26 C O N T E X T 1 7 4 : D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 Blending The event committee was probably tired of me talking about my whisky tour… er, study trip. A sadness of Aberdeen 2022 was that a number of tours had to be dropped at planning stage and from the programme in the immediate run up to the event. Speyside another time, maybe? While I might prefer a single malt, the nature of a blended event required careful consideration of the component ingredients. The complexity of the flavouring needed to appeal to a local, Scottish, UK and potentially international audience joining online. Finding content of generic relevance, of specific practical applicability and reflecting the host school area was challenging. We hope we achieved a reasonable balance. Lessons have already been learned from Aberdeen 2022, and the approach will no doubt continue to be distilled for Swansea as the IHBC better understands this evolving delivery environment. Booking Financial projections, coupled with risk review, are part of planning any event. Organisations and prospective delegates were probably wondering, as the event committee was, what on earth was happening or might happen when Omicron hit at the end of 2021. There was a great deal of uncertainty. We are grateful for all the delegate sign-ups and the considerable number of virtual attendees who booked in the last week. Early booking really does help organisers understand what can and needs to be offered on the ground and virtually. I for one have learned a lesson there, and will be booking early for #IHBCSwansea2023. Tech Full credit to Seán O’Reilly, Michael Netter, others at the IHBC and an external consultant for getting tech up and running for Aberdeen 2022. We had a successful dry run and knew that blended delivery was feasible by December 2021. However, to achieve live links from half way around the world and deliver pre-recorded presentations and video clips at an annual school for the first time, and as seamlessly as was done, was no mean feat. No doubt the experience of setting up and delivering tech for future schools will benefit from the Aberdeen experience. Venues There could be few more fitting environments than the Aberdeen Town and County Hall for the day school. The grand staircase looping about Victoria’s statue, overlooked by portraits of Aberdeen’s past Lord Provosts, leading to a civic suite of richly detailed rooms, imagined out of the minds of architects Peddie and Kinnear in the 1860s, was just the right scale and setting. Not forgetting the quirky lift with its levers and buttons, redolent of an Edwardian time machine, ready to transport you… hopefully to the Civic Suite. Contrast this with the wonderful Bon Accord Baths at the Thursday evening welcome reception, whose somewhat foreboding 1940 graniteclad frontage gives way to all the lightness, articulation and interior expression you would expect of deco. A victim of funding cuts in the 2000s, it was good to support the everenthusiastic Bon Accord Heritage, a group that is actively seeking to bring the building back into use. Delegates visiting King’s College Chapel, Aberdeen (Photo: Doane Photography)
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