We hope that you will find these to be a fair representation of all that you have told us over the last few months. We are enormously grateful for all of your contributions – this has been such a fun project because your posts have been so interesting, not to mention provocative!

But, as so many of you have told us, talk is wonderful but action is better. The real imperative now is to walk the talk. We hope that all of you – indeed all of us – can now do our bit to help ensure that the Commonwealth is a vibrant and dynamic association well into the 21st Century.  

For our part, here at the Royal Commonwealth Society, we are already busy trying to help the Commonwealth gets its groove back! Watch this space…

Actually, please note that we will not be updating the Commonwealth Conversation website very often for the foreseeable future (but all of the existing content and your comments will continue to be available to view). You will have to find us at the main RCS website www.thercs.org.  

With many thanks

The Commonwealth Conversation Team

The one time we were supposed to hear what was going on – at a press conference with Prime Minister Manning and the Commonwealth Secretary-General – was cancelled yesterday evening. Many people are saying that this is because leaders and officials have not reached agreement on the sensitive issues at the summit which seem to be climate change, Rwanda’s membership, and whether Sri Lanka will be hosting the next CHOGM. In fact, I hear that Rwanda’s membership was supposed to have been announced on Thursday. If President Kagame is, as rumoured, lounging incognito by a pool in Port of Spain, he will have to wait some more.

The highlight for many on Friday was the presence of France’s President Sarkozy. This is being spun as great news for the Commonwealth. I am not so sure. In his press conference, the only real reference Sarkozy made to the Commonwealth was to say how happy he was to be here. The rest of it was about climate change and French domestic matters. This has the potential to distract leaders and the media. In fact, I hear that Sarkozy met the Indian Prime Minister for lunch yesterday. That’s great but it does mean that Dr Singh has one less hour to spend with Commonwealth leaders.

I am told that there’s another press conference scheduled for today. Let’s hope they actually turn up this time. In the meantime, I am off to see what civil society says to Foreign Ministers.

The day started with a bang, after one of the local papers ran a front page headline saying “Commonwealth Irrelevant”. Unfortunately, the headline writer must have missed the critical words “risks becoming” in our press release. You can’t win them all.

The big day looms tomorrow, with the official opening due to start at 10am. The only hitch is that we’re supposed to be seated by 7.30am!! For those of you who follow us on twitter (DannyRCS), I promise you up-to-the-minute coverage of what goes on in the 2.5 hour wait. Unless I’ve fallen asleep that is…

The bad news is that all Commonwealth institutions share the burden of raising the Commonwealth’s profile. Member states need to invest more time or money, leaders need to come up with bold statements at their summits, the Secretary-General needs to be out and about more, intergovernmental institutions need to show they are effective and civil society organisations need to devise innovative programmes that have a wider appeal.

Meanwhile, the stream of leaders arriving in Trinidad is turning into a flood. I am told that there were no fewer than 13 motorcades waiting outside the BA plane that arrived here last night. And true CHOGM groupies can keep track of who’s on the red carpet via a live video feed from the airport that’s being aired at the conference venue. Riveting stuff.

But there’s apparently one leader who has shunned the formalities on arrival. Rumour has it that the Rwandan President Paul Kagame has been in Trinidad since Monday lounging anonymously by a pool somewhere until Rwanda’s membership application is considered by CHOGM on Friday. So watch out for a magically appearing 54th leader tomorrow.

I have been struck by two things. First, that the scale of what will transpire over the next few days in Port of Spain is unimaginable, at least by local standards. The Commonwealth will deliver some 50 leaders with entourages, delegates for Business, People’s and Youth Forums, and a whole range of associated events. After only a day in Trinidad I get a sense of how big the Commonwealth really is.

The second is the ‘shopping list syndrome’ that seems to afflict many in the Commonwealth. Even in these few hours, I have heard from prominent speakers that the Commonwealth must focus on every issue under the sun. While I agree that the Commonwealth has to be flexible to deal with the issues of the day, do we really want our leaders to examine small business development or talk about counter-terrorism in their short time together? No, I hope this CHOGM will be focused on clear goals.

But, then again, it is the end of day one of CHOGM one…

Anyone who has been a frequent visitor to these pages should have a good idea of the sorts of the things we will be saying. Our report is unashamedly provocative, not because we want to undermine the Commonwealth, but because we believe the Conversation so far should be a wake up call. In the spirit of public consultation, we also believe in reporting what we have been told, even if the truth hurts.

I suspect that our report will ruffle some feathers next week, but I hope it will be received in the constructive spirit we embarked on at the start of this process.

Having engaged tens of thousands of people in thinking about the future of the Commonwealth, for us it would be hugely disappointing if our findings are ignored by leaders in Trinidad. We believe the Conversation should lead to real action, not just a paragraph in a long communiqué, or the renaming of a division in the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Several members of the Conversation team will be in Trinidad, trying to get people to pay attention to our findings. We promise to give you a blow by blow account of how we get on. Watch this space…

I would be fascinated to hear views on this question. The profile debate seems to go to the heart of what we are trying to achieve in the Conversation.

Those who have said public knowledge about the Commonwealth is not important argue that its most important work is done ‘behind the scenes’; that it often works to benefit small and vulnerable countries (which may not be known in bigger countries); and that it is what political leaders think that matters, not the general public.

On the other hand, I and others argue that public awareness is critical to the mission of any public institution, particularly one that aspires to be as much an association of peoples as a club of countries. While the Commonwealth’s most important work may fall below the radar, I am convinced that more has to be done to (re)capture the public’s imagination. At a practical level, without public awareness, there will be less public support for the association, and without public support, political leaders are less likely to invest time and resources in the association. That’s partly why I believe doing a public consultation like this is critical.

But please tell me if I am wrong…

I’ve already had the pleasure of attending a few of these and I am about to head off on whirlwind tour to attend another half dozen of them (in four countries over seven days!) to explain what we are trying to achieve.

To try and build a picture of the work we are doing, we have included a new events section on the website. The green button at the top of the page will take you to a calendar which will include information of all past and future Commonwealth Conversations taking place around the world.

Photos and videos of the events are starting to come in and we will be putting those up on the website as well.

If you want to attend an event please get in touch, or if you have already been to one, and what to tell us what you thought of it, please leave a comment under the specific event post. Or, better still, if you want to organise your own event, there’s still time. This project is all about collecting your opinions, so make sure your voice is heard.