The 17th annual convention of the Serbian Unity Congress took place during October 25-28 at the Parc55 Hotel in beautiful San Francisco.
As in other years the convention is the time when members of our organization come together to hear reports on activities of the past year, attend panels on special topics and elect a new administration and enjoy convention social events with interesting keynote speakers and special entertainment.
In line with the Serbian Unity Congress mission, which includes our goal “to gather talents and experience to help economic prosperity in Serbian Lands” two new programs were added to the convention. As San Francisco is in the heart of the US wine and electronic regions we organized programs focused on these industries. Each was designed as a first step in a longer term program where the Serbian Unity Congress provided the role of catalyst in introducing Serb wine and technology industries to corresponding companies and academia in the San Francisco Bay Area. The task was to produce a cooperative group at convention’s end that would take the effort to a concrete working program to include, exchanges, training and other relationships between the businesses and academia in the US and Serbia.
Vuk Jeremic, Foreign Minister, Republic of Serbia Milica Cubrilo, Minister for Diaspora, Republic of Serbia
Entertainment *
The Serbian Unity Congress had the good fortune of being able to engage the exciting Trio Balkan Strings performers whose music was not only beautiful but extremely versatile and of superb quality. The father and two-son group who enchanted the guests are winners of numerous first-prize awards internationally and in Serbia. A tour of the Western US is in the making. We will apprise all our friends of the schedule when it is finalized.
Guests from Serbia and Republic of Srpska
The special guest list at this year’s convention included very prominent representatives of both the governments of Serbia and Republic of Srpska as well as businesses of Serbia. Most of the business guests attended one of the two new special feature programs.
In both cases the guests from Serbia were extremely satisfied with these first concrete programs between Serbia business and US counterparts. Work has already started on next steps. Извештај српске делегације са сусрета на 17. конвенцији
*Bajaga i Instruktori were originally engaged to perform at the Gala Dinner, Saturday 27th. As some of the planned performances were cancelled so was the whole US / Canada tour. However, Momčilo Bajaga sent a letter and a video greeting to the convention guests, which was presented at the Gala.
