What an exciting day at the Annual
Directory Meeting in London! However, I had been warned it could be like a
‘free for all ‘ and, to a certain extent, it was. We arrived at Westminster
Central Hall Westminster Central Hall for the opening of the event. Crowds of
people, mostly women, were gathering for the conference. I knew I was in the
right place because of the amount of beautiful, designer jewelry on show! The
hall is beautiful and so are the surroundings, just opposite the Abbey and the
within sight of Big Ben.
Central Hall is a new venue for the NADFAS
ADM. As far as I could tell it suited the purpose very well but I do not have
experience of previous venues. Lecturers were arranged alphabetically on two
floors, at desks, in rows and they were able to create a small display to
illustrate their interests. At 11am small groups of new lecturers were invited
to present themselves and their subjects to an audience of around 500, seated
theater style, in the conference main hall.
They were allowed two minutes to present
themselves and their specialist subject, and then the microphone was turned
off. We were apprehensive about this system because we thought it would be
difficult to make such a rapid assessment. However, it was not too difficult at
all to decide which ones would be suitable for our society. We marked our
papers accordingly with the intention of visiting the chosen lecturers and
engaging them on the spot. Next, the established lecturers were given one
minute each to present their new lectures. This was also very interesting and
we heard a little about Stradivarius, Church stained glass, the Impressionists,
and many other interesting topics which thoroughly whet our appetite.
After these presentations, at around 1.15, over
a quick sandwich, we made a plan of action. We split up and tried to visit the
lecturers we had decided upon with a view to booking them for our society. Fortunately,
we had spent some time ringing around before the conference, and some of the booking
confirmations were a formality. But we did manage to get ahead on our programme
for two years and were mightily pleased with ourselves, if exhausted!
What an impressive event, what organization
and what impressive lecturers, with a very high standard overall.
We were also delighted with the way other
societies went out of their way to help and guide us. They did this by giving
us copies of their documentation, listening to our ideas, making suggestions
and just being really friendly.
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