The Caribbean Management Development Association (CaMDA) held its Sixth Annual International Conference in Nassau, The Bahamas, from 5-8 June 2001. A non-governmental voluntary association of management professionals, the Association seeks to develop the management capacity of the Caribbean Region, and had as its Conference theme, “The 21st Century Learning Organisation – Strengthening Management Capabilities and Competitive Strategies in the New Global Economy”.
The Conference was officially opened by the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, The Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham, who acknowledged that “CaMDA has served a most useful purpose in the Region by bringing together both the public and private sectors to consider issues related to the management of change and to encourage institutional strengthening”.
The Keynote Address was delivered by Mr. Gordon Draper, Director for International Development for the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (CAPAM), who stressed the importance of leadership and personal responsibility in effecting change. He urged managers to reexamine themselves, to challenge the obvious and to become the change they want to see.
Other topics discussed at the Conference included Organisational Change and Globalisation, Leading in the Learning Organisation, Organisational Learning and New Approaches to the Learning Organisaion, Contemporary Performance Issues in the New Knowledge Economy and 21st Century Competitive Strategies. Three Professional Skills Workshops were also delivered. Speakers were from The Bahamas, the wider Caribbean, and North America. Over one hundred and twenty five (125) participants attended the Conference.
On 5 June 2001, the Association elected a new Executive Committee consisting of:
| President: | Ms. Andrea Watson-James (Guyana) |
| Vice-President: | Mr. John Pilgrim (Barbados) |
| Secretary: | Dr. Jeannine Comma (Barbados) |
| Treasurer: | Mr. Roosevelt Findlayson (Bahamas) |
| Immediate Past President: | Mr. Earl Nesbitt (Trinidad & Tobago) |
| Committee Members: | Ms. Norma Shorey-Bryan (Barbados) Ms. Jocelyn Fletcher (Saint Lucia) Ms. Elise Benfield (Guyana) Ms. Michelle Pollard-Gonzales(Jamaica) Mr. Wilbert King (Saint Lucia) Mr. Sam Kruiner (Suriname) |
The Executive Committee will shortly be meeting to develop strategies to further enhance the organisation’s capability as it continues its journey towards development of appropriate leadership capacity in the Region.
The seventh annual conference of CaMDA will be held in Barbados from the 3rd of June 2002.
