As I mentioned in a previous post, I was attending this conference in Madrid this weekend (9 February 2013) in person, and Pete was hoping to do his presentation from a computer in Argentina. I was very much hoping that everything worked, as doing somebody else’s presentation is not easy. The night before the conference, we were still unsure where Pete would do his presentation from. The hotel connection was too poor, so he was going to take up an offer from a student of his in Argentina to use the broadband at her home (at least that was how he explained it!). In the end, he was able to use the facilities at the local Catholic university. In the meantime, we had arranged that we would do a test at 2.15 Madrid time in the lunch break. After 45 minutes with the willing and able assistance of Gerry Lerner, we finally managed to get an Internet connection on my laptop – the login page for the hotel didn’t like Firefox! After that, technically it went perfectly, and the immediate response to the talk was very positive as well. I had to disconnect the sound and the projector from the laptop quite quickly to allow us all to make generally celebratory noises because it had been such a success!
When I write all, I must make special mention of Cornelia Kreis-Meyer. She donated her Adobe Connect room, her time and her expertise without complaint, and without her it would not have happened, so many thanks from us.
From a general perspective, this was a nice conference. The range of talks was very interesting, and I attended one that was probably the most exciting presentation I have ever attended. Borja Uruñuela, of the St. James Language Center in Seville, may have solved a question I have been grappling with for years. I can’t say what, but hopefully I can write more on this in the future. The conference was well-organised, the organising team were friendly and always willing to help. It was a good atmosphere, and when I finally got there, lunch was good too. The coffee break was even better though – a wide range of beverages, and some of the best pastries I have had for a long time.