Breeding Ground

You head off to conference wondering how you'll cope with speaking to competition conditions, hoping discussion about contentious constitutional changes won't become too heated, and fearing you won't be able to sleep in a strange bed. But when you get to conference you have completely unexpected encounters with information, ideas and people; that's what conference is really about.
As I listened to the best-of-our-best deliver their carefully-prepared 10-minute speeches I learned about fascinating topics like Nurse Edith Cavell and the experiences of Australian nurses during World War One, but what I value most about those speeches are revelations about speech-writing in general. Later, conversations around the 'water cooler' suggested areas of impromptu speaking that have slipped between the cracks in previous sessions. And late-night pyjama parties created opportunities to peep beneath the surface of personalities previously glimpsed only at the microphone.
What did I learn? Well . . . that's a secret because I plan to develop tutorials on some of these insights. So stay tuned. (And because what happens at the pyjama party stays at the pyjama party).
This weekend's conference was a breeding ground for thoughts, ideas and friendships. And I've come home germinating like a pumpkin seed in a compost heap.
We're in for an exciting two years as Forum Communicators rises to meet the challenges of a world vastly different from the one in which founders Ruth Don, Marjorie Puregger and Jessie Groom planted a club to equip women to speak in public and run meetings with confidence. And I know we're in good hands with the new head gardener Margaret Townsley.
Thanks Elaine for a wonderful conference and for all your hard work in tending us for the past two years.
Roll up your sleeves everyone.