The UKHO in March held their conference at the Amba Hotel, Marble Arch and had a fully packed programe for the day. The conference morning session was a blast of information including guest speakers with question and answer sessions at specified intervals.
UKHO are a government body who are responsible for the development and operations of the worlds ship navigation systems. The days of paper charts still exist but modern technology has now placed this into a stage further.
The morning sessions broke for lunch and a large group photograph of the whole force of UKHO took place within the conference room on thier return. Although the room was a little small for the amount of people who attended of around one hundred and forty, experienced photographer Peter Austin of Alternative Images did a fantastic job of arranging all on stage where they could be placed. Unfortunately the stage length was a bit smaller than one would have liked for such a large group so the last remaining people who arrived had to stand on the lower carpet area. Not an ideal situation but sometimes trying to achieve something in an area that doesn’t quite suit does have to have a compromise.
The afternoon was made up of interactive sessions within various rooms in groups and then later all gathered for a closing session in the main area. Then we were all informed that the group would be taken to a secret venue for the evening via old London Routemaster buses that ended up a drinks an nibbles event on board HMS Belfast that is moored as a museum on the river thames in London
