Thursday 10 June 2010

A grand opening

While there are no official openings for EDEN conferences - no standing to attention with hands on hearts while the national anthem of the host country is played, and no tacky parades or similar malarky - there is always a welcome reception. And tonight, for the 19th Conference (yes, next year in Dublin will be our 20th anniversary!) we all gathered in a rather splendid marquee outside the conference venue to watch (but not hear - the microphone was woefully inadequate) current EDEN President Alan Tait welcome delegates to the event, and then award a Senior Fellowship of EDEN to distance education pioneer and Briton Michael Moore (yes, he's one of ours, youse guys!).

There were also a small number of Fellowship awarded to a smattering of applause, and then people went back to their drinks and chat. Several interesting conversations were had, and these continued for a number of us later down on the seafront, in a most excellent fish restaurant. I will when I have more time recount (and possibly recant) some of the conversation topics in later posts, but for now, EDEN looks set for another great few days. If the rain holds off (it's been tipping it down here in Valencia this evening) it will be a memorable one - there are almost 400 delegates here from 49 countries, and the sessions run into Saturday lunchtime.

I'll stop there - more to report tomorrow as it happens.

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