National Municipal League of Thailand 51st Annual Conference was held for three days commencing 20th June in Ambassador City Hotel Jomtien, Pattaya. The meeting brought together more than 2,000 mayors and other municipal officials from over 1,000 municipalities of different levels in Thailand, including the cities (thesaban nakhon), towns (thesaban mueang) and townships (thesaban tambon).
Various issues relating to local government policies and practices and updates were the main topics of the seminar, and the main objective was to create more efficient functioning at the local level of government.
The first day was for participant registration. Upon registration, participants were entitled to a bag with seminar materials, souvenirs and seminar allowance, regardless whether they truly showed up for the meeting!
The conference started on 21st June. There were many participants inside the seminar hall and they were also many hanging around, chatting or visiting the booths outside the hall, or even went out for fun. It seemed to be a rest and relax conference. Many exhibition booths were set up outside the halls. As this is the annual big event gathering all mayors and municipal clerks, the exhibitors did their best to promote their products and making offers to the mayors or other municipal officials. Somebody told me that there must be three important factors for one to do business with the municipalities: firstly, connection; secondly, connection and thirdly, connection too! :)
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There was also a special session to discuss the issues in Southern Provinces in the evening. The mayors expressed their concern over various problems, for example the security, the development and the budget etc. It was more on a listening and collecting information session.
Like many other mayors, I intended to leave earlier for Bangkok. However, knowing that I like to see shows, my friends persuaded me to stay for the dinner performance. A lot of seminar participants had left but the grand ballroom with 300 tables was still full.
The opening performance was the colorful and sexy ¡§Ah Gua¡¨ show, which Pattaya is popular for and followed by the human puppet show. I only realized that the puppets were real people when I went near the stage to take pictures. The show was marvelous and worth my stay. I ended another of my work and play trip with tiredness and happiness.
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