Where It Began: Our First Diaspora Investment Conference, Three Years Later
I have a confession. We never wrote a report for the first Sierra Leone Diaspora Investment Conference.
In October 2023, more than 200 of you came to the Metro Points Hotel in New Carrollton, Maryland, for what we called the We Are The Investors Summit. Then we went straight into planning the next one, and the one after that. Somewhere along the way, I lost the livestream when I ran out of storage. For a while I thought the record of that first day was gone.
It wasn't. Going back through my Drive, I found the concept note, the final programme, survey answers from 708 of you, an 11-minute reel of the day, the full video of my opening address and more than 1,300 photographs by Woki Massaquoi. So we put it all together.
Today we're publishing Where It Began, a short retrospective of SLDIC 2023. Download the PDF here.
What's inside
The full programme: five panels, the Leonoil keynote that got a standing ovation, and three performances by Usifu Jalloh, the Cowfoot Prince
What you told us: 708 of you answered our survey before and after the day. Half of you wanted to invest in agriculture, you rated your interest 8.3 out of 10, and Freetown was your first choice of venue
The day in pictures, from the national anthems to the VIP evening
Four editions in three years: from New Carrollton to Gaithersburg, Silver Spring and London
Why look back now
Because this December, we are taking the conference home.
That first survey asked where you wanted to meet: the DMV, London or Freetown. Most of you said Freetown. Three years later, we have done the DMV three times and filled the InterContinental in London with 400 delegates. On December 28 and 29, the 5th Sierra Leone Diaspora Investment Conference opens Diaspora Week at the Radisson Blu Mammy Yoko in Freetown.
At the end of my 2023 opening address, I asked a room full of people to repeat after me: "We are the investors we've been waiting for." I still believe it. Reading the retrospective, I hope you'll see why.
If you were there in 2023, thank you. You started something. If you weren't, come home with us this December.
Read the retrospective (PDF)· Get your Diaspora Week tickets
#WeAreTheInvestors
Photos: Woki Massaquoi
