ISTAT EMEA 2023 - LONDON

I enjoyably attended my umpteenth ISTAT conference last week, in London, but as a significantly different person to the one who had attended all the previous conferences over the years.?

So, what made me that different person?

For the first time, I was a conference delegate with no product to sell, no product to buy and with no particular interest in learning anything from the worthy speakers or panels that ran through the two days. As many, if not most of you, will know, I retired from work earlier this year after many years in the aviation industry and during the past 20+ years, leading AMS Aircraft.

Had I had enough of work? The answer to that is definitely yes in respect of looking at another aircraft, visiting another hanger or having to take another 12 hour flight from A to B at 3 o’clock in the morning.? If I had not fully realised it before; I do now – it was the people I met, the people I worked with and even the people I fought with (commercially rather than physically) that were the principal source of enjoyment I took from the aviation industry.?

Great people, good people, not so great people, bad people; it was the interaction with industry people that was the source of fuel for my desire to work and my enjoyment of work.?

I met lots of great people in sixty to seventy countries around the world during my aviation career. Meeting just a relatively small number of those people again last week; a handshake, a hug, a peck on the cheek and a few minutes (or more) of catch up was well worth the entrance fee. I now feel that I’ve actually been on a well-earned sabbatical over the last few months rather than in retirement.

My love of the industry and its people can be best expressed by a famous line from a famous song:

??You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave??

A hearty thanks, love and best wishes to all those I met last week.

Mike

#ISTAT