Hello Friends! GRAN National Gathering
Toronto | May 13 - 15 | 2024
Making a Difference - Embracing our Grandmother Power!
We are very much looking forward to this opportunity to hold an in-person gathering of GRANs from across the country. We have not been together since our last Hello Friends! in 2018. It's been much too long. This will also be our first-ever “hybrid” Hello Friends! We are excited this year to be able to offer livestreaming via Zoom for those of you who are unable to be with us in person.
Those who have attended this gathering in the past know that it provides a rich opportunity for friendship, learning, and reigniting our shared passion for social justice. We always come away inspired, strengthened, and energized. This is a terrific opportunity for those new to GRAN to learn more about our movement and forge new friendships, and for long-timers to renew ties with GRANs from other regions and learn new things too!
At Hello Friends! 2024 we will take time to honour our past and celebrate the many successes GRAN has achieved as a remarkable movement of older women. We will also look to the future to envision how we can continue to make a difference.
Who better to inspire us than the keynote speaker at our opening banquet, award-winning author, journalist, and human rights activist Sally Armstrong?
We very much hope to see you in Toronto in May. Please plan to join us!
Program + Registration
An overview of the full program is available here. (And for those who will be attending online, the livestreamed sessions are listed here.) We are excited about the opportunities ahead for learning and engagement that it holds. The Hello Friends! planning team has endeavoured to strike a good balance between providing opportunities to hear from inspiring guest speakers and ensuring that there are also ample opportunities for us all to interact and get to know each other better while engaging in discussion about GRAN's past and present work and future directions.
Online registration is now open for both in-person attendance and by Zoom. [Click here for a printable registration form if you prefer to download and then mail in your form.] The registration fee for the full in-person program is set at $150. Registration to attend via Zoom is set at $25. There is also an option to attend just the opening banquet to hear guest speaker Sally Armstrong. Registration for just the opening banquet is $40. Financial assistance to help defray the costs of travel and/or registration is available on a first come, first served basis for those attending the full conference in person.
Location + Accommodations
The gathering venue is in the heart of downtown Toronto at the International Living and Learning Centre (ILC) of Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) [formerly Ryerson University]. There are dorm rooms (single room with bath) reserved for us in the same centre at the reasonable cost of $95+tax per night. We also expect to be able to offer some limited billeting with GRANs who live in the Greater Toronto Area. Click here for details about the venue, transportation, accommodations, meals, and more.
Do your little bits of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world. – Desmond Tutu
