CICA annual convention

No posts yesterday; I was at the CICA annual convention in London. The turnout wasn’t great – around 30 or so, including speakers – but most attendees managed to stay to the very end of the day. This was no mean achievement for an all-day event on a Friday, and a lot of credit must go to the organisers for giving over half of the day to a facilitated workshop run by David Stitt. David managed to keep our interest going by encouraging group and syndicate working, plus brain-storming supported by some graphical software.

Another factor might have been that we didn’t experience ‘slow death by PowerPoint’. Two of the speakers dispensed with PowerPoint altogether. Andrew Bowles of Sheppard Robson spoke well with the aid of just a few notes on cards, while Arup‘s Henrik Kiertzner spoke provocatively and without notes at all  (by contrast, another speaker gave a presentation that only fleetingly resembled that shown in his handout – which exasperated a few delegates, I think).

I was pleased that the event also featured praise for the PIX Protocol (something that will be discussed in the workshops at the forthcoming NCCTP conference in November – I did a quick plug for the event, and my book, just after lunch), and didn’t get hung up on the technology alone – indeed, there was wide recognition that it’s not technology that’s hampering our efforts, but the slowness of effecting change in people and processes.