Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield spent the day Thursday in Grande Prairie speaking both to grade six students and community and business leaders at the Growing the North Conference.

The former commander of the International Space Station has spent the last 21 years touring the country and speaking about his experiences, something he believes is his duty.

“I’m one of the very few Canadians that is trusted to go and do something like live on a space station or fly a rocket ship, and so I just saw it as a great necessity – a real obligation and responsibility of my job – to go and talk about it.”

Hadfield argues that while much can be learned from his space travels, more will come from the inspiration it gives others.

“I definitely pursued the life that I did because I was inspired by some trips that people had made, pushing back the edge of what’s capable in human knowledge. I pursued a whole life of research and development and exploration as a result, and I have seen direct evidence of other people making different decisions with their life as a result.”

Astronaut Chris Hadfield thrilled local students over their lunch hour with an appearance at St. Joe’s High School.

The gym was packed with nearly 1,500 grade six students excited to hear stories of space from the former commander of the International Space Station.

He encouraged the crowd to pursue their own dreams like he did when he was nine years old and decided he wanted to be an astronaut.

“At the time it wasn’t hard; it was impossible; Canada didn’t have an astronaut program, but I figured I can’t control world politics, I can’t control national policy, but the only thing I can really control is myself.”

He also made the case for planning ahead to achieve their dreams.

“If you can give yourself some sort of long-term objective – and for me it was to have a chance to go live in space, maybe walk on the moon, go live on a space station – if you can give yourself a long-term objective, then it really helps with all the little decisions that you make every day.”

Hadfield is in town for the Growing the North Conference, where he will be speaking later this afternoon.

Conference goers at Growing the North this morning heard from international tourism expert Roger Brooks.

Brooks told the crowd that 97 per cent of the marketing that is done by businesses and communities is ineffective.

“Here’s the big question you have to answer: what do you have that the people you’re trying to attract as customers for you in business or as communities? What do you have they can’t get or do closer to home if they live in Edmonton, or Calgary, or Red Deer, or Dawson Creek?”

His advice is to narrow the focus to what you can offer that no one else in the world can, and to promote that completely.

He also went through the advertisements for several Canadian cities, and pointed out that the words used could describe nearly any city in Alberta.

He argues to better market your business or community, you need to “jettison the generic”.

“I want you to look at your tag lines, I want you to look at your logos, look at your brochures, look at your website, read your introductory text, and if it can fit anyone else, anywhere else in your market, you need to toss it and start over.”

The Growing the North conference concludes this afternoon at Evergreen Park.

Grade six students in Grande Prairie will be getting an out of this world visit this afternoon.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield will be speaking at St. Joe’s High School over the noon hour, sharing stories of his time aboard the International Space Station.

That grade was chosen for the honour as the History of Flight is part of their curriculum.

Other students in Grande Prairie, as well as other space fanatics, can tune in to the live stream online.

Hadfield will later speak at the Growing the North Conference.