LWI's 2017 Annual Conference

Theme

The Deregulation of Integrity conference challenged attendees to view the concept of integrity outside the confines of law and order. There's nothing inherently wrong with laws and regulations, but we've all seen people in power 'game the system', i.e. manipulate rules that were instituted to protect the public, for their personal gain. Along those lines, the theme of this conference was: Integrity must be motivated from within.

 

Speakers

The 2017 conference, hosted at the Santa Barbara Beach & Golf Resort, was inaugurated by His Excellency Prime Minister of Curaçao: Eugene Rhuggenaath.In addition to our very own Nelson Foendoe, President of LWI, two speakers from diverging backgrounds helped elaborate on this 'Deregulation' theme in a holistic manner.

 

 
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John Njoroge, PhD

 

Keynote speaker from Kijabe, Kenya

is a philosopher whose speech was entitled What Makes Us Whole? He addressed the meaning and importance of the concept of integrity, along with how integrity can be grounded from a philosophical perspective.

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Sidney Genoveva

is a political scientist and business consultant who spoke about Trust, Credibility and Integrity. As the title indicates, he elaborated on the interdependence between these three values.

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Nelson Foendoe

is the President and founder of LWI. In his speech, The Case for Intrinsic Integrity, he gave an in-depth explanation for the theme of deregulation. He urged us to ensure that morality (as opposed to blind rule-following) remains at the heart of integrity. Mr. Foendoe believes that integrity is a teachable form of behavior, and so followed by identifying 10 principles to ease this learning process.

 

Intermission

Sound technicians and musicians from different bands formed a supergroup for this special occasion, providing down tempo instrumental music that seamlessly blended into the background as attendees feasted on our buffet selections and made small talk. 

 

Audience

Our audience of approx. 350 attendees was inclusive, not only consisting of political and business leaders but organizational members positioned at any and all ranks. We were also graced by the presence of Her Excellency Governor of Curaçao Lucille George-Wout. The main speeches were followed by a video presentation, live mobile voting on a case study, and a panel discussion between audience members and our speakers. 

Attendees asked, among other things:

  • What can I do to become a person of integrity?

  • What do you call someone who claims to be a person of integrity, despite working with someone else who is clearly corrupt?

  • Is being a creationist a precondition for possessing integrity? Does being a creationist make it easier to remain a person of integrity?

  • How do you resolve a situation in which integrity and justice oppose each other?

  • The corruption of community leaders was questioned.

 

Our first conference was an insightful experience according to the survey we held at the end of the event. 90% of the interviewees said that it was "very inspiring" and 95% said that "intrinsic integrity should be our goal". The final score totaling those who said that they would rate this event “excellent”, “very good” and “good” is 98%.

 

Gallery

Scroll through our photos for a secondary experience of this insightful day!