Delegates arrived early, a few minutes shy of 9am and immediately began to talk amongst themselves whilst sipping coffee, curiously admiring the modern art on show and looked sharper than the investment bankers of the City a few mile away. The ice was immediately broken and this atmosphere ran steadily throughout the entire event.

The charismatic duo ‘R&R’ (Rosario Ogbechie & Ragdh Hamid: pictured below) jolted the summit into life. Their fun and energetic introduction and bubbly personalities warmed the atmosphere, woke the weary and ushered in a new year for the African Caribbean Society. Rosario and Raghd shared their stories and aspirations with the attendees and perhaps, if was not visible to all but myself, lit a discerning spark in the eyes of those who had similar, daring dreams.

Ozioma Emeagi, a director at Deutsche Bank, delivered the welcome address. He spoke with a crisp and clear tone. His message was a simple one; keep learning.  Using his past, he weaved a model story of success. However, he warned the delegates that, ‘…there is no short cut to success’. He added some refreshing advice and nuggets of wisdom to his talk, ‘…ultimately only you can shape your future’ and  ‘strategic networking is key’. He closed his talk asking the student leaders to ‘inspire others’; just as he had probably inspired them in the twenty minutes he had with them.

David Lammy (pictured above) was second to the podium, and true to a politician’s charm, commanded the attention of everyone in the room. He opened with a joke, ‘I am still here’, referring to the fact that his introduction seemed more like an obituary. Perhaps but he could not have seemed more alive in person. One could discern that this was a seasoned politician speaking, there was pin drop silence and he spoke with an alluring command making us all feel we, and he, were equals.  All the while he delivered his message with the accuracy of an academic, the rigour of a politician and the tone of a familiar friend. He addressed the obvious, the London riots that originated in his constituency Tottenham over the summer. He condemned the riots but begged that there was something to be learned from the experience. He told of the immediate challenges that the young people in the room were going to have to face in reaching their ambitions, ‘[you] have to work ten times harder’. Lammy denounced idleness, ‘every single opportunity to work you should take’ and asked the crowd, earnestly, to shift their mind-set, ‘shift the focus from minority to ethnic’. It was a tirade for the wise, he asked the students to aspire for more for both themselves and for their community, to keep learning and wanting to know more, and to be aware of the ‘huge inequalities that are making themselves known’. Talking to the delegates after his speech, I found that he had made a lasting impression. Not only that, he fostered a new dialogue amongst the students. I heard quite a few people challenging their responsibilities to their communities because of Lammy’s talk. Perhaps the most moving comment heard was by a young man who forced me to question my own misconceptions about the talk I had just witnessed, ‘It wasn’t a political speech’, he told me, ‘…it was the truth’.

Written by M Shabaya (2nd year Economics student, Durham University). All images used in this blog post were taken at the 2011 ACS Leadership Summit. Visit www.acsleaders.co.uk for more information about this year’s summit

The 2011 ACS Leadership Summit was sponsored by Google, Deutsche Bank, Bank of England, Simmons & Simmons and Pearson. The summit is an initiative of the African Caribbean Company Limited