Posted by Liz Courtney on May 22, 2019
Defying Gravity Conference
 
“Defying Gravity” was the catch phrase used to grab everyone’s attention at the District 9970 Conference last weekend.
 
 
The speakers were awesome and began with our District Governor, John Driscoll, talking about his own journey through life which took unexpected turns and how he has learnt to deal with changes in his life by turning them into positive learning experiences.
 
The conference was opened by an excellent speech from the Rotary World President Representative Murray Versoe, who incidentally was a District Governor in Liz Courtney’s year group of 2014-15.
 
This was followed by Craig Fernandes, the Rocket Man, a Mechanical Engineer who is responsible for the Assembly Line manufacture of producing rockets. Rocket Lab is based in NZ and employs many young and talented NZ science and engineering graduates.
 
They now also partner with NASA and his story was fascinating and got the whole conference off to a rocketing start. We were all impressed that NZ is a preferred partner with NASA and that Rocket Lab is a successful NZ business.
 
Winner of the Canterbury Institute of Directors Aspiring Director Award in 2014, Member of the Institute of Directors and NZ Asian Leaders, Jessie Chan Dorman gave us a thought provoking story of her family history of endurance, heartache and hope all wrapped up in a presentation that was sincere and humorous.
 
Jessie is a human dynamo in business circles and at home on the diary farm she owns with her husband near Ashburton she is mum, cook and advisor. A real treat to have heard her story.
 
Lauren Ellis is a NZ representative cyclist competing in London and Rio Olympics. She was the Rotary Club of Ashburton’s Young Achiever Award several years ago.
 
She talked about the trials of competing at a high level and the sacrifices made, medals won and lost, the hard work of training and the mental hardness required. It was a very interesting presentation given by a young, driven and dedicated young woman about facing your demons and winning.
 
Lastly, we were treated to the extraordinary Cam Calkoen. He was born with Cerebral Palsy and has gone from doubting his ability to run, to representing NZ in athletics, winning championships in NZ, Australia and Canada.
 
He is now taking his winning attitude into diverse environments to encourage others to achieve their personal bests. He ensures that life can be AWESOME !  His infectious and very humorous presentation had us all on our feet to applaud him. He was truly AWESOME and we look forward to hearing him again in September in Chch at the joint NZ-Australia Conference 2019.
 
On Sunday we drove, cycled or walked out to Lake Hood where 2 large trees were planted by the Mayor and the two Ashburton Club Presidents. This was followed by a BBQ. This recognised the combined 80 years of Rotary service within the area.
 
It was a great way to socialise with other Rotarians, hear about the history and development of Lake Hood and to hear about both clubs history.