36 C O N T E X T 1 2 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 Notes from the chair The Annual Dinner rounds off a successful School News and reports of proceedings of the excellent Annual School are provided elsewhere, so I thought it appropriate to offer you a little flavour of the IHBC Annual Dinner. Naturally the lectures and talks are the focus of the School, but the Annual Dinner is an important event which rather marks a particular point in the IHBC calendar. This year the dinner had a distinctly Welsh flavour, as had so much of the excellent School. (Oh hush now! All that applause for my Welsh speaking is too much. And again, thank you, thank you, to Trefor Thorpe for his patient and diligent language coaching). I expect a boost to the visitor figures to North Wales on the basis of returning IHBC members who all appeared to be so impressed by the town and the surrounding areas. I am wondering if all future Schools should be by the seaside in the manner of political party conferences in the past. As usual, the Annual Dinner was a very civilised way to round off a successful Day School. From my vantage point I could see lots of old friends and many new ones too. We were located in the hotel’s Wedgwood Room, and if you saw the ceiling you would be in no doubt of the rationale for the name. I had an extremely handsome view of the rich detail and ornament. Speaking of rich detail and ornament, I had the president seated to my right. What more could I need? On my left I was lucky to be sitting next to a representative of one of our sponsors, Welsh Slate. We did talk about slate for a while, but we drifted into the more relaxed territory of Premier League football, Glamorganshire Cricket Club and Welsh rugby stars of the 1970s. I do not feel too guilty about this as everyone else around the table appeared to be in earnest discussion about conservation so I thought we could break ranks for a little while. During the dinner we were all blessed with a beautiful recital from a Welsh harpist, who made the playing look effortless. All that was lacking was the Welsh branch Alan Smith, managing director of Welsh Slate, addresses the Annual Dinner. Mared Emlyn at the harp
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