Inaugural Montserrat Conference A Success
The Inaugural Montserrat Conference was a success. The Montserrat Conference wishes to thank every person who participated, everyone who attended, and everyone who contributed in anyway whatsoever to the success of this event.
The Inaugural Montserrat Conference held on Saturday, November 14th, instant hosted by the eponymous organisation, was a virtual gathering, via ZOOM.
More than eighty people attended. Among them were Montserratians who live at home and in the diaspora. Quite a few were people with an interest in and love for Montserrat, people who have made Montserrat their home and some who see opportunities to contribute their skill and expertise to the progress of Montserrat. Attendee reviews were many, positive, and constructive.
The conference “offered something completely different today, and in a palatable manner…” wrote one attendee. “You selected the perfect panel for this forum. Excellent job also on topics selected.”
“This is a good conference,” wrote another, “When is the next?”
“Just wanted to congratulate you, your team, speakers and entertainers on a truly inspiring conference…more of these please,” requests another.
“Love the level of detail in these presentations,” said one.
“Thank you very much,” from yet another attendee. “It is really good to hear this kind of detailed information. It helps us understand better what’s going on and what we could do.”
“Thanks for engaging the younger generation.”
“Now, I have a better understanding of these things and how they affect Montserrat’s development,” said yet another.
The question and answer segments, and the post conference open chat were active and edifying, and in the words of conference attendees, “expanded really well on the topics and helped ups to understand better” and “could have been even longer.”
“What we’re looking for is not agreement,” said conference Chairperson Shirley Osborne, in her remarks, “but ideas, suggestions, challenge to our ideas, information that adds to the general understanding and decision-making. We want people to have the highest quality information possible so that we’re always upgrading conversations about the things that matter to Montserratians and to Montserrat’s progress.”
Opening remarks were contributed by Conference Chairperson, Shirley Osborne, and Arianna Silcott was the event manager and tech support.
Feature addresses by Messrs. Welsh Pond, Peter White and Lanval Daly were, to quote conference attendees, informative, helpful, inspiring, in layman’s terms, “just really very good.”
The feature speakers were introduced by Arianna Silcott, Ashneil Jeffers and Allison Parrish. These three Montserratian young people also moderated the question and answer segment following the presentations.
Master artist, Tabu, exhibited four of his paintings to the conference, and described his artistic development and the innovative processes with which he is currently experimenting.
The Conference was also entertained with steelpan music by Trenyce, a young Montserratian growing up in Canada.
Conference highlights will soon be available for viewing on the conference website www.montserratconference.org
Feedback and comments are always welcome. Indeed, they are invited.