Some of the delegates who attended the conference have written blogs. Not all were entirely complimentary, though the criticism was about content and not organisation.
Since I am the finance guy at the AGI and not a geographer, I cannot really comment on the overall content or direction of the conference. Except perhaps to say that with nearly 600 delegates, the content will not reflect everyone´s views on every occasion. And some of the quality of presentation was, in my view, variable. But if the sessions have stimulated debate, then surely that is a good thing.
Yes the final session was a bit flat, and we will have to look at that for next year. How to conclude a conference on a high note is a difficult issue for us - especially as many delegates are keen to catch trains or to get home before dark. Keeping a buzz right up to the last minute is not easy.
From a personal viewpoint, I thought the conference went well. Being the accountant, I had to come out of my confort zone. I had to run the Icebreaker evening, attend a number of sessions, deliver the finance report and generally keep a profile that is a bit higher than I am used to. I was pleased at how well I acheived that. I thought the AGI team and volunteers were exceptional. All took their responsibilities very seriously and gelled very well. We, the AGI Team, get paid for what we do. The volunteers are exactly that - unpaid volunteers. My admiration for them knows no bounds. The conference would not happen without them. They were great.
We will of course have a debrief. Next year we will strive to make the conference bigger and better. But to bring 600 delegates to Stratford, manage all of their arrangements, produce a conference of a high standard, and have many of them intending to return next year, is a considerable achievement.
I am happy with that as a reflection on the past three days.
Friday, 26 September 2008
Thursday, 25 September 2008
AGI GeoCommunity´08
The conference is over. I have returned from Stratford upon Avon after the 2008 AGI Conference. I am exhausted, but very pleased with the way it went. A lot of people did a lot of work to make sure it went well.
The AGI Conference is always a bit strange for me, especially since my training is not in geography. It is a mixture of hard work and alcohol and not much sleep. And most of the work is different to what I am used to back in the office.
The work started on Tuesday when the team had to stuff a huge number of inserts into 600 delegate bags. My back hurt. Then in the evening came the pre-conference Icebreaker event. It´s the first time we have had one of these, and, scarily, I found myself volunteering to run it. I decided to run a dinner, a quiz and a theatrical event - Buffet, Brains and Bard.
So I found myself on stage leading a ´Very Spatial Quiz´. It was not long into this that I realised that perhaps I´d made the questions too difficult, but there was nothing I could do now. So on I went. I got particularly nervous over question 20 where I had to sing the question. But anyway I got through it and it didn´t go too badly.Then came the ´Earl of Oxford´s Men´ who did two performances from Shakespeare, one from Henry V and one from Midsummer Night´s Dream. The standard of acting was mixed but overall it was fine and delegates enjoyed both pieces. Finally I gave the quiz answers and announced the winners. The winning team got 40 points out of a possible 60 which I guess shows how tough the quiz was.
Over the next two days I was heartened by the number of delegates who came up to me to tell me how much they´d enjoyed the evening. Next day, feeling a bit groggy from the glasses of wine I´d had the previous night, I was room monitor in the Blenheim Room. No real difficulty there - just handing the microphone round during question sessions. At the AGI AGM, I then had to deliver the Finance report. The news was good, and although I do get nervous when delivering prepared reports, it went okay. AGI is in an improving financial position thanks to collective effort and a high degree of budgetary responsibility from team and Council.
That evening I dressed up in a very spiky wig for the party which had an eighties theme. It was fun. Crucially, I did not drink too much and went to bed shortly after midnight. Next day I felt okay and resumed my room monitoring duties and, despite briefly dozing off on a couple of occasions, got though them without incident.
And suddenly the conference was over. Tomorrow I will reflect a bit more about the conference. For today, I am just tapping into the positive remarks from delegates. I take my share of a collective pride in a job well done.
The AGI Conference is always a bit strange for me, especially since my training is not in geography. It is a mixture of hard work and alcohol and not much sleep. And most of the work is different to what I am used to back in the office.
The work started on Tuesday when the team had to stuff a huge number of inserts into 600 delegate bags. My back hurt. Then in the evening came the pre-conference Icebreaker event. It´s the first time we have had one of these, and, scarily, I found myself volunteering to run it. I decided to run a dinner, a quiz and a theatrical event - Buffet, Brains and Bard.
So I found myself on stage leading a ´Very Spatial Quiz´. It was not long into this that I realised that perhaps I´d made the questions too difficult, but there was nothing I could do now. So on I went. I got particularly nervous over question 20 where I had to sing the question. But anyway I got through it and it didn´t go too badly.Then came the ´Earl of Oxford´s Men´ who did two performances from Shakespeare, one from Henry V and one from Midsummer Night´s Dream. The standard of acting was mixed but overall it was fine and delegates enjoyed both pieces. Finally I gave the quiz answers and announced the winners. The winning team got 40 points out of a possible 60 which I guess shows how tough the quiz was.
Over the next two days I was heartened by the number of delegates who came up to me to tell me how much they´d enjoyed the evening. Next day, feeling a bit groggy from the glasses of wine I´d had the previous night, I was room monitor in the Blenheim Room. No real difficulty there - just handing the microphone round during question sessions. At the AGI AGM, I then had to deliver the Finance report. The news was good, and although I do get nervous when delivering prepared reports, it went okay. AGI is in an improving financial position thanks to collective effort and a high degree of budgetary responsibility from team and Council.
That evening I dressed up in a very spiky wig for the party which had an eighties theme. It was fun. Crucially, I did not drink too much and went to bed shortly after midnight. Next day I felt okay and resumed my room monitoring duties and, despite briefly dozing off on a couple of occasions, got though them without incident.
And suddenly the conference was over. Tomorrow I will reflect a bit more about the conference. For today, I am just tapping into the positive remarks from delegates. I take my share of a collective pride in a job well done.
Sunday, 21 September 2008
Heading for Stratford upon Avon
I realise that there has been a huge gap in posts to this blog recently. But work at AGI has been continuing and the largest event of the year, our annual conference, takes place next week in Stratford upon Avon.
We´ve all worked hard on it, the programme is varied and of high quality, we have nearly 600 delegates booked-up. I have my outfit for the party! I am looking forward to the whole event.
We´ve all worked hard on it, the programme is varied and of high quality, we have nearly 600 delegates booked-up. I have my outfit for the party! I am looking forward to the whole event.
Friday, 6 June 2008
AGIGeocommunity2008
This week the Conference team have been in Stratford-Upon-Avon sorting our the programme for our annual conference which will take place there in September.
It was a long, tiring process. We had to read all of the submitted papers and decide on those which will be accepted. We then drew us a programme by slotting the accepted papers into themed slots. We agreed plenary sessions, workshops, debates etc. And finally we drew everything together in a coherent manner.
I think it has worked very well and I think we have a really strong conference. Details will be released within a few days once speakers have been contacted. Watch this space for the countdown to the conference.
It was a long, tiring process. We had to read all of the submitted papers and decide on those which will be accepted. We then drew us a programme by slotting the accepted papers into themed slots. We agreed plenary sessions, workshops, debates etc. And finally we drew everything together in a coherent manner.
I think it has worked very well and I think we have a really strong conference. Details will be released within a few days once speakers have been contacted. Watch this space for the countdown to the conference.
Thursday, 1 May 2008
Finances
The control of finances at AGI are my responsibility. But of course the results come from the heard work of the whole team. Today the AGI Council approved the audited accounts for 2007. After small surpluses in 2005 and 2006, we made a surplus of over £45,000 in 2007. And now our financial base is stronger than it has been for some time.
This is excellent news and means that at AGI we face the future in confident mode.
This is excellent news and means that at AGI we face the future in confident mode.
Thursday, 28 February 2008
Strategy 2008
Each year, AGI produces a strategy for the year ahead. This is driven by the Chair of the organisation. Because the Chair only serves for one year, there is a danger that strategy can lack continuity. But recently the strategy has deliberately built on that of the previous year. And the strategy for 2008 is very much an evolution from what we strived to achieve in 2007.
This year we have 5 objectives -
Objective 1 – Membership
To strengthen and grow the membership base, by focusing on GI issues of
interest and relevance to members.
Objective 2 - Events
To run a programme of events that is relevant to the membership and breaks
into new areas of interest.
Objective 3 – Outreach
To work with outside bodies and seek partnerships with three other relevant
professional organisations to promote the AGI’s mission and the use of
Geographic Information (GI) in other communities, both regionally and
nationally.
Objective 4 - AGI Council and policy making
To identify and discuss the major issues relating to GI or affecting the GI
community, to determine policy through the elected Council, with input from
members, and to provide appropriate responses either as expert views to
government or information to members.
Objective 5 - Finance
To ensure the long-term financial stability of the AGI and seek to replenish
the financial reserves.
That seems to me to be a pretty good list. Now we need to head off and try to achieve them.
This year we have 5 objectives -
Objective 1 – Membership
To strengthen and grow the membership base, by focusing on GI issues of
interest and relevance to members.
Objective 2 - Events
To run a programme of events that is relevant to the membership and breaks
into new areas of interest.
Objective 3 – Outreach
To work with outside bodies and seek partnerships with three other relevant
professional organisations to promote the AGI’s mission and the use of
Geographic Information (GI) in other communities, both regionally and
nationally.
Objective 4 - AGI Council and policy making
To identify and discuss the major issues relating to GI or affecting the GI
community, to determine policy through the elected Council, with input from
members, and to provide appropriate responses either as expert views to
government or information to members.
Objective 5 - Finance
To ensure the long-term financial stability of the AGI and seek to replenish
the financial reserves.
That seems to me to be a pretty good list. Now we need to head off and try to achieve them.
Saturday, 16 February 2008
Geospatial Metadata
For a number of years, the AGI has been running a geospatial metadata service called GiGateway. This has been funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Recently, this funding beyond March 2008 has been in doubt. We were keen to continue to run the service beyond this date, both beacuse it is useful for the AGI and because we believe in the UK having access to up-to-date relevant metadata. Also, under the INSPIRE directive, the UK must prodide a metatdata service from 2009. So stopping the service on 2008 only to find that it meeds to be resurrected in 2009 did not seem to be sensible.
We have engaged constructively with the Department for Communities and Local Govermnment over this. We did this logically and unemotionally. I am pleased to say that this engagement has had a positive result and our responsibility for running GiGateway has been extended to March 2009, albeit on a care and maintenance basis.
For this we are grateful to the Department. We intend to use this time not only to ensure that GiGateway is maintained, but also that some improvements are made to the public interface and that the awareness of the service for users is also improved. If in 2009 it is to handed over to another department or organisation, then we will ensure that it is fit for purpose.
Recently, this funding beyond March 2008 has been in doubt. We were keen to continue to run the service beyond this date, both beacuse it is useful for the AGI and because we believe in the UK having access to up-to-date relevant metadata. Also, under the INSPIRE directive, the UK must prodide a metatdata service from 2009. So stopping the service on 2008 only to find that it meeds to be resurrected in 2009 did not seem to be sensible.
We have engaged constructively with the Department for Communities and Local Govermnment over this. We did this logically and unemotionally. I am pleased to say that this engagement has had a positive result and our responsibility for running GiGateway has been extended to March 2009, albeit on a care and maintenance basis.
For this we are grateful to the Department. We intend to use this time not only to ensure that GiGateway is maintained, but also that some improvements are made to the public interface and that the awareness of the service for users is also improved. If in 2009 it is to handed over to another department or organisation, then we will ensure that it is fit for purpose.
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