EMBRUN – Daniel Laporte, trainer and owner of Beyond Fitness, has a single passion of helping people achieve their health goals through active living and a healthier lifestyle; but can more be done?

For the first time, Beyond Fitness partnered up with the Kin Club of Russell to create the Beyond the Basics Health and Wellness Conference Sat., Feb. 9 at the Embrun Community Centre Hall that brought in approximately 100 participants.

“We were able to sell 50 tickets,” said Laporte. “There were also guests of the speakers and the volunteers, so all together, there were about 100 people there.”

A total of six speakers were invited to the conference to discuss and present some newer ideas to achieve a healthier lifestyle. These ideas included presentations on super-immunity through consuming clean, whole foods, and going out into the wilderness more; with local doctor, Dr. Darrell Menard talking about aging athletes through his experience, accompanying Canadian athletes to several world games.

According to Laporte, participants to the event were given a chance to fill out a feedback sheet to give their opinion on the event and three of the speakers really drove people in.

“There was a lot of talk about three of the guest speakers. Ben Johnson, Amanda Rassam and Chris Fudge were the speakers that really got people talking afterwards,” he said. “Ben spoke about the gut-brain axis and linking everyday activity with food, posture and negative and positive effects to your gut health. Amanda’s presentation was called Curating Conscious Relationships and it was all about how to perceive different people’s opinions and how to take care of yourself and take care of a relationship. Lastly, Chris’s presentation was called Move It or Lose It and he spoke about how different types of activities are made for different people and how important movement is.”

On top of the six speakers, there were also 10 vendors at the conference selling an assortment of different items in the spirit of health and wellness, including a nutritionist and a booth selling home remedies.

Due to the success and positive feedback from the community, Laporte states that this conference will continue as an annual event into next year.