the primary head's blog

(Sorry for any grammatical errors but im writing this on a phone)
I’ve been waiting to come to the National College conference for years – ever since I became a Deputy. So it was with great excitement that I packed my overnight bag and waited for my lift to arrive. We set off and even though my driver had been coming for years, we missed the Motorway twice. Not to worry: we made it…eventually.
First of all we registered and took a stroll around the exhibition hall and then went into the main hall for Jane Creasy, the conference facilitator, to welcome us and introduce the first speaker, Susan Cain. It was an interesting talk on introverts and extraverts, not sure why it was chosen to open the conference but it was interesting all the same. Plus,  and no disrespect to Susan, we were all waiting for the via satellite link speech delivered by Sir  Ken Robinson. Things didn’t go well for Ken,  the satellite failed so we were treated to the wonders of Skype (other video link communication services are available, I hope).
The sound was patchy, the vision and sound out of synch but if you squinted and really concentrated you could just about tell what he was saying. There was an embarrassed tension around the room as it became obvious that Sir Ken wasn’t aware of the technical issues he was battling against, a bit like watching Richard Madeley being unaware that Judy’s boobs had popped out during the tv awards (except less booby, nobody wanted it to stop and we all like Sir Ken).  Then,  just as everything settled down and we got used to it, an echoing feedback began to blast out of the speakers. Even Ken thought this was too much and he made some apologies and went off to sort it out.  I wasn’t sure if he had gone off to switch Skype off and on again or if he had taken a broom to the ceiling to silence some neighbours.  Sadly he never returned and we went and had an early coffee.
Soon we were back for Sir Terry Leahy to learn some tips on how to run a supermarket. We learnt about audacious goals, vision, customer satisfaction and most of all become number one. Again, very interesting, especially when he started to talk about his role in the redevelopment of Liverpool. I think this would have been a more pertinent focus for the whole speech as it incorperated all his themes set against a more complex context of meeting the full range of needs and desires of a city wide community for the good of the community, rather than meet the (in comparison) small needs of a customers shopping trolley for the good of the shareholder’s wallet. Still,  an interesting perspective of corporate leadership and success.
Day one ended and I returned to the hotel to find that I hadn’t packed another pair of trousers, suddenly I remembered that one of Sir Terry Leahy’s targets had been to expand Tescos retail focus to beyond food so I popped out to the local tesco metro…but alas no trousers.