GOVERNMENT senator and recently installed Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Communication Taskforce frontman Abka Fitz-Henley says the party remains on a high following last week’s staging of the public session of its 81st annual conference at the National Arena in Kingston.

He says the party is now laser-focused on its mission of informing the electorate of the JLP’s achievements in various sectors and will continue to promote policies which respond to cost-of-living challenges facing Jamaicans.

“I think the conference committee, which was led by our Deputy Leader Desmond McKenzie and included the communication/public relations and production teams, delivered an impressive conference and, no doubt, there is a new burst of energy among our supporters.

“The conference displayed our resilience and confirmed that we are active and strong,” Fitz-Henley told the Jamaica Observer on the margins of a media conference at the party’s Belmont Road headquarters on Friday.

He said with less than a year to go before Jamaicans vote in the next general election, the JLP is committed to running a focused campaign.

“It was a good conference. We were intentional about avoiding gimmicks as we take the business of the people seriously, but I can assure Jamaicans that we are not, and will not be, carried away by the show of strength. Having stabilised the Jamaican economy, our focus remains on not only sensitising the population to acts of care we have implemented but we are deliberate about putting in place additional policies which improve the lives of our Jamaican brothers and sisters,” added Fitz-Henley.

The JLP’s conference drew a massive crowd of Labourites to the National Arena in Kingston, with several platform speakers pointing to what they described as the achievements of the Andrew Holness-led Administration and its intention to build on its track record of implementing policies to create opportunities and make the lives of the Jamaican people better.

Six women — Juliet Holness, Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn, Kamina Johnson Smith, Kerensia Morrison, Titanya Clarke, and Leeyon Layne — were among the 12 speakers who delivered addresses to the jubilant bell-ringing Labourites.

Attendees at the jazzy conference were treated to massive high-resolution screens erected inside and outside the arena, dazzling green-coloured, elevated lights, enhanced audio quality, an array of synchronised musical selections as speaker after speaker declared the JLP to be ‘Active and Strong’, which was the theme for the conference.

According to Fitz-Henley, the conference planning committee decided to move from the traditional set-up in the arena, in which the main stage would be directly facing the entrance of the venue.

He said the team decided on a setting more like the conventions of the major political parties in the United States, with the main stage placed at a corner of the arena. That reportedly added an extra 700 chairs to the facility, which was jam-packed.

The set-up also featured backstage exit and entrance points for speakers who had the option of emerging from behind the giant screens, along with fireworks and confetti, which rained down on proceedings when Holness entered the venue.

“I have to commend the team. Apart from being strategic in the speakers we used to deliver various messages, our marketing team produced new designs, including a rebranded logo. On the production side, we brought in the experts, including Andrew Bellamy and Kamal Bankay. These guys have a stellar reputation in events production and they delivered for us,” said Fitz-Henley.

The JLP’s new political year will begin today with a meeting of its central executive — the party’s second-highest decision-making body outside of its annual conference.

The election of officers, including general secretary and chairman, is the main item on the agenda for today’s meeting, but no major change is expected.