Being part of the organising conference was a largely stress free affair. There were enough of us to share the load, we had a good mix of people with different ideas and experiences, and as we all volunteered for specific tasks, it wasn’t that arduous either.  The committee “met” via WebEx which is always tricky. How you make a silence sound interesting? Are you talking too much and dominating the conversation? We started planning in 2018 and spoke every couple of months so it wasn’t much of a commitment time wise either.

 On reflection I think we needn’t have worried too much about entertainment options for delegates to do in their free time. My perspective was that most people found someone to chat to or something to do themselves without our help, thank you very much. The fact that we were so close to Harrogate, the venue was so fabulous and the weather was largely kind helped too.

I only volunteered to present at the conference as I thought no one else would and it was ages away, and as I was on the conference committee I might have been made to do something even worse instead, and well, why not? Then suddenly the conference was only a week ahead and I still hadn’t done anything about it apart from borrowing a couple of books from the staff library on presentation skills, I didn’t have time to read them, but the intention was there. Honest.

I was a little bit nervous about my presentation, although I am used to talking nonsense at work, I had never spoken a conference before.  I held on to the hope that the speaker on before me would be rubbish, and I would look much better by comparison, but she wasn’t, in fact Sinead even won the prize for best presentation. I am not bitter though because she was good. Then it was my turn the 15 minutes flew by and I am pretty sure that most of the audience I was awake by the time I finished. So there if I can do it anyone can, yes really, you too.

Helen Curtis
Librarian
The Library and Knowledge Service
Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust