“Page is bursting with business potential and people with great ideas for new businesses,” said Judy Franz, director of the Chamber Page/Lake Powell. “There’s great possibilities here. A lot can be done.”
The Chamber Page Lake Powell is teaming up with the city of Page and Coconino Community College to put on 89 FORWARD, Mapping Our Business Future.
The goals of the conference are to share ideas and network, enhance business by listening and learning from others, create space for conversations about challenges and opportunities, identify and share success stories among business owners that we can model and build upon, identify methods for creating world class experiences for residents and visitors, and to leave the conference with specific objectives for moving our community and economy forward.
In addition, the conference aims to partner entrepreneurs and people with ideas with established business leaders who can act as mentors and help them through some of the hurdles they’ll face as new business owners.
But if you’re new to the game you have a lot of questions.
How do I get a small business loan? How do I build my own website? How do I do Google analytics? How do I improve my image, my brand, my campaign?Every new business owner wonder and worries about these problems and the idea of figuring and working it all out can be very daunting. Sometimes so daunting that they may never start that new venture, they may never try to turn their brilliant idea into a successful business.

“A big part of this conference is to pair the new or potential business owners with the established business owners,” said Judy. “They’ve already figured it out and they can help a new business owner navigate their way through it.”
While much of the conference will be focusing on individuals and their businesses the conference will also focus on Page itself.
“We need to start asking ourselves where do we want Page to go and how do we get there,” said Franz.
The conference will include both focus and break-out sessions.
Many of the speakers at 89 Forward are locals who have been successful at starting their own business in Page. Speakers include Matt Brown of Kanab Economic Development, Twist Thompson of Blue Buddha, Joe Lapekas of Lake Powell Paddleboards & Kayaks and TruckSkin Graphics, Doug Gardner of Page Steel, Judy Edwards of Gunsight Realty, Kip Bennett of Lake Powell Furniture, Gordon Lane of Ken’s Tours, Scott Swank of Bank of the West, Julien Surget of Amangiri, and Ron Colby of Yamamoto Custom Baits. City of Page Mayor Bill Diak will provide an update on relevant City happenings, and NGS/SRP will provide an update on NGS. Conference facilitators include Kay Leum of Coconino Community College – Page Campus, and Judy Franz of The Chamber Page Lake Powell.
The conference is limited to 200 attendees. About 50 seats remain. Conference registration costs $45 per participant, with sponsorships and tabling available.
Students are encouraged to attend and can contact The Chamber to register at no cost.
You must be registered to participate in the evening reception and conference.
The conference will be at the Courtyard by Marriott May 22, from 8:15 a.m. to 4 p.m. An evening reception will be held the
night before from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Blue
Buddha (no host bar).