A day trip to Belfast

It seemed strange, on a wintry Friday morning, parking at Gatwick’s “Summer Special Parking” for my flight to Belfast to attend the Socitm Northern Ireland Regional Meeting, but, at £5.50 for the day, it offered the cheapest deal.

I arrived at the Park Avenue Hotel, the event venue, in time for the morning coffee break. There was a good turn-out in spite of the inclement weather.

The agenda mostly concerned utilising Web 2.0 technologies. Dave Newman, from Queen’s University, presented on its e-consultation research project. I can’t quite remember how he got to it, but the presentation included this YouTube video of a busy junction, probably in India, which excited a lot of interest!

Caron Alexander, the N. Ireland Chair, had already circulated the Socitm Position Statement, which I again plugged in a short update.

After lunch, I stayed for the Committee’s meeting, and we discussed the proposal for a federal society. There were some concerns about the ability to maintain local relevance whilst supporting Socitm UK core themes, but colleagues supported the proposal and agreed to participate in a UK workshop to develop the detail.