Arriving early I was able to get a personal “$10 tour” of the new facilities. This left me envious of the amount of office space which BMF now have, not only as the square metreage but also the number and size of meeting rooms within the complex, the largest of which could easily accommodate a gathering of 150 people.
Of course, the star attraction was Martin Johnson, a local lad who had “made good” as a “passable” rugby player being captain and more lately, for his sins, manager of the England rugby union team. He really is a big lad, but I reckon if he had being playing in my day, I would have stood a chance of bringing him down with a good tackle around the legs, if I could catch him that is. Unfortunately I am too old to still be fantasising aboutcharging around the Twickenham turf.
Having satisfied my want for sustenance by munching on some excellent sandwiches I trooped into the afternoon meeting and listened to the various informative talks before making my own delivery on the riveting subject of the CPR. With a mixed audience of manufacturers and distributors it was difficult to condense all the relevant information down to a manageable volume without swamping everyone with too much information, however, it was necessary for the distributors to understand what hoops the manufacturers have had to jump through before taking on board their new legal obligations under the Regulation. This approach seemed to work well as the quality of questions being asked by the audience was first rate.