Okay, so Larrie is your blogger today and is here to offer you an inside peek at the Young Leaders Conference 2007. The 26th of March dawned a cold, overcast day as yours truely struggled to open her eyes. The Young Leaders were meeting at the school for 6:30am so we could get to Wellington for 9am. We left 10 minutes late thanks to a certain blogger (Oops!). The Young Leaders included in this trip were; Doug Alsop; Charleen Te Huia; Arna Bergen; Keisha Hume; Kay Pilkington; Joyce Aldworth; Daniel Wigglesworth; Ashleigh Moody; Braedon Moratti and myself makes 10. Mrs Stantaill drove us all the way to Wellington where we found that we had no idea were we were actually going. There was a stroke of luck where we found Central Hawkes Bay travelling our way, and we followed them. Thank You CHB.
We arrived late and missed most of Mai Chan's speech about how she found it difficult breaking into the lawyers business as she was a female Asian. She is now Partner in one of New Zealand's most successful law companies.
Next up to the pulpit was Tim Prentergras, a paralympic gold winner sprinter with only 5% vision. His vision was such that when he ran he had to have his head on the side to see where he was going. He showed us video clips from the Athens 2004 Races, in one 1500 race he lost his left shoe and still came second!
Mmmmm next was morning tea. The flow of people leaving the building were just like the traffic jams Wellington is famous for.
Pio Terei, from 'are we there yet' spoke to us as well. (are you jealous?) He kept us laughing for a good half hour. He told us that if you are having fun in your job, you are successful.
A policewoman and champion shot-putter Gina Hughes also gave us her thoughts. While she had many good points about being a leader, she definately over-used the word 'actually.' This blogger is not over this point, everyone will be hearing about this for a while to come.
I beg you, please please, do not EVER use one word after every other word in every sentence!!!! e.g Actually there is no actual proof that we can actually draw on to create an actual real-life peace that actually does not degrade our society.
Lunch time came. Outside Burger King there was a street performer who entertained many people by putting out a flaming stick in his mouth, and another down his pants. He also put a real nail into his nose and whacked it a few times with a hammer. This was after telling us what to do if it went wrong.
Our last speaker of the day was Rob Harley, a director of documentaries. He introduced us to people he believed are leaders. Kevin Campbell, who forced all Boeing 747 aircraft to be 'fixed' after proving that there was a manafacturing flaw that caused his son's death. Judy Dench, abandoned by both parents and forced to live on the streets. She decided that she could 'be bitter or be better' and now builds homes for gypsies in war-torn countries. He told us leaders must expect to get hurt, but must turn that hurt into something good.
Believe it or not we were not sitting around all day. There were 'activities' that we did between speakers. A mexican wave, Dance competitions, Paper scissors rock competition and a goal planning time. However it was not quite enough for this blogger who still feels the urge to walk off that memory.
I encourage people to try get into this conference next year, especially as you may get MacDonalds after!
Thank you Hallogen Foundation and Mrs Stantiall for the day.
