 The 2016 Rotary International Convention - President Darrel Ripley
Darrel wanted first and foremost to thank the Rotary Club of Edmonton West for sponsoring his attendance to the convention. All President Elects within our club are given mnetary assistance to attend the convention, but all Rotarians are able to attend and Darrel recommended doing that to all members in attendance. The next two conventions are going to be held in North America (Atlanta in 2017 and Toronto in 2018).
Darrel explained that the event and the speakers are wonderful, but his favourite part was the people that he met and the different ideas that came from that fellowship.
The South Korea convention was held in Goyang City Which is about a 45 minute train ride from downtown Seoul. It was held there as it was the largest convention space that could accommodate the 43,000 attendees.
There was a huge "Rotary House of Friendship" in the adjacent hall and what surprised Darrel was that there was not only Rotary projects on display, but a huge amount of other retail shops that were set up. 
The program for the convention was made available online, and there was a mobile app available as well to allow you to move around the convention centre and plan your itinerary with ease. The whole convention was very high tech which shows how modern the Rotary organization is becoming.
But again, Darrel kept coming back to the point that it was the other Rotarians that he met that always kept him surprised and recharged. Although we have an active club with well rounded activities and ideas, the convention and the people in attendance kept making him personally ask himself what more we could do.
With 34,000 clubs and 1.2 million members, what we have already done is impressive, but the possibilities of what we can still do are endless.
Darrel and his wife Peggy followed the convention with a tour of China which with a tour company from California that is run by Rotarians. Because of the instant fellowship of being Rotarians, the tour was wonderful and many future friendships were made and the tour was spectacular.
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