From: Horse (horse@darkstar.uk.net)
Date: Tue Jul 19 2005 - 01:56:29 BST
Hi Folks
Just thought I'd throw in a few thoughts about the conference, the people I met there
and my general impressions.
Without exception, every person I met at the conference and the various social events
was friendly and warm. A real pleasure to meet so many like-minded and intelligent folk.
David was the first person I met up with, by sheer accident in the hotel lobby, and we hit
it off straight away. Likewise Gavin and Belle a short time later and the rest of the
evening is a bit blurry. Even the drunks in the bar were good fun. Must be the Liverpool
air.
Met up with Paul and Ant later on Wednesday on the way to the Chester and then a
whole host of MoQers at the Bear and Billet pub in Chester. Lots of talking and at one
point I had a microphone waved in front of me, courtesy of Karen. It's not often that I get
lost for words but a mike and camera defintely puts me off my stride - must have lasted
all of 30 seconds!
At the pub I got to meet a whole bunch of people I've wanted to meet for ages - Ian,
Maggie, Mark, Mati and more. Other folk I hadn't known of previously either. Oddly
enough, of all the people I met Maggie was exactly as I imagined her. Great talking to
you Maggie.
Bob and Wendy arrived at about 6:15 and, quite naturally, all attention gravitated in
Bob's direction. Paul was right on the money when he said that Robert Pirsig
transformed into Bob - for me, that happened in the Bear and Billet. I got to talk to him
briefly a couple more times over the next 24 hours. Very enjoyable.
More drinking and talking and then a walk to the boat for yet more drinking and talking
with the addition of some very welcome food. You get a different view of the world from a
river - a more relaxed and peaceful setting. That being said, time on the boat went far
too quickly and it semed like only a few minutes later we were docking and
disembarking.
Back to Liverpool and a quick drink and then back to the hotel for some much needed
sleep. My feet were killing me - I hate new shoes..
The conference the next day was awesome. I enjoyed listening to every one of the
papers and the subsequent questions. The highlight was definitely David's paper with
Gavin coming in a close second, but all of the others were of a really high standard and
it's hard to choose between them - so I won't.
My comment to David re: Bob's comments to him, was something along the lines of 'I bet
you won't come down for about a week'. Looks like I underestimated :^)
As with one or two others, I had to leave the party early that evening to get home but the
6th and 7th of July 2005 are two days I'll remember for a long time.
My overall impression of the conference and the people present was that of a real
determination to push the MoQ forward. Anthony's PhD is a foot in the door of academia
and when David and (hopefully) Paul get their work underway we may see some of the
edifices start to crumble. About time too. I'm also hoping that Mark gets in on the game
as I think his ideas about coherence are excellent and will produce great results.
Anthony did a superb job of organising the whole affair and I doff my cap (metaphorically
speaking) to him. Well done Anthony (your a star) and here's to the next one. I'll even
get a paper together myself for that.
Over the next few weeks more pictures of the events should be published along with
transcipts of the papers. I don't know what will appear where as it's Anthony's call. He
did all the work so it's his baby and he gets to say what goes where and when. That's
only fair. More news of this as and when it becomes available. Watch this space.
Finally, the whole event was filmed so that's definitely something to look forward to.
Again I don't know exactly what's happening with this but I'm sure Anthony will let us
know when he knows.
That's all for now folks - stay tuned for more details.
Horse
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