Memorable experiences await in Singapore

The Rotary Convention will deliver inspiring speakers including Graça Machel, Mozambican politician and humanitarian. The annual event will also have unforgettable cultural events, delicious food, and invaluable personal connections

The 2024 Rotary International Convention unfurls its pageantry on 25-29 May against the backdrop of spectacular Singapore, whose beauty and culture enrich this international business nerve center. This year’s convention offers an exciting list of inspiring speakers, breakout sessions designed to give clubs the tools they need to thrive, and a House of Friendship filled with booths that will spark connections.

Graça Machel, Mozambican politician and humanitarian, will be a keynote speaker at the 2024 Rotary Convention in Singapore. Photo by Julio Dengucho, Forbes Africa Lusofona

Graça Machel, Mozambican politician and humanitarian, headlines the speaker’s list. The widow of former President of Mozambique Samora Machel and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela, Machel advocates for women’s and children’s rights worldwide. She was a freedom fighter in Mozambique’s FRELIMO movement and the country’s first Minister of Education. Machel is a member of the United Nations’ Secretary-General’s High Level Sustainable Development Goals Advocacy Group.

A founding member and deputy chair of The Elders, Machel played a key role in establishing Girls Not Brides. She founded and serves as president of the Foundation for Community Development and the Zizile Institute for Child Development. In 2010 she founded the Graça Machel Trust, which advocates for women’s economic and social empowerment, food security and nutrition, education for all, and good governance.

Among numerous awards, Machel has received the UN’s Nansen Refugee Award in recognition of her longstanding humanitarian work. In 2018 she was awarded the World Health Organization’s highest honor, the WHO Gold Medal, for her enormous contributions to the health and well-being of women, children and adolescents.

Other speakers include Aidan O’Leary, polio eradication director at the World Health Organization, who will discuss the work that is Rotary’s legacy; Claire Chiang, a Singaporean entrepreneur, activist, and former Nominated Member of Parliament; Rotary Peace Fellow Alexandra Rose, who helps communities heal through cultural practices; and Jack Sim, who founded the World Toilet Organization to break sanitation taboos. Learn about convention speakers.

Big-name speakers are one reason Chris Offer, a member of the Rotary Club of Ladner, British Columbia, goes to conventions year after year. “There are remarkable people onstage,” he says.

Offer and his wife, Penny, also a Ladner club member, enjoy adding a vacation to convention trips, and he relishes the exciting atmosphere and the chance to make a “heck of a lot of new friends.”

Download the Rotary Events app for a guide to each day's activities and follow the convention on Facebook.

Signature events and stellar breakouts

You’ll find friends and excitement at Singapore’s GastroBeats, a food and music festival that opens exclusively for Rotary on Saturday, 25 May. Visitors will sample local specialties from more than 50 vendors, curated by Chief Foodie Officer and YouTube personality Zermatt Neo. Live music will be provided by 53A, Gastrobeats’ 2024 Chief Musical Officers. Browse all the signature events.

Mingle at the House of Friendship and choose from dozens of breakout sessions, including presentations on increasing membership and deepening your projects’ impact. Other sessions will tell how Rotary members can use AI in their clubs, how Rotary can become carbon neutral by 2040, and how close the Global Polio Eradication Initiative is to ending polio worldwide.

You’ll be Sharing Hope With the World and having fun 25-29 May. Did you notice the bagpipe rock band on the schedule? Don’t miss the Red Hot Chilli Pipers.

- April 2024