A resounding success for the 2025 Asia Pacific Rotary Regional Editors’ Seminar

Photos: @rhysmartinPhotographer

From 25-28 May, editors from the regional Rotary magazines of Thailand, Japan, India and Taiwan, along with delegates from the Rotary International flagship magazine, joined the Rotary Down Under team at Sea World Resort on the Gold Coast for the 2025 Asia Pacific Rotary Regional Editors’ Seminar.

After months of heavy rain, the clouds parted and the sun shone bright for an inspiring line-up of guest speakers and team building excursions at the 2025 Asia Pacific Rotary Regional Editors’ Seminar.

Set against the back-drop of the stunning Gold Coast Broadwater, Immediate Past District Governor Dave and Robyn Harmon, from the Rotary Club of Ballina-on-Richmond, NSW, shared the success of Zone 8’s Say NO to Domestic and Family Violence campaign, and how Rotary’s global media network has helped spread the message across the world.

David Alexander, Gundula Miethke and Jason Keyser from Rotary International updated us on the recent Rotary magazine survey results, digital magazine platforms and magazine licence agreements.

Ritesh Patel, from the Rotary Club of Botany Downs in New Zealand, brought us all up to speed on the ever-changing world of artificial intelligence, and RDU Creative Director and Photographer Rhys Martin gave a crash course in harnessing the power of mobile phone photography, before a field trip into Sea World for some hands-on practice and a death-defying loop around the Leviathan wooden coaster (well, only Jason was game enough to join him… the rest of us enjoyed the cute emperor penguins and polar bears).

A short taxi ride into Surfers Paradise to take part in the OzHarvest Cooking for a Cause program – headed by Rotary Club of Burleigh Heads, Qld, member Chef Terri Taylor – highlighted the disturbing significance of food waste and how Australian not-for-profit OzHarvest is fighting this global epidemic by rescuing food that would otherwise end up in landfill and transforming it into delicious and nutritious meals for the homeless.

Evening activities included a dinner cruise aboard Spirit of Elston, where our group enjoyed delicious regional cuisine and conversation beneath the sparkling lights of the Surfers Paradise skyline, before rounding out the seminar with a voyage into the stunning yet harsh realities of life on the land at the incredible Australian Outback Spectacular.

Everyone agreed that it was the seminar delivered the perfect balance between work and play.