Victorians are converging in public spaces and there is growing enthusiasm as preparations are being stepped-up for the August 5 opening of the Conference on Victoria.
According to a press release the conference is being hosted under the theme ‘Imagining, Involving, and Investing in our future.’ Desmond Saul, who heads the Conference Leadership and Planning Secretariat said, “We are increasingly overcoming the apathy that sets in over a period of gradual decline such as Victoria has experienced.” He said too there is increasing confidence in the potential usefulness of the intervention to identify, analyse and confront the current challenges in creative ways.
A member of the arriving Victoria Diaspora, Donald Ainsworth, encouraged villagers at a preparatory conference consultation recently to draw strength and courage from the bold actions of their forebears “who in the face of towering obstacles and formidable challenges within and without, notwithstanding bought Plantation Northbrook and founded a home, organised a model community and left a rich legacy.” He said the large number of Victorians who have distinguished themselves in every field must serve to imbue villagers with the confidence that the issues of the day can be changed with solutions drawn from science and industry and the commonsense responses from residents’ imaginations.
General Secretary of the Conference on Victoria AB Poole told the gathering that a useful conference must address residents’ general needs, chart a course and contribute to the realisation of an improved quality of life.
He said too villagers must be ready to admit that the old Village economy built on a few agricultural crops is no longer adequate to sustain the growing population. “In that case there is an urgent need for a transformational leap of the economy that has traditionally been the means of economic prosperity in the Village,” he said. Poole also said that while the conference examines the “Journey from the Purchase to the Present” it must provide information that will lead to a sustainable future.
