Jake Liggett
BBC News NI at Queen's

US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland Joseph Kennedy engaged in some handshakes and fistbumps with students as he arrived as the Voices of Tomorrow event.

Jack McBride from Loreto Community School in Milford, County Donegal, says it is "surreal" to see world leaders and other politicians reading and signing a poem he has written about the Good Friday Agreement.

He says he will keep the piece of paper for the rest of his life and has given it to his teacher to keep safe.

Jake Liggett
BBC News NI at Queen's

Former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair was among the guests at the Voices of Tomorrow event at Queen's.

Students representing Diverse Youth NI say they felt “honoured” when he took time to sign their notebook.

They say it was great to see him take time to speak to them and many others in the room.

Eimear Flanagan
BBC News NI at Queen's

Now on stage is Huma Abedin, a former aide of Hillary Clinton who also worked on her 2016 presidential election campaign.

She tells the audience that she is the daughter of academics who moved to Saudi Arabia as a toddler in the late 1970s and then moved around a lot of different countries during her childhood.

With ambitions to be a journalist, she returned to the United States to study and secured an internship in the press office at the White House.

Ms Abedin says she felt she had much to contribute to this role as she “had a different world view because of how I was raised”.

Talking about her relationship with Hillary Clinton, she says: “Every room and meeting she walks into, it’s ok what’s the problem and how do we solve it?”

She says her former boss tries to improve every situation or difficulty she encounters.

Eimear Flanagan
BBC News NI at Queen's

Like schoolgirl Farrah, the next panellist at International Voices of Leadership also attended Assumption Grammar in Ballynahinch, County Down.

Tara Grace Connolly is a youth activist with the All Island Women’s Forum.

At 25, she is the same age as the Good Friday Agreement.

She tells the audience she is grateful for the peace deal as it has enabled her to live the life that her parents could not lead during the Troubles.

Connolly says the SistersIN programme had not started by the time she left Assumption Grammar but she recognised the same willingness to nurture youth leaders that she experience while at the school.

She added that it was a proud moment to see a fellow “Assumption girl” take to the podium and address Mandela Hall.

Image source, PA Media

Back in the Whitla Hall, representatives of the five largest political parties of Stormont have been discussing the past, present and, in particular, the future of the Good Friday Agreement.

The panel is being chaired by BBC News NI correspondent Mark Simpson.

Discussions about reforming the peace deal have been had throughout the conference so far.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald says the first order of business is to get the institutions back up and running.

Ms McDonald adds the party is open to a conversation about reform, but that it should enshrine a power-sharing Stormont Executive and Assembly that "works in the best interests of everyone."

Asked about the "100 per centers" in her party - people accused of being unwilling to compromise - Democratic Unionist Party assembly member Emma Little-Pengelly says “we must get round the table and find a way of agreeing better" and not allow grievenaces to "rumble when it gets to a point of collapse.

She reflects on 10 years of relative stability at Stormont between 2007 and 2017 and says “we need to get back to that”.

Alliance leader Naomi Long says the institutions have been "tested beyond destruction".

"[The Good Friday Agrement] is a triumph of all things needed to bring peace, but it is a foundation of which we should be ready to build and not a ceiling of our ambitions for this place," she tells the event.

Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie says the peace deal was "designed to be changed", and criticised

"If [Sinn Féin] are not allowed to take their place and we are not allowed to get up and running now, then we are really trampling over democracy," he says.

Social Democratic and Labour Party leader Colum Eastwood says his party would be up for a discussion around reform and that former leader, John Hume would want the same.

"It doesn't matter what the institutions look like if we're not prepared to work together," he says.

Jake Liggett
BBC News NI at Queen's

Over at the Peter Froggatt Centre more than 200 young people from across the island of Ireland are gathering to present their ideas about what peace means to them.

Cherie Blair, barrister and wife of former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair, is at the event and has been speaking to some of the young people present.

Eimear Flanagan
BBC News NI at Queen's

Farrah Oliver-McAuley, a teenage student from Assumption Grammar School in Ballynahinch, County Down is now addressing the event.

She says the greatest example of a leader in her life is female, and in fact that person is her own mother.

“My mum truly is to me what a leader is,” Farrah says.

She says her mother raised five children and jokes that sometimes her father “acts like the sixth”.

Farrah says her mum taught her one of her greatest life lessons - to face adversity with a “smile on my face”.

This was particularly important when Farrah was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of nine.

“She taught me to believe in myself," she says.

Eimear Flanagan
BBC News NI at Queen's

Back at the International Voices of Leadership event there is a bit of girl power on display.

Among the audience is a group of pupils from different schools who have been invited because of their participation in the SistersIN leadership programme.

The charity’s mission is to “enable, empower and develop female pupils in education to become the leaders of tomorrow”.

The student in the middle of this group, Farrah Oliver-McAuley, will address the audience today.

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political correspondent

Next up is a discussion between leading politicians from the five largest parties in Northern Ireland, with just 30 days to go until the council elections.

That fact provided the backdrop for them as they took to the stage.

While the DUP has not said it openly, no one expects it to return to Stormont before the poll.

Despite the Northern Ireland secretary and the Tánaiste (Irish Deputy Prime Minister) Micheál Martin in back-to-back speeches putting it up to the party to re-enter government immediately, their words won't shift the DUP stance and could well prove counter productive.

One thing of note is that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is back in town this week and will meet all the parties.

The DUP has been pressing him for further legislation on the Windsor Framework and may want to push again tomorrow night.

Image source, PA

Next up is Tánaiste (Irish Deputy Prime Minister) Micheál Martin.

The Cork native jokes with host Donie O'Sullivan that it is a great personal and political ambition of his to be introduced to a distinguished gathering by a Kerry man.

Martin begins his speech by noting the relationship between the governments in Dublin and London played in the peace process by working together with "trust, co-operation and determination".

He alos notes that there are areas where the two governments disagree, specifically mentioning the UK government's controversial legacy bill.

"But I am delighted to say that our partnership is manifestly better now than it has been for quite some time," he says.

Image source, PA

Martin then pays tribute to the principle of consent enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement, allowing the people of Northern Ireland to decide whether it should remain part of the UK or unite with the Republic of Ireland.

"Regardless of your constitutional preference, it is a shared space," he says."The geography won’t change and there are things that it makes sense to do on an all-island basis."

But, he says there should be reform of the agreement as it is clear the "political community between ‘unionist’ and ‘nationalist’ has grown".

He adds this can only be done with a restored Stormont assembly, which is the "essential next step" to secure the future of young people and generations to follow.

Eimear Flanagan
BBC News NI at Queen's

Back at the women in leadership event, Dame Louise Richardson, who served as vice-chancellor of Oxford University, also addresses online abuse aimed at academic staff, which she says is “disproportionately levelled at women”.

This abuse is not only often personally insulting but sometimes can include threats of violence, including threats to rape, she says.

She says it is discouraging people from speaking out because they find themselves the target of trolls or the subject of “inflammatory headlines” as a consequence of giving an opinion on sensitive issues.

She says the academic field will never have enough women taking positions of power in public life until we deal with the issue of online trolling.

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political correspondent

While most of the speakers this week so far managed their words carefully, this was a direct and intentional dig by Chris Heaton-Harris.

“Real leaders know when to say yes,” he said, and anyone watching his speech could guess who that was aimed at.

He pushed further still, saying that the ongoing Stormont stalemate is the “single biggest threat to the union”.

It’s a warning others may put some stock in but it won’t move the dial or nudge the Democratic Unionist Party back into government.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was not in the audience to hear the warnings.

His party will be represented later today by Emma Little-Pengelly who will no doubt lay out her party’s response to the Northern Ireland secretary.

Over at the main conference venue the second day has just begun with an address by Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.

He pays tribute to those who brought peace after decades of violence, crediting David Trimble's "foresight and leadership", as well as Martin McGuinness, Gerry Adams and John Hume.

He also mentions the "critical role" women such as Mo Mowlam, Monica McWilliams and Baroness Blood paid in the peace process.

The personal commitments of the Clintons and Senator George Mitchell are reflected in the secretary's remarks.

"It is undoubtedly the case that the efforts of those people to get peace mean that there are men and women alive today, possibly here today, who otherwise may not be," he says.

Image source, PA Media

Referencing the shooting of senior police officer John Caldwell by the New IRA, and other dissident republican activity, Heaton-Harris warns against the "tiny minority who seek to drag Northern Ireland back to its darkest days."

"For each person who wants to drag it down, there are thousands determined to lift it up."

Heaton-Harris speaks about how he makes "no apologies" for wanting Northern Ireland to work within the union.

"Others who share that view should put the union first, restore the devolved institutions and get on with the job of delivering for the people of Northern Ireland," he says to a round of applause from the audience.

"Real leadership is about knowing when to say yes and having the courage to do so."

Eimear Flanagan
BBC News NI at Queen's

Dame Louise Richardson, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York, is the next speaker.

She is a renowned academic leader and an expert on terrorism studies.

Richardson is from Tramore, County Waterford and was the first person in her family to go to university.

She grew up in a large family with three sisters and three brothers.

“There is nothing like having three brothers to explode the myth of male superiority,“ she jokes.

She says she has never suffered from imposter syndrome “until today” when she was asked to speak about leadership in the company of the guest speakers.

Eimear Flanagan
BBC News NI at Queen's

Former President of Ireland Mary McAleese recalls trying to address the problems facing women in the workplace when she worked in the Institute of Professional Legal Studies.

She witnessed young women whose careers had to be put on hold due to childcare or the care needs of elderly parents.

“The expectation was that it would their careers that would be interrupted,” she said, adding that was just the accepted norm at the time.

McAleese said she suggested the idea of job sharing, but was met with a lot of opposition.

She joked that if she had committed “all seven deadly sins in public” there would have been less scandal.

But the idea was a success and it eventually became normalised in her workplace.

McAleese said women should not have to carry “outrageous burdens” alone during their professional lives.

Eimear Flanagan
BBC News NI at Queen's

Clinton tells the audience that many women struggle with leadership because they don’t see themselves as leaders.

She said this was something she struggled to do for a long time, but realised that a critic could be a critical “friend” or a teacher and that you can learn something about yourself by taking their opinion on board.

But she distinguished this type of criticism from anonymous online criticism which she said is “literally meant to tear you down”.

“If you take that seriously you will get taken down,” Mrs Clinton says.

Eimear Flanagan
BBC News NI at Queen's

Today begins with the International Voices of Leadership conference, hosted by the Women in Business organisation.

The main guest speaker at the Mandela Hall is Hillary Clinton, Chancellor of Queen’s University.

The opening address is being delivered by Jayne Brady, the first female head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

“This room is full of leaders” she tells the audience, telling them they have the potential to be the catalyst for positive change.

She says that one in every four self-employed people in Northern Ireland is a woman, but she also says there are many barriers to women reaching their full potential.

“The gender playing field is far from level,” Ms Brady says.

She adds that women represent “50% of our talent assets” and their career paths must be nurtured.

Hello and welcome to our second day of our coverage of the Agreement 25 conference taking place at Queen's University Belfast.

There is another packed agenda and the overall theme for the day is 'renew'.

Among the top billed speakers today includes NI secretary Chris Heaton-Harris, Tánaiste (Irish deputy PM) Micheál Martin, former Irish president Mary Robinson, congressman Richard E. Neal and Maroš Šefčovič, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator.

Stay with us throughout the day to keep up to date with our reporters at the conference and in the BBC NI newsroom.

Thank you for joining us today for our live coverage of a series of events at Queen's University Belfast marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

We heard from George Mitchell, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Sir Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, as well as a range of politicians from Northern Ireland.

The conference continues tomorrow, when we will be back for more live coverage.

Join us then, but for now, good evening.

In his closing remarks, Blair acknowledges there are continuing problems with the insitutions established by the agreement, but adds: "We also know that Northern Ireland is a far better place".

In a not-so-subtle reference to today's political deadlock, Blair advises Stormont's leaders: "You know in your heart of hearts what the right thing to do is and you should just get on and do it."