With this conference, I’ve visited all eight districts at least once this year. And perhaps, just perhaps, I’ve saved the best for last.

Saturday morning kicked off with the opening ceremonies, and a lot of club banners festooned with a lot of ribbons! The keynote speaker was Professor C. Y. Allen, who gave an amazing inspirational speech titled “Leadership Communication: The Art of Shaping Change”. He discussed generativity (what will our legacy as ancestors be), and intergenerational communications, and he defined leadership as a series of transformative acts.

Lunch included some awards, and a keynote speech from Dietmar, followed by the business meeting. After that, the international speech contest was held in the late afternoon. I thought that was an interesting scheduling decision, and kind of nice, as it gave the audience plenty of opportunity to talk about the speeches and who they thought did better (the results were announced at the very end of the Saturday evening program).

After the Saturday banquet, the District Governor presented annual awards, things like Area Governor of the year. To me, this seemed a little unusual, since there’s still two months left in the year, the two months with the most work, when half of the educational awards will be filed. The district did a great job of presenting them, with a dramatic multimedia presentation (Powerpoint with photos and music).

One local award I especially liked is the “T” award, which is like Toastmaster of the year, except to recognize someone’s contributions over the course of 5-10 years, not just one year. I think that’s something all districts could support.