Celebrating 12 yrs of the John Smith Memorial Trust
During 4th – 6th July 2009, the John Smith Memorial Trust held a number of events to mark the 15th anniversary of John Smith’s death and to celebrate the work of the Trust and its Fellows. The weekend’s gathering began with a series of workshops for Fellows at City Inn Westminster. As many Fellows had not met before the networking event facilitated by Gary Anello proved very popular and helped to further build upon the strong alumni network of the Fellowship Programme. Fellows had the opportunity to get to know others from different year and country groups in this lively afternoon session. Afterwards, funding experts Dr Paul Quantock and Peter Haley delivered seminars on US and EU funding, providing expert advice to the Fellows on how to make successful funding applications for their action plans and work related projects.
Baroness Smith with Nadejda Hriptievschi, Maria Ovchinnikova and Oleksandr Vodyannikov at the City Inn reception
Photo courtesy of John McConville
During the conference, Georgian Fellows met with Lord Elder and Esther Roberton at Scotland House to discuss the precedent of the Scottish Constitutional Convention and if it might be a helpful model in the current political situation in Georgia. The seminar concluded that there are some helpful elements of the Scottish approach and a delegation from the Trust will visit Georgia in September to take the debate forward.
On Monday 6th July the main events of the anniversary conference took place at City Inn Westminster and St John’s, Smith Square. Friends of the Trust and over 100 Fellows gathered for an evening reception at City Inn followed by a memorial lecture at St John’s, Smith Square. In honour of the occasion the Foreign Secretary the Rt Hon David Miliband MP delivered a keynote speech in which he spoke about John Smith’s legacy, his beliefs, and the valuable work of the Trust. The lecture was in a series of lectures organised by the Trust, with previous speakers including Lord Hurd and Lord Patten.
The reception guests are piped to the lecture venue - St John's, Smith Square
Photo courtesy of John McConville
The Foreign Secretary’s lecture was titled ‘Turning the Tide on Democratic Pessimism’ and focused on the importance of political parties and their internal governance in the consolidation of democracies. Following the lecture, the 2009 Fellows were privileged to get the chance to meet the Foreign Secretary and several asked questions relating to the relationship between the Fellowship countries and the UK. In this lively question and answer session with Fellows, Mr. Miliband defended the record of the British government on relations with Russia and vigorously supported the importance of the Kyoto accords, while refusing to be drawn on either the secrets of his success or the quality of the British media.
The Foreign Secretary Rt Hon David Miliband MP delivers the keynote lecture
Photo courtesy of John McConville
On behalf of all the Fellows, Archil Bakuradze (Georgia) and Daria Dazidova (Russia) thanked the Foreign Secretary for his speech. The John Smith Memorial Trust would like to thank City Inn for their generous sponsorship of the anniversary events or for making our Fellows feel so welcome. The event has strengthened the alumni network of the Trust and facilitated cooperation between Fellows on their projects. The Trust would also like to thank the Ministry of Justice, the Scotland Office and the FIA Foundation for their vital support.
To view photos of the Anniversary events please follow these links:
City Inn Reception
Rt Hon David Miliband MP
Please contact our photographer John McConville at john@mcconvillewellburn.com if you wish to use his photographs.
July 2009