London’s QEII Centre welcomed The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) this month as the UK takes its turn to host leaders from all member countries.
A biennial summit of the heads of government from all Commonwealth nations is taking place from Monday 16 to Friday 20 April and sees the leaders of 52 nations come together to promote prosperity, democracy and peace.
The summit’s theme, ‘Towards a common future’, is focused on building on the strengths of the Commonwealth to ensure this unique organisation is responsive to global challenges and delivers a more prosperous, secure, sustainable and fair future for all its citizens, particularly its young people.
The weeklong event began with Commonwealth Forums centred on four topics: business, women, people and youth. Members of the Royal Family are attending forums that reflect their various areas of interest, with the QEII seeing visits from Prince William, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
The QEII Centre also hosted the ‘Welcome to the UK’ reception on the opening day of the summit, which was hosted by the Duke of Cambridge and attended by representatives of the Commonwealth’s 53 member countries.
The event made use of the centre’s entire 32 versatile spaces, even installing a quarter-ton, 10-metre whale called Plasticus on the lawn to demonstrate how much plastic ends up in the ocean every second.
Mark Taylor, CEO of the QEII Centre said: “QEII is proud to be an innovative, diverse event space that caters for a wide range of industries and I am delighted to have welcomed CHOGM 2018 to the centre. The conference has been tackling issues of worldwide importance, and it is an honour for QEII to provide a stage for these ground-breaking conversations.”
