We had the campaigns launch looming on the 1st, we had to nail down our speeches and do a run through before the day and I had to ensure everything was in place for the big day.

On Tuesday we had a speeches run through and I met with the Events Department and the two LGBT officers about the LGBT Conference in winter. On Wednesday I ran around pretty much all day putting finishing touches on presentations and speeches, made sure that I had copies of everybody’s speeches and powerpoint presentations for the technician and ensured that everything else for the day was all prepared and ready to go!

On Thursday I woke up at 5am as I was so nervous for the day! When I arrived there at 8am I was so pleased with the venue and how it looked, I just was hoping that the rest of the event would go smoothly.

The NEC that were presenting all ran through their speeches one more time and then student officers started arriving whilst stalls were still being set up!

You know that feeling you get when you are having a party and no-one turns up for ages, well I felt a little bit like that and I was relieved when the queue for registration grew and grew.

With a packed out room we began the day, we had guest speakers, the priority campaign convenors presented as did Ellie Russell (VP FE) who as ever was fabulous and the liberation campaigns got chance to present as well. Feedback from the event was great I hope that each officer who attended got something out of the day. For more information click here.

Funnily enough, just as a few of us warned at the NEC meeting the idea of a demonstration did not go down well with the membership and numerous officers asked for the decision to be re-visited after consultation through the regional NEC observers.

In the evening we hosted a reception for the Friends of NUS, MP’s, Press, Trade Unions and other organisations we work with. Minister Bill Rammell spoke at the event to re-launch the Friends of NUS Scheme as he used to be a regional officer. There has been some controversy about his presence at our event but I think it is worthwhile that we have good relations and it is definitely the right thing to do to get the factual information about 2006 out there.

To say that I was pleased with how the day went would be an understatement! I was delighted! Months of hard work culminating in a success is very satisfying indeed and I thank everyone in the organisation who worked exhaustively to make it a success. It was the first ever event of this type and I’m sure we’ll make it even better next year.

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