IOM government conference

[jackwhite]

1 minute ago, Roger Mexico said:

Pathetic underachievement!  I reckon from the e-mails I received, I counted as at least four.

There's a serious point here.  Managing email lists ought to be the most basic of computer tasks and most organisations seem to manage it.  If I buy more goods from a retailer or donate again to a charity or attend another event at a venue, they don't double up their email contacts.  Yet the Government doesn't seem able to do the same thing.  The highly-paid professionals are more amateurish than even the amateurs.

You saw the same thing with content - even the emails that shifted the start time on Tuesday from 9am to 10am, linked to a schedule with a 9am start.

Certainly the session I was in was frequently reminded that everyone had to be back in the Hall for Alf's closing speech.  I suppose it depends if you consider 'herding' to involve cattle-prods or just lots of slightly nervous sheepdogs.

As I've already pointed out, I reckon Cannan gave at least six speeches during the Conference, all well-delivered, bland, content-free and forgettable.  Like the 'herding', it gave the impression that the whole thing had been organised as an ego-trip for him.  This is probably unfair as he doesn't seem anything like as vain or self-important as his predecessor (he can also read out a speech competently) but it indicates how the aim of the civil service now seems to be pandering to the egos of the politicians (and no doubt each other) rather than actually doing anything.

Can't agree with the point on Cannan. I thought he came across quite well and he spoke directly to me a couple of times. Previously I had no great feeling about him one way or another. I'm not saying he's perfect and I still remain to be convinced on the plan in general. Also thought he was brave to take questions from anyone and handled most of them quite well. The minor criticism I have of him, in interview, is that he can be quite clearly seen to bristle if something gets asked he completely disagrees with.

The only worry I take away from it is that the Government are using words like 'success' on their social media postings. We won't know if this conference is a success for quite some time yet. 

[jackwhite]

1 minute ago, Newsdesk said:

I’d rather believe people who say they were there and who saw what was going on. As I said you’re not getting any sort of rise out of me. Go troll someone else as trolling is all you're doing. 

I was there and saw what was going on. You don't believe me? 

Again no one has said doors were blocked. It didn't happen. 

Accusing someone of trolling is also common place when you don't have any sort of answer for them. 

Out of interest, since you have so much to say on the subject, why weren't you there? 

[Newsdesk]

Just now, jackwhite said:

Out of interest, since you have so much to say on the subject, why weren't you there? 

Is the DfE workload quiet today so you decided to do a bit of trolling instead? You’re not getting any rise out of me. I went for some of day 1, didn’t go to day 2 as day 1 was bad enough. Carry on trolling everyone else, I won’t be responding as I’ve said all I need to say on the matter. 

[Roger Mexico]

5 minutes ago, jackwhite said:

Can't agree with the point on Cannan. I thought he came across quite well and he spoke directly to me a couple of times. Previously I had no great feeling about him one way or another. I'm not saying he's perfect and I still remain to be convinced on the plan in general. Also thought he was brave to take questions from anyone and handled most of them quite well. The minor criticism I have of him, in interview, is that he can be quite clearly seen to bristle if something gets asked he completely disagrees with.

The only worry I take away from it is that the Government are using words like 'success' on their social media postings. We won't know if this conference is a success for quite some time yet. 

I think you misunderstand what I said about Cannan and I'd agree he should be praised for how he was willing to participate in Q&As and talking to people individually.  But the Conference was too clogged up with these endless, vague speeches (not just from Cannan), tame questions from the likes of James Davies and Q&As with too many participants.  This wasn't Cannan's fault directly, but he lets himself be 'organised' too easily into such pointless exercises.

[jackwhite]

7 minutes ago, Newsdesk said:

Is the DfE workload quiet today so you decided to do a bit of trolling instead? You’re not getting any rise out of me. I went for some of day 1, didn’t go to day 2 as day 1 was bad enough. Carry on trolling everyone else, I won’t be responding as I’ve said all I need to say on the matter. 

I don't work for the Government. Never have done. 

Why was day 1 'bad enough'? What was bad about it? 

[jackwhite]

Just now, Roger Mexico said:

I think you misunderstand what I said about Cannan and I'd agree he should be praised for how he was willing to participate in Q&As and talking to people individually.  But the Conference was too clogged up with these endless, vague speeches (not just from Cannan), tame questions from the likes of James Davies and Q&As with too many participants.  This wasn't Cannan's fault directly, but he lets himself be 'organised' too easily into such pointless exercises.

Fair point. It did all seem a bit rushed at times.

I've been thinking how they could have done it differently though and I don't think it would have been possible. They would have had to split it out over various conferences or had it going on for a week really, neither of which are feasible. 

[BriT]

1 hour ago, Steady Eddie said:

I have related a totally truthful incident. I would use the word ‘doorstepped’ where somebody clearly tries to block your exit in order to attempt to ‘persuade’ you to change your decision. 

Yes that’s similar to my experience. They had clearly been told to try to stop people leaving as it had already been emptying out quietly most of the afternoon. 

[jackwhite]

Just now, BriT said:

Yes that’s similar to my experience. They had clearly been told to try to stop people leaving as it had already been emptying out quietly most of the afternoon. 

So you know they were told to stop people leaving? You should put those mind reading skills to better use. 

They 'blocked' the door did they? 

[BriT]

1 minute ago, jackwhite said:

So you know they were told to stop people leaving? You should put those mind reading skills to better use. 

They 'blocked' the door did they? 

The only thing now blocked is you fella. FFS wind it in. I was just agreeing with another poster on what I experienced. 

[jackwhite]

3 minutes ago, BriT said:

The only thing now blocked is you fella. FFS wind it in. I was just agreeing with another poster on what I experienced. 

I'm heartbroken. 

The original post said the doors were blocked, they weren't. It's really as simple as that. 

[Wavey Davey]

2 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

I think you misunderstand what I said about Cannan and I'd agree he should be praised for how he was willing to participate in Q&As and talking to people individually.  But the Conference was too clogged up with these endless, vague speeches (not just from Cannan), tame questions from the likes of James Davies and Q&As with too many participants.  This wasn't Cannan's fault directly, but he lets himself be 'organised' too easily into such pointless exercises.

Alf wasn’t the problem he’s always approachable and professional. And you’re right he doesn’t have an entourage of fluffers around him like Quayle did. Getting James Davies (also good) to ask tame questions came across as very insincere though. 

[2112]

The NPM has an article on the news resulting from a NPM freedom of information request as to the cost of this conference. It was reported that the conference cost the taxpayers £38,000. Im sure it was well worth the expense especially when some people in society are suffering cuts and hardship. 

[forestboy]

5 minutes ago, 2112 said:

The NPM has an article on the news resulting from a NPM freedom of information request as to the cost of this conference. It was reported that the conference cost the taxpayers £38,000. Im sure it was well worth the expense especially when some people in society are suffering cuts and hardship. 

Another complete waste of money. 

[offshoremanxman]

10 minutes ago, forestboy said:

Another complete waste of money. 

It’s actually cheaper than I thought it would be though. But then again they hired their own venue. 

[Roger Mexico]

6 minutes ago, 2112 said:

The NPM has an article on the news resulting from a NPM freedom of information request as to the cost of this conference. It was reported that the conference cost the taxpayers £38,000. Im sure it was well worth the expense especially when some people in society are suffering cuts and hardship. 

Here's the breakdown:

(Case ID:  2714269;  Title:  Cost of government conference;  Outcome Date:  09/11/2022.  It was submitted on 13 October, so they weren't exactly speedy replying).

I suppose you could argue that the Villa hire was just moving money between pockets, but there will have been some payments to casual staff in there.  There's no other internal staffing costs, though well over a hundred must have been involved over the two days.

I suppose you could argue it was worth it to expose just how threadbare and pointless government policy is.  We sort of knew anyway just from trying to read those outstandingly vacuous documents, but you had to hear the people personally to realise just how clueless they were.