Daniels, giant brain cells and the magician

I've now started several attempts to summarize our recent event and why I enjoyed it so much - but I am really struggling to explain it. I met so many lovely people and we got amazing feedback which continues to come in in really sweet emails. That's the great thing about events: you see all the hard work coming together and ideally the attendees will have a good time. And it's even more amazing when you feel that they see how much work has gone in. It's lovely to feel appreciated.

A couple brought their nearly four year old son with them, as their babysitter had pulled out at the last minute. Little Daniels was just adorable! With his Mum being Latvian, his Dad Russian and them living in Estonia, he didn't speak English, but we got along just fine. One of the organizers said to me: 'When I saw the little boy, I thought this could go two ways for you. But every time I saw you with him, you were smiling.'
Ah, they know me so well! Cause my first reaction was: why didn't they bother to tell us they were bringing a toddler??? What if he disrupts the conference? But he was such a little angel and we had fun racing his toy cars as well as running up and down the room and playing with paper planes. The parents were really grateful, too. And it was so cute when Daniels excitedly told his Mum about all the fun stuff we'd gotten up to while his parents had been sitting in the meeting.

As for the magician: such a cool dude! Long, grey haired with a proper magician look, he bedazzled us (and especially my colleague H) with his card tricks in the bar after dinner. I had a great evening which went on until 2am. I was primarily speaking to the Australian delegates (no surprise there) about moving to Melbourne and them getting me a job at Monash University. One can dream ;-)

watching the green car race

salmon starter, beef main and treacle tart - not bad for a university caterer!

a giant cuddly brain cell - one of the exhibitor give aways