Fabulous Finland!

International conferences are a great way to experience a selection of high level speakers and training over just a few days and party the night away with friends, old and new, from across Europe.

14 members from Edinburgh travelled to Turku for the 2008 European Conference. Some of the highlights included keynote speakers, with the Chairman of Microsoft Europe being one of the stand outs, the training, with topics such as:

• Failure as success
• Emotional Intelligence
• Negotiation - How to eat an elephant
• Email management
• The Secrets of Body Language
• Seven Steps to Success and Happiness

and of course the evening entertainment, which took us all over Europe from the Finnish midsummer party on the opening night, to the German - Hungarian party on Thursday and the Danish party on the Friday. These nights give the host countries the chance to showcase the very best in food, drink and entertainment their country has to offer... though all the shots on the Friday night from Denmark's fellow Nordic hosts have a lot to answer for!!

The conference comes to a close on the Saturday evening, firstly with the Award Ceremony which Edinburgh "topped and tailed", with Kenny Logan, Vice President and Finance Director, kicking off the proceedings by picking up the First Timers award, and Louise Swanson, Senior Vice President, winning the award for Most Outstanding Member in Europe. Congratulations to both on what are a couple of amazing achievements. This was followed by the gala dinner on the Saturday night which was hosted by two very glam Finnish drag queens and we were treated to a very special visit from Santa who came down from Lapland to give us all a present - a Moomin each.

I would recommend all members to experience an international event - next year's European Conference is in Budapest, which if the Hungarian party night is anything to go by should be a brilliant weekend!