My CSCLeaders Conference Experience

In an earlier blog I described the Commonwealth as “the world’s first social network”, and Bruneians as amongst its most savvy practitioners. You’ll see what I mean in this guest blog by Helen Yeo, one of two professional Bruneian women who are representing the Sultanate in the CSCLeaders programme, in London, Manchester, Oxford, Mumbai – as part of a new movement of global bridge-builders. And watch this space for another guest blog, by the Bruneian invited to London for Commonwealth Day, because her network (CAAYE) had been so successful in linking Young Entrepreneurs in Asia. On Twitter, I’ve exchanged ideas with Fatin about how the Commonwealth and ASEAN might learn from each other, as Brunei seeks to make ASEAN’s meetings and agenda more accessible and meaningful to young people across the region.

I was very excited from the moment I heard I had been nominated for the CSCLeaders Conference up until I was selected by the Committee to attend the conference this year. Thank you to Rob Fenn, to Deputy High Commissioner Sunny Ahmed and to CSCLeaders for giving me this great opportunity to meet and learn from so many incredibly diverse leaders from across the Commonwealth.

Upon arrival in London, we checked in to our hotel after a long flight (as we were delayed in Dubai for more than 2 ½ hours due to thick fog whilst in transit) and with the very cold weather, it was good to be told that we had been upgraded to a Junior Suite.

The programme started in the afternoon and we went straight to the Conference which began with introductions and group allocations followed by a talk from Jon Williams, World News Editor, BBC on Leadership and Cultural Identity. After that, it was back to our hotel room for a quick change into our national dress as we had to go to a reception at Lancaster House, which I found very impressive with its magnificent architecture, decorative interiors and a grand staircase.

The welcome address was by Lord Green, Minister of State for Trade and Investment UK and the after dinner speaker was philosopher Baroness Onora O’Neil.  Even though some of us were still jet-lagged, we enjoyed our evening very much as the sharing was insightful and precise.

We were transferred to PwC More London Riverside for our second day where we were introduced to the CSCLeaders 2013 Challenge: “How do people from communities which have spread across the world become bridge-makers in the global networks of the future”.  Our after dinner speaker that evening was Mike Brearley, former England Cricket Captain.

On the third day, there were master classes with various speakers in the morning and after that it was preparation for the Study Tours. We attended the Royal Reception at St James’s Palace in the afternoon where we felt so privileged to have met HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and HRH Princess Anne and the Chair of Commonwealth Study Conferences UK, Alan Parker.  It was a great experience for me to be able to step into St James’s Palace and to have met both HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and HRH Princess Anne.

We then split into our respective groups for the Study Tours and I was assigned to the Manchester Study Tour Group. After a good night’s rest, it was a great start to a 3-day study tour in Manchester.  We visited the new Irish World Heritage Centre where we found more about the pioneering partnership between the University Hospital of South Manchester and Uganda. We also visited the University of Manchester where I heard about Graphene and how it is going to be really useful in the future. Additionally, we had informal conversations with Manchester’s leaders including the Leader of Manchester City Council, the Dean of Manchester Cathedral, successful business owners and the new Police and Crime Commissioner.  We also visited schools and mosques as well as the British Muslim Heritage Centre.

Throughout the visit, I could feel the commitment and passion of all the leaders and people we visited and met. I was especially touched by the warm hospitality accorded to us by each and every individual.

Following the study tour, we finished with two days in Oxford. We had an interesting bus ride from Manchester to Oxford filled with laughter as we had to do some of our video recordings of our study tour on the bus for the presentation.

The weather at Oxford was very cold and it even snowed on the second day that we were there. After preparing our presentations with our individual groups, we had to present our ideas for solutions to the challenge to a panel of experts. The presentations by the various groups were innovative despite the short time limit and they came up with creative solutions.

HRH Princess Anne who is the Patron for the CSCLeaders Conference visited Oxford to listen to discussions between leaders about how industry and communities can work together and I had the opportunity to greet her personally and had a group picture with her together with the Manchester Study Tour Group.

It had been a week of bonding and sharing amongst participants and we really appreciated the warm hospitality of the organising team. There was a feeling of sadness when it was time to say good-bye after the final dinner at Balliol College, Oxford. The lunches and dinners had been sumptuous and even though the programmes were exhaustive, I had enjoyed it as much it had inspired me. It was a fun learning experience and I am looking forward to meet some of them again in June when we reconvene in Mumbai, India for Part Two.