The November 9-11 conference will be held at the Teachers’ Resource Centre with the dates coinciding with the 3rd Annual Tranquility Jazz Festival of which NBA is the Official Bank Sponsor.
Head of Marketing Research and Business Development at the bank, Marisa Gumbs, spoke about the upcoming event: “The objective of the conference which has as its theme Empowerment of a People, is to improve the awareness and understanding of the main issues and the policy and strategy options involved in Anguillians achieving and maintaining a central role in determining and meeting a development vision for Anguilla and in shaping the development of Anguilla to meet this vision.”
Miss Gumbs gave the members of the organising committee as follows: Ian Ferguson, (Chairman) E. Valentine Banks, Fabian Fahie, Timothy Hodge, Maglan Richardson, Pamela Riley, Marisa Gumbs, Carleen Gumbs and Karen Hodge who is also the Recording Officer.
Those invited to serve as presenters on Wednesday, November 9, are Dr. Simon Jones-Hendrickson, a Professor at the University of the Virgin Islands who will speak on Political Enlightenment, moderated by Carol Morton; Dr. Aidan Harrigan, Director of Economic Development in Anguilla, who will speak on Role of Government, moderated by Jo-anne Hodge; David Carty, Speaker of the Anguilla House of Assembly, whose topic is Natural Resources, with Bernadine Horsford as moderator.
On Thursday, November 10, Dr. Bonnie Richardson-Lake will speak on Social Development. The moderator will by Marisa Gumbs. Michael Lee-Chin, a Jamaican/Canadian businessman and banker has been invited to speak on Finance/Investment, moderated by Ian Ferguson; Dr. Edward Manukian, an international consultant, is to speak on Private/Public Initiatives and the moderator will be Selwyn Horsford.
On Friday, November 11, Dr. O. M. Linda Banks will speak on Human Resource Development. The moderator will be Carleen Gumbs.
It has been arranged for commentators to present a 3-5 minute commentary on the presentations made by the presenters with specific focus on assigned sub topics.
The invitees numbering one hundred include local entrepreneurs, lawyers, government ministers and officials, large NBA shareholders and various leaders and persons in the private sector.
The following companies were approached to be co-sponsors: Keithley Lake & Associates; Private International Trust Corporation, Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, Malliouhana-Anico Insurance Company, National Commercial Data Services, Anguilla Social Security Board, NBA PB&T, NBA Pensions Funds Management Company Ltd., the Government of Anguilla, KPMG LLC, Cap Juluca Hotel, Carimar Beach Club, Paradise Cove Resort, Anguilla Great House, Ku Resort, CuisinArt Resort & Spa, American Airlines/Eagle and LIAT.
The marketing and promotion of the conference will include live radio and television broadcasts, video and audio recordings for the bank’s and the public’s library archives; and the creation of a web page. This internet service will allow persons in Anguilla and abroad to listen to the conference and to participate in the open discussions.
Mr. Ferguson commended the organising committee saying that a lot of hard work had gone into making arrangements for the conference. He was also grateful to the sponsors and those who have so far agreed to serve as presenters and moderators.
“We are going to be looking forward to specific fruits from this conference in terms of recommendations and commitments to be made by various committees and firms,” Mr. Ferguson said. “It is also important to recognise that whereas it may not be possible to identify specific outputs from conferences such as this, they serve to stimulate ideas and often we do not realise that those ideas were generated as a result of conferences of this type. So we [the National Bank of Anguilla] are really excited about this particular conference.”
Chairperson of NBA’s 20th Anniversary Committee and member of the National Development Conference, Maglan Richardson, observed that the first such conference was hosted by the Social Security Board. She was pleased that the second conference will now be a reality.
Mrs. Richardson stated that other anniversary activities of the bank were the NBA Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School Quiz scheduled for November 17; the unveiling of a painting of the promoters of the bank in December; the issuing of a commemorative magazine February 2006; and a tennis tournament to be held later on when the Anguilla Tennis Academy court is completed.

(L-R) Timothy Hodge, Maglan Richardson, Roy Horsford, Karen Hodge, Val Banks, Marisa Gumbs & Ian Ferguson

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