Conferencing in Manchester
- Andrea
- Oct 1, 2023
- 7 min read
Updated: Nov 29
A little bit of background📝
In June 2011 I had the opportunity to travel to the UK and Europe first the first time since 1996. I travelled to Manchester to present at a conference, then had 10 days of personal leave. I was able to take advantage of the rules at the time that allowed for personal leave to be added to conference travel by paying half the airfare.
💭This post is about the Manchester conference part of my trip. You can read about my London wanderings after the conference and my sojourn to Brussels, Bruges and Amsterdam. I've added my reflections on what the conference experience meant to me and my most vivid and lasting impressions at the end of the post. |
There is a bit of backstory to the conference presentation. The previous year I had presented at the International First-Year Experience Conference in Hawaii. All presenters are offered the opportunity to facilitate a workshop at the conference the following year. Workshop registrations pay for the presenters' conferences fees. I had approval from my university to attend the 2011 conference, to be held in Manchester, after my workshop proposal was accepted. At the last minute, the workshops were cancelled due to lack of participation and the whole conference was scaled down. I was a bit stuck, as my travel arrangements had been made. I ended up getting a spot in the European first-year experience conference schedule to be held prior to the international one, so I opted out of the latter. Even though the conference was just a one-day program, I went ahead with my travel plans. It was wonderful that I was still able to attend and present even though I felt a bit guilty about going all that way for a one-day conference.
The long journey from Australia🛬
I arrived in Manchester in the afternoon of Friday 17 June, prior to the conference starting on the Sunday evening. It was a long trip from Australia. As I mentioned at the start of this post, I'd paid for half of the flight as I was staying longer than the allowable 50% of the business time on personal leave after the conference. I found a good deal with Royal Brunei Airlines for a return flight to London from Brisbane so my half of the airfare only cost me $900. The university booked and paid for a one-way flight to Manchester from London with British Airways and I paid to take the train back to London after the conference.
I remember being completely exhausted when I finally arrived in Manchester. From searching the interwebs, I can see that Royal Brunei has changed its flight schedules since the time of my trip in 2011. Back then, it was possible to fly from Brisbane to London via Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei. That leg of the trip is around seven hours. I remember having quite a long wait in Brunei in the small but pleasant enough airport. Again, according to the interwebs, the 18 hours plus flight from Bandar Seri Begawan was broken up with a fuel stop in Dubai. I have absolutely no recollection of stopping in Dubai, though!
Anyway, my flight from Australia arrived at Heathrow early in the morning, but I wasn't due to fly to Manchester until mid-afternoon. I was so early at Heathrow that I had to sit in the departures area for hours before I could check in. Campus Travel had decided to be cautious with the London-Manchester booking and opt for the later flight. I could easily have made the morning one. Never mind.
I was cold and tired by the time I made it to Manchester and very happy to be met at the airport by my host, an academic from The University of Manchester I had met the previous year at the conference in Hawaii who had generously offered to host me at her place over the weekend and for the Monday conference.
Pre-conference wanderings🌳
I spent the weekend with my Maui conference buddy and her family. We had a lovely time and it was really nice of them to host me. They live in a little village near Macclesfield, around 35km south of Manchester. We went for a wander near their place after I first arrived on the Friday afternoon. We went into Macclesfield on Saturday morning as the family had things to do. The weather wasn't great but I liked the town, with its paved roads and typical English architecture. I remember that I bought a skirt from Marks and Spencer that morning. So English!
On Saturday afternoon, we went to Lyme Park, where Colin Firth's Pride and Prejudice was filmed, around 22km north-west of Macclesfield in Cheshire, on the edge of the Peak District. It was freezing all day and raining on and off, but just look at the beautiful estate. The estate is 566 hectares of grounds, encompassing formal gardens, an ancient woodland, and moors. The house itself dates back six centuries!
Writing this post some 12 years after my visit, I can't recall whether we went inside the stately home. I don't have any photos of the interior and that suggests that we didn't. We must have gone into the inevitable gift shop as I have the below small print of the estate that I've had sitting in a frame in my home office since that trip.
On the Sunday, the weather was still cool but fine at least. My host and her family treated me to the beauty of Derbyshire and the Peak District. I saw lots of the stunning countryside and the towns of Buxton and Derby. Simply gorgeous.
I recall that we made a stop at a little visitor centre and I bought the below card. It's from an original painting by a local Derby artist. The card only cost a few pounds but it is my most treasured memento of that weekend. It is one of my favourite images of the English countryside. It sums up for me everything that is pretty about English villages and landscapes. I absolutely love stone buildings!
I'll always be grateful for the weekend I spent with my host. I know I was suffering from the effects of the long journey from Australia, but I was so fortunate to have had a family to stay with and show me around. Those days were such a welcomed chance to see some of the surrounding area before the conference in Manchester.
The 2011 European First-Year Experience Conference🎓
The University of Manchester was much nicer than I was expecting. The campus is right in the heart of the city and has a lovely mix of old and new buildings. I love university campuses that are integrated in the the cityscape. The day-long program, although exhausting, was well organised. The Monday conference program included dinner the night before at Lal Qila in the Manchester Curry Mile, a street full of restaurants frequented by students. In the evening after the Monday program there was a dinner held in the Museum of Science and Industry.
I did a short presentation on the work I was doing at my university with international students that I was slotted into at the last minute (below left). The workshop I facilitated was based on the one I intended to do at the International First-year Experience Conference (below right).
One of the workshop attendees approached me afterwards (MM) and asked me to contribute to a text she was editing on the student experience. I wrote my contribution later that year and the book was published in 2012. She told me that she saw my name and presentation on the program and came to my workshop to see if my content and delivery were up to her expectations. I passed with flying colours! How cool is that? MM and I are still in touch as I write this post. So all in all, it was was well worth the trek to Manchester!
I didn't get the chance to attend many of the conference sessions, as I was busy with my presentations. The whole day is just a blur to me to be honest. This was my first experience of a long haul for work purposes. It's a lot to do all that travel and then be on the top of your game from the get-go. I know I was completely exhausted by the evening dinner. I did slip away from the final plenary session earlier in the afternoon and explore a little of the campus, finding the university bookshop where I bought a hoodie. [No photo and I have no idea what happened to the hoodie. I think my daughter has it now. It is grey with purple writing, as shown in the above photo collage.]
Manchester itself was prettier than I had imagined it, largely because my main impression of the city had come from watching the depressing Coronation Street as a child. I am sure those parts of Manchester ARE depressing, but I only saw a little bit of the university campus and the town centre.
What next?🌏
The day after the conference, my host dropped me at the Manchester Piccadilly station and I took a Virgin regional train to London to start the personal leave part of my trip. I had 10 days to enjoy London and Belgium, where I took the Eurostar for the first time to Brussels. I spent four days and five nights in Brussels and also visited Bruges and Ghent by train and Amsterdam on a day bus tour.
It had been a busy few days in Manchester and a complete whirlwind. I was later to get used to travelling all the way from Australia for short trips as part of my academic work, but this first experience knocked me about a bit. I felt like I didn’t deserve to be in Manchester because of the scaling back of my conference work. It was a ridiculously long way to go for a one-day conference.
A second opportunity to present my work at an international conference was such a privilege. My workshop led to a chapter in a British student experience text and an enduring friendship with its editor. What a wonderful bonus!
I am always anxious when I have to present as an introvert even though people tell me I am good at it. Forcing myself out of my comfort zone through my international conference work has helped me build my confidence and self-worth.
The surreal experience of spending a weekend in Manchester and attending a one-day conference while suffering the effects of a long trip from the other side of the world.
The engaged group at my workshop and the positive feedback I received.
The beautiful landscapes and stone buildings in Derbyshire and Cheshire. (And not spotting Colin Firth at Lyme Park!)
Learning about life in a small house in a tiny village firsthand.
Manchester is not somewhere I would rush off to visit, so again, my academic work has given me the opportunity to experience places and spaces I might otherwise not have.
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