Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

SRGC Shows and Events => Events => Topic started by: tonyg on November 18, 2010, 08:30:23 PM

Title: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: tonyg on November 18, 2010, 08:30:23 PM: A date for your diaries.
The Norfolk AGS group are celebrating their 40th anniversary in style. We are organising a one day Alpine Gardening conference in Norwich. You are all invited to attend :-*

Date: Saturday 8 September 2012

Venue: The Abbey Conference Centre, Bracondale, Norwich.

Speakers provisionally booked so far: Ian Young, Harry Jans.

The likely cost is to be around £25 per head to include lectures, Tea/Coffee/biscuits am & pm, lunch.

Please put the date in your diaries - lets make it the biggest forum get-together outside Scotland ;D

More details to follow.
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: Luc Gilgemyn on November 18, 2010, 08:46:03 PM: hmmmmmmmm verrrrry tempting.... 8)
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: mark smyth on November 18, 2010, 09:01:32 PM: very! How far is the venue from the airport?
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: tonyg on November 18, 2010, 09:21:40 PM: Norwich Airport is 3.5 miles away. Not far by taxi and Park & Ride buses run from Airport to city centre bus station where a quick change will take you to Bracondale.
For rail travellers the station is less than 1 mile away.
Road access is excellent, the venue is close to the bypass and the city ringroad.
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: tonyg on January 27, 2012, 08:54:57 PM: An Update

Alpines Home and Away - Cultivation and Exploration

One Day Conference / Discussion Day

Harry Jans : Using Every Square Inch
Kit Strange : Propagation of Alpines (short lecture)
Ian Young : Nature - The Gardeners Tutor
Harry Jans : A World of Alpines

Side Shows : Kit Strange demonstrating propagation, Jon Evans photographic display, Trade Stands.

We are building in a longer than usual Lunch period allowing time to socialise and participate in the side shows.

The Abbey Conference Centre is spacious and has some historic significance. (Carrow Abbey was a community for Nuns until the Dissolution but some buildings were in private use until the site was developed by Colmans in the last century.) Tea/Coffee three times during the day and a decent buffet lunch are included in the price of £25.

Bookings can be made by contacting me by Personal Message.
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: mark smyth on January 27, 2012, 09:12:30 PM: £132 return - ouch :o

Anyone passing Stansted or Gatwick?
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: jomowi on January 27, 2012, 09:51:14 PM: Quote from: mark smyth on January 27, 2012, 09:12:30 PM
£132 return - ouch :o

Anyone passing Stansted or Gatwick?

Plus a departure tax for anyone leaving from Norwich airport. £5 last time I used it.
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: tonyg on January 27, 2012, 10:44:33 PM: Not that I am expecting hordes to travel down from the frozen North but it is still probably cheaper than the train ... and a lot quicker!
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: tonyg on February 08, 2012, 11:06:32 PM: Site meeting today. Here are some pictures of the venue. It has excellent facilities, heaps of historical interest and gardens with medieval ruins to explore.

The Abbey Conference Centre takes its name from Carrow Abbey, home to a community of Nuns in medieval times. For many years the home of the Colman family (think mustard) the old family home now forms part of the conference Centre. We will have sole use of the centre on the day including access to the garden and the ruins of the medieval abbey. There is plenty of space for the various elements of the conference and the possibility of lunch being taken alfresco on the south facing terrace.

Hopefully the pictures below will help any waverers to make up their minds .... note that the lecture room has padded seats :)

Booking forms will be available in the next few weeks. These will be circulated at AGS events and mailed to local group secretaries. Or you can get one direct from me, just PM or email to ask.
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: Maggi Young on February 08, 2012, 11:14:23 PM: That is one stunning building- that facade was never knowingly underdecorated, was it?

Hard to get past all that fancy brickwork to worry about padded seats!
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: tonyg on February 11, 2012, 07:45:36 PM: You can download a booking form here.

Map and directions will be sent with tickets.
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: tonyg on July 19, 2012, 06:17:37 PM: Seven Weeks to go! 8th September is the date for your Diaries!

Numbers are looking good. If you have not booked yet, now is the time, Download booking form from previous message or contact:
Diane Blyth. Tel 01508 494277 phil_blyth2003 at yahoo.co.uk

Outstanding Speakers presenting specially commissioned lectures. Excellent venue and food to match. Top alpine nurseries in attendance. World Class photographic display. ....And Cake! Well we are celebrating our 40th!

Alpines Home & Away
Cultivation & Exploration
Celebrating 40 Years of Norfolk AGS Group
Saturday 8th September 2012
Abbey Conference Centre, Norwich

Programme

900        Registration. Tea/Coffee. Plant Stalls open
1000      Introduction
1005      Using Every Square Inch - Harry Jans
1105      Break
1130      Propagation Techniques - Kit Strange
1200      Lunch - Extended break giving time for:
        Propagation Demonstrations by Kit Strange
Photographic Display & Plant Sales
        Free Access to the courtyard gardens and the ruins of the 14th C. abbey
1400      Nature, The Gardeners Tutor - Ian Young
1500      Break and Cake
1520      A World of Alpines - Harry Jans
1630      Speakers Forum
1700      Conference Close
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: Maggi Young on August 31, 2012, 10:05:12 AM: As one of the Speakers is off to book his train tickets, I am reminded that it is just a week until this event..... hope that there are good numbers attending and that at least some of them will have an extra piece of anniversary cake on my behalf!
How I hate to miss a good event (with cake!) ;)
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: Brian Ellis on August 31, 2012, 11:25:54 AM: Quote from: Maggi Young on August 31, 2012, 10:05:12 AM
As one of the Speakers is off to book his train tickets, I am reminded that it is just a week until this event..... hope that there are good numbers attending and that at least some of them will have an extra piece of anniversary cake on my behalf!
How I hate to miss a good event (with cake!) ;)

I will take it upon myself to carry out this onerous task ;D
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: Tim Ingram on September 09, 2012, 09:23:36 AM: (This is my take on a really good day in Norwich - I hope it may be repeated before too long).

With grateful thanks to Tony Goode and all the Norfolk Group for a thoroughly enjoyable day up in Norwich. The venue was comfortable and very pleasant; the weather sunny and balmy; and there were a few good, really good talks, from Harry Jans, Kit Strange and Ian Young - very contrasting in their subjects, but all showing the fascination and great fulfillment that the speakers get from growing alpines and learning about them in their natural environments. Kit's practical demonstration garnered great interest, and for the connoisseur of the great beauty of alpines, Jon Evans showed many of his beautifully captured images, including a wonderful collection of cypripediums.
Harry Jans grows plants in a way that few others manage and can only wish we could emulate, and also took the audience on a tour of the alpine world which even included travelling by balloon at one point(!), not so far from 'Around the World in 80 Days'. Kit talked about propagating plants, especially bulbs, at Kew, and the practical aspects of growing plants, which is the basis of what we all do and really valuable to keep revisiting. She finished her talk by questioning the audience about the methods of propagating a range of different plants, which was good fun and got some debate going. And finally Ian Young took us back to Nature as the guide and teacher of how to observe and grow plants, and showed examples in his garden which could have been taken from a mountain rocky outcrop. I particularly liked the idea of doing this even on the smallest of scales in a trough, or even in a pot which display plants in a very different way than most people are accustomed to at Shows. This tends to the way many plants are grown and displayed in Japan, which captures them as part of their environment rather than as somehow isolated from it. If I am not unusual in coming away so inspired and stimulated with new ideas - plus a few new plants from the nurseries to put these ideas into practice - then I imagine a good time was had by all, and good luck to the Norfolk group for the next 40 years!
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: Rob Potterton on September 09, 2012, 04:47:47 PM: Here, here Tim, excellent write up ... maybe you should consider journalism as an alternative career. This was a truly wonderful and memorable day; excellent lectures. Thank you to all involved.
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: Maggi Young on September 09, 2012, 08:18:36 PM: Ian has arrived home- pretty tired -it's a long journey.

He thinks some of his pictures were showing rather dark and that he should have used his notebook to power his talk instead..... such techy talk all a mystery to me but it clearly bothers him that the pix didn't appear exactly as he hoped.

No word of the cake from Tim or Bob.... I'll need to go interrogate Ian..... ;)
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: Tim Ingram on September 09, 2012, 08:35:58 PM: How did I forget the cake! Yes I don't know why Ian's pictures were so dark - it must have been very frustrating seeing them bright on the computer screen, but I for one found the thinking behind the talk illuminating and some of the examples fascinating, like the narrow range of plants growing next to water in Peter Korn's garden, and in Harry's talk the mosaic cushion plants in Tasmania. When this begins to happen naturally in the garden you do get the sense you are doing something right.
Title: Re: Norfolk One Day Conference 2012
Post by: tonyg on September 09, 2012, 11:04:27 PM: Thanks to Tim and Rob for their feedback. We had great fun on the day, it all went very smoothly. One or two mad moments such as when Kit Strange had not turned up by 930am I rang her to see where she was ... "Closer than you think" was the answer. She was in the Foyer! Later I asked Harry Jans to draw the winning number in the raffle and joked that number 5 - mine - would be good. He picked out 85, Kit's ticket. She declined the slate trough (no room for it) in favour of a book and picked the next prizewinning number, she looked slightly sheepish as she handed it over ..... guess what number she had drawn out!

Just a few pictures from the event - too busy/distracted to take more.

Kit Strange (centre, sunglasses) surrounded by delegates during her Propagation demonstration.
Ian Young up (and down) at the photographic display with Tim Ingram & local stalwart Don Smith.
In the old house attached to the Conference centre (also open to us) the minstrels gallery in the grand hall.