[UK-CONTEST] VHF Convention - the Good Old Days

[Steve White]

I seem to remember The Belfry, near Oxford (in about 1970).

I have clear memories of the Winning Post Hotel at Twickenham (in the 
1970s). There was one hall, basically divided 50/50 between traders and 
seating for lectures (only one stream!). It was seen as extremely 
discourteous if anyone (apart from the traders) stayed in the rally area are 
while a lecture was in progress.

As to the future, I have read several messages from those who don't think 
the current venue is adequate any more... but I haven't read any messages 
containing practical suggestions about where to relocate. The hunt for a new 
home must be a simple matter. All that's needed is a large, inexpensive, 
well laid-out venue with plenty of accommodation nearby, free parking and 
located somewhere between the major population areas of England. Well maybe 
it's not quite that simple, but if any of you can think of somewhere that 
'covers all the bases' I'm sure we would all like to know where it is.

My personal thoughts (I have no inside info) are that the RSGB would prefer 
to organise one large, prestigious event than several small ones. I rather 
think that to organise multiple small events now would be seen as a 
backwards step.

Steve, G3ZVW



Message: 2
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:22:14 +0100
From: Ian White GM3SEK <gm3sek at ifwtech.co.uk>
To: uk-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] VHF Convention - the Good Old Days
Message-ID: <yYsJiiSmZ+fQFA0L at ifwtech.co.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=us-ascii;format=flowed

Tim Hugill wrote:
>
>The Winning Post at Twickers was the best.
>

But that was another venue, like the Bell, that had already become too
small for even a 'single-interest' convention. It wasn't sustainable.

The old VHF Convention wasn't sustainable for a different reason. It
fell into the hands of the Rally & Exhibitions committee and turned into
another big London rally. The technical side withered away because the
contributors hated going there.

There were two VHF DX conventions in later years, both of which were
superb and memorable events, but each one completely burned out its
small group of organisers and was never repeated.

So in the long term, the only SUSTAINABLE conference formats seem to be
either the very big "flag carrier" conventions (anchored by some
long-suffering employees who have been ordered to make it happen)... or,
at completely the opposite extreme, the small one-day events like the
Microwave Round Tables which actually have the longest unbroken track
record of all.

There is certainly a place for a big annual thrash, but the HF and VHF
communities definitely have something to learn from the microwavers
about these smaller-scale formats.

The MWRT calendar has several events spread across the UK, but each one
is small-scale, low-key and therefore quite easy to organise. Nobody has
to travel far to reach at least one event a year, and no individual has
to organise more than one a year so burnout is minimal.

I shamelessly copied that Microwave Round Table format when helping my
wife to organise a series one-day music events. These started at our
village school and have since grown into a thriving national society,
which still holds on to these small-scale regional events as its grass
roots.

Find yourself a school or church hall with the usual facilities, be
clear about what refreshments you will and will not provide, and charge
a whip-round to cover expenses. When you do the publicity, only offer
one organised day so attendees will understand that everything else is
up to them. Then put out a B&B/hotel list for people who want to stay
over, warn the pub, and away you go.

What you do in that time and space depends on your own special
interest... but if you organise it, they will come.


>But a combined HF/VHF event has the benefit of allowing VHFers to learn
>about HF techniques and vice versa. (Although I didn't see too many HF
>stalwarts in the Microwave sessions last weekend.)
>

The best thing about the "big convention" format is that it provides
opportunities for people to cross lecture streams and look at something
completely new. It was a very pleasant surprise to see one of the UK's
most respected HF contesters in the audience for GW4DGU's 10GHz
presentation. All credit to him!

-- 

73 from Ian GM3SEK
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek