YSA conference will be Aug. 8-10 in Salt Lake City

Brains, brawn and spiritual lessons will be the main draws of a Young Single Adult conference taking place August 8 through 10 — with keynote speakers Dr. Anne Osborne Poelman and Super Bowl champion quarterback Steve Young.Young people from the Bonneville, Murray East and Holladay and Granger regions of the Salt Lake City area are invited to the three-day conference, which organizers say is designed to target an age range with varied needs and interests. The conference will be held at the Salt Lake University Institute.Poelman will give Saturday morning's keynote address titled "Sane, Single, Spiritual, Satisfied." Poelman is a professor of radiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine and lectures internationally. She is an expert in neuroradiology, the diagnosis of brain and spine diseases.Football Hall-of-Famer Young will be the keynote speaker at Sunday's fireside in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. In his time at Brigham Young University, he was named an All-American and finished second for the Heisman Trophy. He was also an MVP and Super Bowl champion while playing for the San Francisco 49ers.The conference, called The Summit, will feature a concert, service project, carnival and a choice of more than 20 workshops that will range in topic from spiritual to temporal.Some will be as practical as the workshop given by Zions' Bank CEO Scott A. Anderson, titled "Financial Literacy: Becoming Financially Independent," while others will focus on marriage and family, such as marriage and family therapist Alisa Goodwin Snell's workshop titled "The 17 Secrets to the Male and Female Psychology."Organizer Jared Hansen said, "The goal of the conference is really to be able to reach out and try to provide a missionary work effort," to draw both inactive Latter-day Saints and non-members.Friday night's concert on the east lawn of the Salt Lake Institute will feature artist Kalai. The concert is intended to be conference's main missionary effort — no registration or tickets are required — and attendees are encouraged to bring their friends.Registration for all other events is required. People can register in advance online at ysasummit.com  through Aug. 6 for $15, which covers dinner on Friday, and breakfast and lunch on Saturday. People can also register Friday and Saturday at the conference for $20.Hansen said he's been getting a lot of calls from people who only want to attend Young's Sunday evening fireside address, but tickets are required, he said, and can only be obtained through registering.This year's conference will feature a service project for the community. Participants will paint three homes and do yard work.Hansen said he anticipates 4,000 young single adults will attend.mfarmer@desnews.com