Our thanks to Everybody who made the WPF 2020 Conference such an outstanding success.
The general theme was creativity and Speakers Bernard Geraghty, Ross McKelvey, Sharon Prenton Jones and Barry Barker brought insight, energy and enthusiasm with their unique brands of photography. They generously identified the people and places in their images. But more than that, they identified their equipment in detail – clothes, cameras, lenses, filters and software packages. In addition they demonstrated and explained their processes and settings and even reconstructed images. Every question was answered fully and freely.
WPF Members Gareth Martin, Ron Lines, Jenny Hibbert and Dennis Russ were given the almost impossible task of finding words to convey the contribution and impact made by the individual speakers in their presentations. President Peter Young had started the proceedings with a formal opening and explained the ambitions of the Conference while Vice President Jenny Hibbert summarised progress at the end of the first day. The President also closed the Conference and thanked all concerned including Jan Cawley a dedicated supporter of the Conference but now sadly departed.
We were pleased that the 100 attendees included PAGB representatives and Speakers from previous Conferences, Gordon Jenkins and Richard Speirs, together with visitors from all over the British Isles. Record Conference goers Eirwyn and Margaret Johnson joined us in “receive-mode,” but most people engaged in the conversations and repartee in the Break-out rooms with our speakers and attendees from clubs both inside and outside the WPF umbrella.
The Conference working party consisted of Dave Condon, Ed Cloutman, Jan Cawley, Sue and John Surridge. Initially we planned for a meeting at Carmarthen but Covid19 scuppered that. Instead we harnessed the power of the Zoom package to create a Virtual Conference. Spread over 4 sessions per day for 2 days and watched from the comfort of their own homes, many had planned to dip in and out. However such was the sheer quality of the presentations that most reported they remained locked to their screens!
We thank you for the exceptional number of positive reports on facebook and club pages and also in personal emails. It is hoped that we may produce a video record of Conference but there are a number of hurdles to clear, these include consideration of the Intellectual property of the Speakers together with any Copyright music they may have used. The privacy of attendees and the content of breakout room channels also need to be addressed together with the technical and distribution issues.
We will keep you informed….
Finally may I again thank everyone for their support and invite you to join us for the WPF 2021 Conference wherever and however it is held!
David D Jones – for the WPF and Conference Working Party.