District Conference 1240
Fri, Sep 12th 2014 at 2:00 pm- Sun, Sep 14th 2014 - 12:00 am
District Conference 1240 - A Weekend to Remember. What a showcase for Rotary, friendship and fun!
District Conference 1240 - A Weekend to Remember
What a showcase for Rotary, friendship and fun, our 2014 District Conference was in Stratford-upon-Avon. Over two years in planning for a weekend to live up to the chosen theme “Be Inspired, Meet The Challenge” and we certainly were. As District Governor said he was like the father of the bride – nervous but excited at the same time. He need not have worried (easy to say afterwards) because everything went perfectly and there was nothing but praise from all the delegates. The hotel could not have been more helpful, nor the audio visual people more accommodating. The speakers were truly inspiring, some talking about Rotary projects and some on challenges they have met, most with lots of great humour and the entertainment was superb – a real mix of music, dancing and theatre.
Ann Holmes gives her views of the weekend:
We arrived to a perfect venue close to Town and by the River, the sun was shining when we all grouped for Pimms on the Terrace.
The fun had started and the laughter echoed around the Hotel garden. More laughter with bouts of despair as many wandered into Town to find the clues to Stan’s Quiz. Many jokes were exchanged as to where the clues were, or not, and we were all delighted to hear it had produced a good sum of money for End Polio.
In the evening a few Rotarians put on their fancy dress and what a variation on a theme. Shakespeare would have had an evening of inspiration and we may be booking tickets for his later productions of ‘Zorro and Bo-peep’ or ‘To win or not to win’.
On both Saturday and Sunday we were entertained by first class speakers:
We re-lived the many humorous moments of finding Richard III’s remains with Dr.Richard Buckley and Sally Kettle rowing across the Atlantic with her ’Mum’ was hysterical. Eric Knowles led us down memory lane in the North of England, and what a story he had to tell. We were all laughing so much sides were aching and the hall was alive with laughter.
We were blasted out of our seats by The Jacob Project and joints, hips and knees, were slowly brought back to life with the gyrations. They ended the evening with The Proclaimers hit ‘ Walk 500miles’ I am sure we would all agree if we had walked 500 miles to our District Conference in Stratford it would still have been great fun and a huge success. And the whole weekend was held together by District Governor Stan with his humorous comments and thanks yous. Excellent food and lots of little touches that made it a Conference to remember.