Saturday October 3rd was the annual Wildlife Conservation Network Expo in San Francisco. This is a gathering of Wildlife Conservation Entrepreneurs from around the world. WCN provides a venue for these heroes of wildlife to allow their message to be heard by one thousand attendees in one day.

Several of the animal keepers and guides from Safari West attended and were kept busy from 10 am until 6pm, dashing between conference rooms, eager to hear the speakers share their extraordinary experiences. The speakers included Keynote speaker, Dr. Jane Goodall, Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton with Save the Elephants, Dr.Greg Rasmussen and Peter Blinston from Painted Dog Conservation, John Lukas from Okapi Conservation Project and many other notable wildlife protectors. Each speaker shared their tragedies and triumphs they have experienced in their work.

While introducing Dr. Goodall, Charlie Knowles, the founder of WCN offered to personally match any donations made to WCN by first time conference attendees. All of the donated money goes to WCN conservation projects.

Many vendor booths selling an amazing array of wildlife related merchandise were located in the main lobby of the building. The profits from the sales went to support each specific conservation group. While choosing a few mementos to bring home we were able to visit with many of the speakers who made themselves available for questions in the lobby between talks. Dr. Goodall was available to sign her books purchased at the event, so several of the attendees waited in line to meet this amazing and inspiring woman. We all left with a renewed sense of purpose to support wildlife conservation around the world.

More information on this amazing organization can be found at wildnet.org