1 Jul 2009 Radio Festival 2009

 
So there we have it, 3 days, many topics, many more speakers, many many more attendants and many many many more tweets with the #radfest09 hashtag. All in all, very successful from my point of view, a very busy few days in what was pitched to me as "shottingham" mere days before I went there... A value for money top floor hostel room with an Irish and Italian, for my £11 per night I got a bed and bathroom facilities, and a kitchen I didnt have time to go into.

The trip cost about £100 in the end, unforseen cost of a smart outfit for the gala dinner hit my pocket, but what was left in my pocket won me a trip to BBC, Global and Bauer, which has to all be done in one day... making the most of that!

So much happened at the festival that it would take me more then 3 days to write it all down,and its hard enough to remember it all!

Personal highlights were watching 5live recording on the first night, only now am I finding out what they were saying, damn pub patrons! Also from Monday was winning the competition. Other then that I spent a whole lot of time not having a clue what was going on! The TechCon was wonderful, before I never knew such geeks existed! They do! Its not a myth! In all seriousness, I was sitting there with Mike and a mic wondering what on earth was going on, so many words that I've never heard before. Suprisingly I wasn't their target  audience, I was just there to run around with the mic.

Tuesday was a real mixed bag of sessions, a very touching moment when a prisoner who was given special day release was handed the sony award he couldn't collect at the awards ceremony. This sparked a very funny comment on twitter saying it was easier to get day release from prison then from global. Which was a shame, because global and bauer are such a large part of the commercial sector. Would have been nice to have had the chance to mingle with them. Hey ho...

Also got the "band in you hand" Augmented Reality demonstration again, no matter how many times I see it, its still very fascinating, I would love to help come up with those kinds of ideas for a living. Hugh Garry makes it sound very exciting indeed.

Then we had the very interesting gala banquet, the escalator and aircon can't have worked for years, they tried to start both up for us, but instead we had people in posh suits marching up a broken escalator and melting in the heat of the main hall, any chance we had was spent out on the flat roof out the fire escape doors.

We were treated to a sing song from Mark Moraghan (the surgeon from Holby City) and Nicky Campbell on the Ukulele which was a little surreal, and then a band call The Overtures who were very good, but unfortunately most people were still out trying to breath on the flat roof.

This morning was the last push of a very tiring few days, I will have to listen back to the whole recording because I had to leave the main auditorium to fill myself up with coffee.

All in all, loved it.
But seriously in need of sleep, so thats going to happen as soon as I press send

Much love and all that

Emma


P.S. I will get the clip of me on 5Live online somehow, and the picture of me and Richard Bacon, and the video of Nicky and Mark on stage.