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Editorial - February-March 2014 - part 1 of 1

by Mike McNamee Published 01/02/2014

Well, that's another Convention come and gone! As ever I left London with mixed feelings to dive into the maelstrom that is post-Convention magazine production.

Mixed feelings because of lots of interesting stuff along with frustrated sadness at some of the missed opportunities. Every year I arrive with grand plans for what I am going to see and do and later discover what I have missed on Facebook as the posts emerge in the following week! There is rarely enough time to get to a full seminar, I think I have now managed about four across the 10 years. This year I took in extended stays at the Maltese Night (great wine!), George Fairbairn, Richard Curtis (Adobe), Adrian Henson(1/4 time) plus a few flying visits to Damian McGillicuddy, Tom Lee, Ian Cook, Julia Boggio, Seamus Costelloe and Gordon

McGowan. The ones I regret most missing after the reports that have filtered back are the Yerbury's (an editorial meeting clashed), Chiara Fersini (a total meltdown via Dropbox which lost her files and I was unaware of just how stunningly good she is - wow, a feature is already in planning!), Lindsay Adler was also reported as being mind-blowingly good and CM Leung packed the room more than any other speaker. And these are just the ones that cropped up in conversation; judging by the pictures on Facebook, and those arriving in my inbox, I missed an awful lot more.

One of the nicest photo-opportunities was to be present at the Fellowship judging. I usually managed to escape from 16x20 judging to catch the announcement of the outcomes - oh boy the stress endured by the applicants is incredible, George Fairbairn looked like he might need paramedic, fast response care and Lenny Smith actually did need medical intervention when he got the bill for his round in the bar later - I think 168 was mentioned!). Another panel worthy of comment was that of Neil Shearer at Licentiate level, it really was a lovely panel, although I only blundered in after the excitement had died down.

The 16x20 competition was a great success with a 66% increase in the entry and a much larger area in which to display the pictures. Despite the cost of staging it, this competition always seems worthwhile when the pictures go up on the boards. A full report comes later in this issue. It was interesting to see the 'location' changes on Facebook as everybody jetted off to various parts of the globe. The lucky ones seemed to be heading for Fuerteventura (PTO); the weather there looked a whole lot better. Now all we have to endure is the posts of them enjoying themselves! Finally, congratulations to all our PotY competition winners at the Convention your excellent work enhanced the show no end!

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1st Published 01/02/2014
last update 09/12/2022 14:53:36

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