Conference over

So the conference is over. This year there is no big party at Sardarabad afterwards, but the independence day kef looks to be a big one - and then Aznavour and Chirac are coming, plus there will be an Armenian Navy Band performance at Cascade, so the month should end with a bang!

I went each day for various things. The tourism booth I helped organize looked good. That was part of an "expo" of sorts going on at the conference, plus they had food and drink stands. It was perfect. Since, in reality, many people come to socialize, plus they can get bored at the conference itself, this gave them all an outlet to usefully spend their time when they were not listening to speeches - which were being shown on TV near the food in any case. Then today I helped organize the tourism roundtable with the Ministry of Trade and Economic Development, plus the Armenian Tourism Development Agency (which I helped set up 5 years ago). The presentations focused on Diaspora Investment, what has been done, and what especially needs investment. Unfortunately, only 3 Diasporans turned up - and interestingly some 50 locals. It was at the massive new Latar Hotel complex on the fringes of Yerevan.