopefully people want to be a part of it.”
    Another change at the course is that it has taken on Laurie Slezak as events coordinator to oversee bookings and functions for the facility.

    Canadian Badlands Ltd. is gearing up for its second annual conference and AGM, and is excited to be hosting it at the new Badlands Community Facility.
    The conference is scheduled for March 28 and 29 and is about Building, Moving and Growing. Bob Davis, executive director of Canadian Badlands, says they are expecting in the area of 150, including Canadian Badlands shareholders and people involved in the tourism industry at large.
    “We are excited to be able to host a region-wide event in a brand new exciting
facility in the heart of the Canadian Badlands,” said Davis.
    There are number of different seminars at the conference.  There are three streams of sessions; one is on tourism investment readiness.
    “This is for someone who has land or a business and may like to expand, or get connected into the tourism industry. Our investment readiness workshop would be good for them,” said Davis.
    Another stream of seminars are on cluster development.
    “There are various clusters of tourism activities in the Badlands and those range from bed and breakfasts to artists to people who produce Badlands specific foods or these kind of things.  If a person is interested in getting involved in this type of thing, they could go into that stream,” said Davis.
    This includes a historical development panel as well as a panel on guided tours.
    The third stream of seminars is about communicating. It includes a session  on innovative uses of technology.
    “We are going to introduce some apps to get to know the Canadians Badlands,” said Davis.
    Part of this session includes a presentation from Travel Alberta and is Remember to Breath campaign, as well as a session on how to work with the media.
    Throughout the event there will be displays throughout the conference centre  and opportunities to network with Canadian Badlands shareholders and operators.
    In the evening there will be a dinner and the Honourable Jack Hayden, Minister of Tourism will be the keynote speaker.
    On Thursday morning, Canadian Badlands will be holding its AGM.
    For more information on the conference see www.canadianbadlands.org.