This Conference is Going to be Great!

Fun and fellowship and lots of new information
at the Samaritan's Purse Conference

I travelled to Dudley yesterday to meet the staff at The Village http://www.village-hotels.co.uk/hotels/dudley which is the venue for Samaritan's Purse Conference - first weekend in June. It has been a difficult week for me and I was feeling a bit low - it was not helped by the early start and traffic jams on the way. When I arrived, I was hot and thirsty and not feeling particularly positive about the meeting, sure that there were going to be barriers put up as I explained my plans for the Conference to them.

Natalie, the Conference Organiser met me immediately and got me a drink then introduced me to Pippa who is in charge of getting the rooms ready - (I am sure she has a proper job title!). As we all went through the programme I started to relaxed - want coffee on the demand? Can do. Want more rooms? Yep that's fine. Want us to hide a treasure for you? (http://www.turnonthetap.org.uk/hide-treasure)  No problem. Oh, and by the way we though it would be great if our staff to do a 24-hour fundraising event over the weekend - is that okay with you? Looking around the venue I saw many things I'd not noticed before, the huge pool has 2 Jacuzzis, the reception is bright and large and all the staff have huge smiles on their faces. Natalie loves her job and gave me all the time I needed.

I was treated to lunch and met the hotel manager who was very enthusiastic about The Village brand and is keen to ensure that everything goes right for us. We even persuaded him to help us with the 24 hour event!

I came away from there will my head full of great ideas. Whilst I can't quite yet relax, I am happy knowing that the staff at The Village are on-side and will do everything to make our volunteers’ weekend as comfortable as possible. Samaritan's Purse staff are also working hard on their seminars and sessions so that delegates can go back to their Regions in confidence – their heads bursting with new knowledge about SP & OCC having had a wonderful weekend of fabulous food, fellowship and friendship.

Want to come? You can still book a place via this link  http://www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/Conference-201