District Conference 2017

Friday evening saw us all enjoying the hospitality and meal at Valentino’s Italian restaurant, where, having lost our order, we were treated to share two huge bread rolls - each around 3 feet long - which we pulled apart and ate whilst waiting for our first course! The meal itself was excellent, as was the fellowship.

Saturday saw a full day of conference speakers, whilst the weather outside was rainy and dull! Not so inside: the speakers gave excellent presentations and were informative, as well as funny at times. Amongst others, we ‘enjoyed’ Allan Jagger (Rotary People in Action), Lord Digby Jones (Where is the UK Heading?), David Jordan (Survival in Drylands), and Sand Dams and Geoff Mackey (Rotary People of Action), who were inspiring and most entertaining.

After the speakers, there were two workshops, one for delegates looking for advice on large projects and one for those keen on increasing membership.  The one on encouraging membership included impressive stories of clubs in our district starting up satellite clubs and how they might work elsewhere.

The Gala Dinner on Saturday evening went really well with an excellent meal and entertainment.

Sunday dawned for the Bournemouth marathon and we thought it would be dull and rainy again, but the sun came out and it was very warm, as were the speakers. We were treated to presentations from Allan Jagger again, Jenny Seagrove (The Mane Chance) and ‘Strictly’ Ann Widdecombe.

Although the Sunday morning programme overran, the whole conference was most enjoyable and we were encouraged to sign up for next year. This will be held 5-8 October at Sinah Warren Coastal Hotel, within the Warner adult holidays venue, for an all-inclusive weekend. At least 3 of us have already registered! We thoroughly recommend joining us, let us see if we can win the cup again for the most Rotarians from one club attending conference!