Bristol Conference 2012

BRISTOL CONFERENCE 2012

This was my first major engagement as Consort to the DGN during 2012-13. I was beginning to realise that I had been setting my expectations a little high, when I learnt there would be no official car laid on for me, and I had to drive not only myself but the DGN to Bristol on a Friday afternoon in October for the District Conference.  Most of my experience to date of being the Consort was the lack of recognition I seemed to get, and I was determined to redress this during my period of office.

So it was that we set off mid afternoon for the drive to Bristol, which we anticipated would take about 2 hours tops, allowing for the usual Friday traffic escaping from London. No sooner had we got on to the M4 when the radio announced that there was a major accident on the M4 and major delays could be expected. My idea was that we would stay with the Motorway for as long as possible, and when it became stop-start, we would simply find an alternative route overland. Little was I to know that every other motorist on the M4 that evening would have the same idea. We turned off near Reading on to a country lane, on which we travelled about a quarter of a mile in 1 hour, before turning back to the M4, which by now had cleared, and we had a comfortable drive for the rest of the way, arriving about 6.30 at the Marriott City Centre Hotel in Bristol

The DGN and I were assigned a VIP to look after for the weekend,  Peter Davey, who was the Rotary International Representative for the Conference, and his lovely wife Sandra. Now I felt that I was moving in the right circles for someone of my rank. Peter and Sandra joined our club at a local Restaurant on Friday evening, which was a jolly affair, and I think Peter was very impressed with my plans to develop the role of Consort to the DGN. We also saw a lot of The District Governor this year, Mike Thorn and his wife Becky, who were by now good friends. He and his wife were very busy all weekend, as you would expect, and I suppose that is what we have to look forward to in a couple of years time.

                                                 Mike Thorn with Olympic torch

Mike Thorn was an Olympic Torch carrier during the build up to the Olympics earlier that year. He brought his souvenir torch to the Conference, and he felt that it would enhance his fund raising activities if I were to pose for a picture with the torch. This I duly agreed to do, but I had to fend off Tony Pipe, consort to the President elect of Shepperton Aurora, who was determined to get in on the act. It was all a bit undignified and I shouldn’t have needed to point out that as a junior consort, he needed to defer to me at official engagements. I think I will need to keep an eye on him in future in case he has any other ideas above his station.

The Marriot Hotel proved to be an excellent venue for our Conference. It is situated close to shopping malls with lots of Restaurants nearby, and because everybody stayed at the hotel where the conference took place, there weren’t the travel issues which always occur when the delegates stay at different hotels, and have to walk, drive or get taxis to the conference location.

There was an interesting mix of speakers at the event, and the stand-out ones for me were Peter Stewart, who spoke about the Eden Project; Baroness Shreela Flather, who was the last speaker of the Conference, but the only one to achieve a standing ovation, talking about women in slavery; and TV Weather presenter Helen Young, talking about… the weather.

We had a free afternoon on Saturday and a few of us decided to visit one of Bristol’s biggest visitor attractions, the SS Great Britain.  Designed by Brunel, at the time of the her launch in 1843 she was the largest ship in the world. She was also the first screw-propelled, ocean-going, iron-hulled steam ship – a truly revolutionary vessel and fore-runner of all modern shipping. (I copied this from the website). It was the world’s first luxury ocean liner, and has been restored to how it might have looked to its early passengers. It was fascinating, and I could easily have spent longer there.

                                   The job has its perks - Me with the gorgeous Pauline Hedges

As usual, the weekend was a great opportunity to catch up with old friends from the world of Rotary. The DGN and I were the last to get to bed on Saturday night after the dance, but it wasn’t easily achieved. We first had to see off Rob Marshall and his Chertsey Rotary club colleagues, who were camped in the Hotel bar long after midnight.  In fact they all went off to bed before I was able to finish telling them of my plans to develop the role of Consort to the DGN.

I wasn’t too surprised on Sunday morning when that year’s DGE Ron Daniels took me to one side for a chat. Naturally I thought he would be looking for a quote from the Consort to go in next year’s Conference programme, something which would inspire Rotarians to achieve even greater things during his year as DG. In fact I already had some thoughts about what I would write. Actually he didn’t ask me that at all. All he wanted to ask me was whether I would join his Conference committee for next year’s Conference, which was to be in Jersey.

I think I hid my disappointment quite well, and although I don’t really enjoy serving on committees, he persuaded me to be Conference Treasurer, which I graciously accepted.