Power to all our friends

I’m looking forward to Saturday. And it’s not just because I am coming down off a high from hosting the APS Spring Conference on Wednesday, where we spent the day talking about learning from our mistakes and we had an absolutely brilliant line up of speakers.

It was a highly professional affair. Maybe not in line with Eurovision – the real reason for my excitement – but still pretty good.

A production team arrived the day before from their base near Manchester. Then, over the course of Tuesday afternoon, they turned our offices into a television studio. Don’t get the idea it’s something glamorous - it’s certainly high-tech. But the set is a green-screen with matching tape on the floor so I know where I can stand. And there was a matching bit of tape stuck to the filing cabinets so I would know where to look when pretending I could see the speakers I was talking to. I’d to stare right into the lens of a camera when I was talking to you. It was all quite surreal.

Happily, it turns out I just love the whole thing. But then I always wanted to be a Blue Peter presenter – or the female equivalent of Terry Wogan.?But there is one thing I hate about it - I get really, really hot.

I spent the day cooking under studio lights. And we couldn’t open the windows because, while it would have let refreshing air in, it also risked allowing you all to hear the torrential rain we had at one point, the bin men on their rounds and planes preparing to land at Edinburgh airport. And that’s just not part of the magic.

It’s also very prosaic to have to faff about with your clothes: you need contrast with the image the audience sees but nothing green as it would be no good at all if I’d ended up bobbing about as a disembodied head. I also had to wear a jacket so the telly-people could hide the wires to which I was hooked up. As a result I couldn’t strip and cool off, except in the longer breaks.

But we all have to suffer for our art, darlings!

I had a great day. And what made it for me was two things: the range of people we’d brought together; and the APS crew who pulled it off.

Let’s start with the home team.

Behind the scenes we had Carole, Debbie, Sheena and Nicola. Nothing - and I do mean nothing - happens without them. Then there were Laura and Anna who worked their socks off to greet the speakers, publicise the conference and push the message out on social media. Front of house, we have Tommy, who many of you will know as the super-trooper behind our webinars and CPD programmes. He worked himself to a standstill yesterday dealing with our production team all day. Lastly, we have a star in our midst in Andrew, who featured in a film about the association’s occasional series of webinars on the Building Safety Act.

Even our presidential team - Ray Bone, Jonathan Moulam and Mark Snelling - got in on the act and set the day off to a great start with their reflections on lessons learned past, present and future. Our other guests were just great and I am very grateful to each and every one of them.

If you missed the conference you will soon be able to catch up when the day has been edited and we can get it packaged up for the website. Remember, all APS events are on the website where you can play them back wherever and whenever you want.?

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And we have a lot of new stuff coming up. Your place on the next CPD series – looking at noise and vibration - can be booked now. Just go to?www.APS.org.uk/events?and choose a date to suit you. There’s even the next instalment of our blockbuster Building Safety Act series coming up in June.??We are also planning a super summer special covering some of the non-construction business skills you may need especially if you want to take your business to the next level.

It won’t be covering anything that would get me a seat on breakfast television or the One Show but I’ll always have Edinburgh! And I did get to have my day in the limelight. And everyone - absolutely everyone! - knows that’s just about my favourite place.??

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And it wasn’t even ‘nul points’.

Quick, hand me the sticky backed plastic …

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APS Events

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All APS events are at: https//www.aps.org.uk/events.

You can catch up on any you have missed at:?https://www.aps.org.uk/category/webinars?

Did you know APS have created their own podcasts? Have a listen here:?https://www.aps.org.uk/events/podcasts