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UK Conference - a huge success

The Conference in the UK has been a huge success. The venue at Reading University was perfect and the program rolled out without a hitch. The speakers were outstanding and the participants have given us glowing feedback. We will certainly be offering an expanded program next year, although a little later, so it is not so cold! It snowed one evening - quite a novelty for me, of course, but rather unusual for April.

The format of workshops, with short plenary sessions at the beginning and end of the days, worked very well. The video screening was well received, especially after our “happy hour” of wine (Australian!) and nibbles that had everyone in the right frame of mind for a night of mixed videos on birth and parenting themes.

One aspect of the Conference that was especially pleasing was the good mix of NHS educators and physiotherapists, craniosacral therapists, NCT, Active Birth, Yoga and other educators in the audience. It is so important to get all the various parent educators together in this way, to share experiences, learn more about each other’s work and to break down some of the misconceptions and perceptions that can be rife.

We had deliberately invited a number of international speakers to facilitate workshops, because we wanted to expose the UK health professionals to other ways of doing things. This worked very well and again the feedback was very positive. As I was screening the videos I suddenly realised that most of them were Australian in origin - and I apologise to the group, although as I pointed out, we do make a lot of very good videos on childbirth, breastfeeding and parenting themes in OZ.

I have had a wonderful time and I know that my team of helpers did as well. Fran Gallwey, who manages our UK office did a magnificent job and was able to meet many of the people she had spoken to on the phone. Our helpers, all students or people who had worked with us before in planning and presenting my workshops around the country, made everyone feel welcome, and were a key element in the smooth running of the event.

We’ll be closely evaluating the feedback and gathering the ideas offered as a basis for planning the next one. We have a similar event on the drawing boards for Sydney early next year and I hope that it is as successful. Watch this space for details later in the year.

Posted by andrea at April 10, 2005 08:42 PM