More at the Conference

Second day of the conference. Here the graphic event illustrator T talks about her work in documenting the previous day's activities that will be sent out to delegates, along with my photographs as a record of the event. An interesting forum discussion about the role of cities in urban diplomacy. It touched on the nature of twinning, what it means and why it is important to find the funds to support it even in these cash-strapped times. One of the speakers said something about the importance of doing specific things to build relationships, whether that is football tournaments or choir exchange visits, which got me thinking. Back in 2020 we did our joint photography exhibition connecting Portobello with Akureyri in Iceland. Which got me thinking. Could we do another linking to Edinburgh's twin city of Munich? I wasn't sure if it was too small an idea to bother the people from Munich with but a woman from the German consulate I spoke persuaded me to mention it to them so we'll see if anything comes of it. I wonder if there is scope to set up other linked photography exhibitions curated by other blippers, linking a group of photographers in their town or city with another group in their twin city? Bristol and Hannover, Glasgow and Nurnberg, Nottingham and Karlsruhe, Leeds and Dortmund? Any blippers interested in this idea? How great it would be to develop a network of connections across the world.

In the evening I was taking pictures at another of S's parties (see extra), upstairs in the Town Hall again. Everyone was dressed up on the theme of 'One Hit Wonders' and I stayed long enough to get some shots of the dancing on the same theme, organised by a local choreographer, A.