22nd April 2010, 04:39 PM
Well as no-one else is going to fess up, and I know that there were a least a couple of other regular BAJR contributors there, I thought I should admit that I was at IfA Conference. There, I've said it.
The best session, from my experience and the comments I heard, was on heritage crime. That broadened out the discussion from nighthawking to architectural and art theft, and there was a very good paper from the policeman who has been working with local nature and metal-detector groups in Kent to increase awareness and reporting of nighthawking and other illicit excavation, with some success. Most people who attended this thought that the session was thought-provoking, helpful and encouraging.
I also attended a session on PPS 5 which was OK, although it did largely comprise a series of prepared position statements by the usual groups, and a session on commercial archaeology which I thought was both disappointing and depressing. That was definitely a case of deja entendu, with a collection of whinges and POSTBLOBs (POrtentous STatements of the BLeedin' OBvious, a word I'm proud to have coined at a previous IFA Conference) that would not have been out of place 20 years ago. I could say more, but would risk breaching the AUP. I suspect that most BAJR-ites would have been reduced to red-eyed frothing wrecks if they had heard this session.
There was other good stuff that I didn't attend; many enjoyed the new technology session, for example. The point was made to me by a friend who couldn't be there that it should be possible, in this day and age, to make some sessions available as webcasts, and I'm sure that the heritage crime session in particular deserved a wider audience.
Apart from that, I met quite a few old chums, drank a bit too much and enjoyed myself. I even quite liked Southport.
The best session, from my experience and the comments I heard, was on heritage crime. That broadened out the discussion from nighthawking to architectural and art theft, and there was a very good paper from the policeman who has been working with local nature and metal-detector groups in Kent to increase awareness and reporting of nighthawking and other illicit excavation, with some success. Most people who attended this thought that the session was thought-provoking, helpful and encouraging.
I also attended a session on PPS 5 which was OK, although it did largely comprise a series of prepared position statements by the usual groups, and a session on commercial archaeology which I thought was both disappointing and depressing. That was definitely a case of deja entendu, with a collection of whinges and POSTBLOBs (POrtentous STatements of the BLeedin' OBvious, a word I'm proud to have coined at a previous IFA Conference) that would not have been out of place 20 years ago. I could say more, but would risk breaching the AUP. I suspect that most BAJR-ites would have been reduced to red-eyed frothing wrecks if they had heard this session.
There was other good stuff that I didn't attend; many enjoyed the new technology session, for example. The point was made to me by a friend who couldn't be there that it should be possible, in this day and age, to make some sessions available as webcasts, and I'm sure that the heritage crime session in particular deserved a wider audience.
Apart from that, I met quite a few old chums, drank a bit too much and enjoyed myself. I even quite liked Southport.