First, the excitement of winning an Award to travel to Belgium for the first time and to enable my participation at the conference.
The ICA conference with the theme ‘Accountability, Transparency and Access to information’ was professionally managed – I particularly liked the Square Brussels Meeting Centre which was the conference venue. The conference sub themes, quality of the papers presented and the big number of participants was of high quality. The daily meals offered and the cocktail were also excellent. I further commend the hospitality of the Belgian people and conference volunteers for all the guidance that made life easy during my stay in Brussels.
My main purposes of attending the conference were two fold: to meet colleagues and experts in the profession and acquire more knowledge and skills on accountability, transparency and access to information; and, to share with colleagues my experiences on the conference theme
Having attended the ICA 2013, I acquired knowledge from experienced practitioners, made new friends with whom to continue sharing ideas on the conference theme, sub themes and upcoming opportunities. I also learnt from different cultures.
The conference has had impact on my Professional life because I acquired knowledge of conference organisation and better techniques of presenting papers; I also had opportunity as a volunteer to rappoteur, besides networking among conference participants
My institution will benefit directly from the knowledge and experience gained from the conference which I intend to share with both students and staff. It would also benefit from follow up activities with participants of the ICA 2013 conference.
I thank the ICA organizers for the grant that facilitated my travel to Brussels.
Sarah Kaddu, Lecturer, Uganda Christian University