A good friend of mine once publicly questioned my role at conferences and what the benefit of me attending was. As government officials, a major criticism WE get is: officials attend conferences to waste tax payers’ money… they do it for the per diems.

Now, this post is not a response for all government officials who ever were, who are, or who will be. This is a post about me and how I approach these conferences. I’ll use a specific conference, the Doha Forum in Qatar, and a few others to present my thoughts.

1. Connections: I use global conferences to connect with old friends, make new ones, and form deeper relationships with partners. At Doha, I met with David Beckham and Youri Djokaeff for the first time. The output is that FIFA foundation committed to doing Football in Schools Program in Sierra Leone and David might be a global ambassador for a UN conference I am co-chairing. Djorkaeff promised to visit SL. I met up with grad school and undergrad friends, learning about what they’ve been up to and inviting them to SL.

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2. Knowledge exchange and peer learning: My colleague Minister of ICT and Innovation from Rwanda and I both are alums of MIT. We are both on WEF, Giga, and several UN panels meeting virtually often, but it was great to sit together in person. We shared approaches, imagined new partnerships for our countries, and the continent and offered advice to each other. Paula Ingabire is a phenomenal leader, and I loved learning from her. Dinner with colleague education ministers and side chats about their challenges and how they were resolving those were also useful for all of us. Engagements with the Executive Director of UNICEF, the Chair of GPE, and other leaders put our country on their radar directly.

3. New opportunities for the country: We came to Doha to sign an MoU with the Qatar Foundation. However, we left with more. I held meetings with the Education Above All and left with Sierra Leone being approved as a country partner for the Zero Out of School Children initiative. This wasn’t planned and it will bring in more resources to our country. The EAA team will visit in May to move conversations forward. We also created new likely partnerships with other organisations that were not considering Sierra Leone. We also strengthened our links with the Qatar Foundation as they review more opportunities in Sierra Leone.

4. Opportunities for other people: On my official trips, I also try to elevate others and give experiences to them. I was given similar opportunities when I was younger. Last time I was in Doha, I brought with me a primary school teacher. And then we continued to Dubai. This time, I extended an opportunity to a member of Parliament who works with us. We will also continue to Dubai for the World Government Summit. To me, it’s important that we elevate others in our work. The Hon was a critical member of our meetings.

5. Personal growth: I am always looking for opportunities to learn. Since I was a kid, I have been lucky to get opportunities that brought me new experiences around the world. Each is different and on each I learn. The conversations, meetings, sights, sounds, smells and feelings are each important for my learning and growth.

So, back to the criticism and questions: Why? because it is important to our work in Sierra Leone. I am a global leader in education, and it’s critical to be at these meetings. Sierra Leone wins more when we show up and participate.