SOCAN’s Wayne Saunders was on hand to help mentor 30 budding songwriters and teach them about the organization at the second annual Peace River Music Conference & Songwriters’ Workshop, held May 1-3, 2009, in Peace River, Alta. Of the 30 delegates present, 23 were not yet SOCAN members. The new non-SOCAN writers were eager to go online and become members as soon as possible.

The conference was considered a great success in drawing 30 registrants, which doubled the attendance of the previous (debut) year. Along with SOCAN, a number of other music industry organizations presented helpful seminars, including the Alberta Music Industry Association (represented by Brittany Morse), the Songwriters Association of Canada (Don Quarles), Global Country (Maryanne Gibson), YL Radio (Paul Morrow) and Audities Recording Studio (Josh Gwilliam).

Delegates were mentored in their songwriting, by artists Duane Steele, from Red Deer, Alta., and Tim Taylor, from Nashville. The novice songsmiths wrote together in teams and later performed the songs that they had created during the three-day conference.

The event is growing in popularity, and organizers are planning to hold the conference again in 2010.