After over a year of planning, the day of our pre-conference event had arrived. I had breakfast with Ema Ushioda – another of our guest speakers had arrived safely!



After breakfast I helped Mark Krzanowski (coordinator of the ESP SIG) carry his boxes over to the conference centre where I also met Hugh Nicoll. We all tried to navigate the enormous building. It’s a beautiful building but a bit confusing for first-time visitors. We ran into Viljo Kohonen looking a little lost. He looked relieved to see us and we were pleased that we had located a third guest speaker. Only two more to find. Queues of people were registering and we were hoping that all of our participants would manage to find their way up to our meeting room.



Carol was in the meeting room putting up posters and arranging worms in a can. Yes – the can of worms! This was the first time I seen one of these guys and they are actually quite cute. I hoped that our participants had been following the tales of the worms and didn’t think we were certifiable.



I met the two remaining committee members – Richard Smith from Warwick and Androulla Athanasiou from Cyprus. I wouldn’t have recognized either of them from their photographs so I was grateful that someone introduced me. I was wonderful to finally meet them.



Our two remaining guest speakers Marina Mozzon-McPherson and Flávia Vieira also arrived safely. Also joining us were Isabel Barbosa and Sanja Wagner – both had been temporary caretakers of worms.



We were all ready for the 10am start with an audience of more than 50 people.



Jo