August 12th -19th Nassau, Bahamas. As District Director I was very proud to lead the District 123 leadership team to the International Convention in Nassau Bahamas.
Our trip was full of surprises, first time experiences, lows, and highs.
My greatest highlight was seeing Mary Pomeroy-Brown compete against seven other semi-finalists at the convention. Though she did not win, she made us all very proud!
The week started with two days of back-to-back training. Most training focused on strategic planning to make our district more efficient and better serve our members.
At Training
The best thing about being at the convention was that the Baha Mar Hotel had its own beach and waterpark. On a few occasions, I took the time to relax and enjoy the beach and multiple pools and waterpark.
The Opening Ceremony
The opening ceremony was on Wednesday Aug 16th. It was a surreal experience for me to bring in the flag of Guyana in the Parade of Flags. The district directors got the first preference to carry a flag.
The keynote speaker Lisa Nichols, who was very inspiring in her speech about overcoming odds.
The Semifinals
On Thursday we attended the semifinals and supported Mary Pomeroy-Brown. Two ladies won the semi-finals; Anastacia from Bahamas and Maryam Ganni from Montreal Canada.
At the Business Meeting
District Director Leslie Benfield, DTM with Second Vice President Stefano Mcgee, DTM
With district director Swarna Kalyan DTM
The district leaders finished the night in style with our Region 6 International Director Dawn Frail.
On the 19th of August I attended the 5K run walk and took the opportunity to connect with my accountability partner from Singapore, District 80 Director Swarna Kalyan DTM.
One great addition to the District Leadership Training was assigning an accountability partner to each leader. The idea is that you set a goal at the convention and after 2 months you connect again to see if you fulfilled it. Lucky for me I picked up 3 accountability partners. Good luck in keeping all of those promises.
Later we attended the regional gatherings which is an opportunity to meet other Districts from Region 6.
At around 10 am we scuffled into the large conference room for the World championship of Public Speaking. Lucky for me my friends saved some great seats. The competition was fierce but in the end three amazing women claimed the titles of numbers 1, 2 and 3. Maryam from Montreal copped third place so that was a great feeling to bring some hardware back to Canada.
In the evening there was the Presidential Inauguration followed by the dinner celebration to close off an amazing week.