Thank you
A conference like this doesn’t just happen – it takes a lot of work by a lot of people, many of whom stay in the background but who have contributed immensely.
I thank all our speakers, presenters and those who kindly chaired sessions. On countless occasions, something unexpected happened, or other commitments intruded and we had to swap things around. Without exception, everyone immediately agreed to changes; this flexibility is so much appreciated by an organising team.
I thank Dr Kelvin Wright and his team for their hard work in producing the scintillating Gadget Show and Steve Barden and his team for the simulator session.
I would like to thank my colleagues on the Organising Committee: Paul Ransom, Steve Barden and Guy Sanders who worked tirelessly to support the conference and me. Professor Tony Frew in particular brought insightful experience of previous Conferences. The department still had to run, and I thank those who allowed us to leave and carried on the work.
My PA Ann Burrow and her colleague Teresa Rogers have been the perfect unflappable team handling enormous numbers of enquiries, tying up loose ends, keeping me on track and generally ensuring that all the elements of the Conference came together.
I thank Tony Kemp, who stayed in the background, but provided those wonderful sequences to liven up the session starts and then ensured sessions ran faultlessly and stick updates were accurate.
Praise must go to the College admin team; Gerardine and Pam, but I must single out Chris Walsh for particular commendation. He only joined the College a couple of months before the Conference, and managed to fit 9 months of work into two. Astonishing, and much appreciated.
Thanks to the medical students (Here to help!) who were your eco-friendly signposts but actually did much more than that. Donna, Ben, Sharma from AVT and her team, Kudos catering and the rest of the Dome team were highly professional, supportive and helpful.
Nobody who was there will forget the sensational, glittering stars that were Miss Polly Rae and her Hurly Burly Girlies, who transformed a formal dinner into a whirlwind of humour, cheeky chic Burlesque and brilliant stagecraft and I thank them from the heart.
You wouldn’t be reading this without the incredible work of Webhorus. Webhorus may be a small web team, but they have created this fantastic website and structured your USB sticks and have done so with care, accuracy and enormous artistic flair. If we are awarding gold medals for top performer, Webhorus walk away with it with ease.
If you are reading this and think you should have been thanked and haven’t – you of course are. Any omissions are entirely my fault, and anything that went well is to your credit.
Finally, I remain deeply grateful to my wonderful wife Helen and my family, who have been so supportive during some fairly bumpy times in the planning of this Conference, and without whom none of this would have happened.
With Kindest regards and fond memories
Rowley Cottingham,
Chairman of the Organising Committee.
Spring Scientific Conference of the College of Emergency Medicine April 20-22 2009.