God @ Work Business Conference ignites hearts and minds

By Camille Ramdial-Cumberbatch

Business Manager, Catholic Media Services Ltd

The Catholic News’ inaugural God @ Work Business Conference, themed Fuelled by Faith and Hope: Fired up for Success!, was held on June 28, at The Cascadia Hotel, St Ann’s. This transformative experience evolved as a natural progression from the God @ Work monthly business supplement, launched in May 2022. Its core objective was to encourage our readers to integrate faith into their work lives.

The business conference emerged to help us truly live as Pilgrims of Hope. We wanted attendees  not only to be empowered with  key knowledge and skills, but also inspired as Catholics—embracing their  faith and allowing the  power of the Holy Spirit to manifest in their professional lives.

With these objectives in mind, our planning committee began brainstorming the important elements of the conference—most importantly, who our presenters would be. Thankfully, through the presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit, all things fell into place.

We were blessed with both local and international business and Catholic leaders who are experts in their respective fields. Each presenter was encouraged to share their personal stories and experiences to ensure the sessions were interactive, relevant, and inspiring.

Based on the excellent feedback from over 100 diverse attendees, we can confidently declare our objectives were fulfilled. The conference was a resounding success, and everyone embraced our full programme, which started with Mass celebrated by Fr Emmanuel Pierre, and ended with networking.

The first two plenary sessions cemented the power of faith and trust in the Holy Spirit. Debra Sardinha shared how to discern your purpose and respond to your calling in your professional life. Fr Dr Gerard J McGlone SJ’s session highlighted the power of faith in challenging times, reinforced by his personal stories.

The engaging panel discussion moderated by Anna-Maria Garcia-Brooks, with our four dynamic panellists, was also rich with life-changing insights and real-life examples.

Ensuring our conference focused on the mind, body and spirit, attendees enjoyed a sumptuous lunch, entertainment by guitarist Stefan Roach and door prizes from our generous sponsors. They also interacted with our booth holders and enjoyed brief massages by therapists from the Caribbean Association of Massage and Bodywork Practitioners.

The after-lunch break-out sessions facilitated greater interaction in smaller groups and focused on personal effectiveness and wellness. Topics included Stress management, Emotional Intelligence, Professionalism, Conflict management, Artificial Intelligence and Business Sustainability.

Attendees then congregated for a centring Christian meditation session, followed by the AM Marketing Ltd Networking Wine and Cheese event to end the day.

One person indicated our conference included “from Mass to massages” highlighting it was one of abundance! Attendees agreed and definitely left “Fuelled by Faith and Hope: Fired up for Success!” already excited for the next one!

We deeply thank everyone who contributed to this successful inaugural conference and pray for God’s guidance regarding our future endeavours.