Our Conference Presentation and the Fiesta

John blogs ...

John and 'the Angels'

A big day for the team who will be sharing their presentation with a large audience of around 400. A good venue with excellent AV facilities and a remote to change the scenes – makes it so much easier. Early inputs were on ‘Alternative Energy the way forward’ and ‘Electoral reforms for a peaceful environment’. Timing of these inputs over-ran quite considerably so there were time constraints on us which was a bit disappointing considering all the effort we’d put into it.

Delighted to be here!

However, it went very well despite me getting tongue-tied over whether we’re bridging communities or building continents when what I really meant was bridging continents. Nevertheless everyone in the team gave a great performance – and should feel very pleased to have spoken with confidence in front of such a large and distinguished audience - it felt as if we engaged well with them and they gave us warm applause when we’d finished. Later we were told that we were the best team they’d received from the UK in a decade.

Suresh giving us a warm welcome

The outgoing D3220 team’s presentation followed ours. Looks like they’ve got a good team of 2 men and 2 women going to Japan (that would be fascinating) mainly from business and marketing sectors. They were keen to show their AV presentation but were cut off from doing so as time was short – as the head table wanted their next speaker on ‘Tax Policy in Sri Lanka – a Paradigm Shift’ to have plenty of time. It passed well over our heads, but the audience appeared very engaged with these tax matters.

We left at lunch to the Galle Face Hotel for a Caesar salad and fresh orange juice. The women went for a relax and a swim (they’d earned it) followed by shopping! A good way to revive themselves. I did a discreet tour of the hotel and stumbled across a pre-wedding photoshoot on the grand staircase – what a palaver! Then tuk-tuk ride home (after haggling hard to agree a price) and set off in spirited fashion with honking horns weaving crazily through the traffic – along with everyone else. Great fun!

Brief chat with Angu (pron. On-ghu) who was about to have an hour’s fitness session at home with her personal trainer, then a few quick zzz. Had a good chat with Angu and her friend Bambi about education and the Museum and the Zoo before leaving for the Conference Fiesta in the evening. I hope to have a visit to the Zoo by myself tomorrow to have some quiet time and take lots of photos – we’ll see whether this will come to pass.

The fiesta could have been very enjoyable if the music had not been so loud, if the visiting group of 130 Southern Indians had not been so frenetic at the drinks counters and if there had been enough seats to sit down. Nevertheless it was nice to see the team dressed up and in relaxed mood and often being the centre of attention. Suresh told us the the rincomalee part of the trip has had to be cancelled due to rough seas and poor weather. Pity, keen to know what alternatives have been arranged.

More business cards handed over, hands shaken and several familiar faces – but it’s often difficult to remember names because we’ve met so many people! We weren’t the first to leave but managed to get home by 10-ish which was earlier than I expected.