With 35,000 participants the plenary sessions were held each day in the Air Canada Center (where the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team and the Toronto Raptors basketball team play their home games and where many music concerts are hosted). Above an impression of the crowd. Today former USA First Lady Laura Bush was one of the speakers.
At the large Toronto convention center all the other activities were hosted including the many concurrent break-out sessions each day and the so-called "House of Friendship" where many Rotary groups and other organizations had booths in a "trade show" kind of setting.
Many "RAGs" (Rotary Action Groups) had their booth at this convention; most of them on very serious topics and development issues. Others on not-so-serious topics (under the "fellowship" flag for which Rotary Clubs are also famous for).
There are Rotary members of all sorts: the fellow in the yellow shirt and barefoot with a large water bucket on his head was making the point that still so many people around the world walk distances to collect fresh water each day. Water will become a major issue in our future and might become more and more a destabilizing and peace-threatening aspect world-wide.
It is nice to see the Rotary movement now also grow in China. And every four years the Rotary Convention happens to be at the same time as the FIFA Football World Cup, this year hosted in Russia. Today Nigeria played Argentina; a nail-biter for both sides.....
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