GA Presidency Month 9: May 2022

May can be a bit of an anti-climax after the GA Conference which is held in April, but it also marks the start of the final third of the Presidential term, when thoughts turn towards legacy and also transition for the incoming President as well.

I started the final third of my GA Presidency this month. The work continues though for all GA Presidents (and also the Vice and Past President)

I started the month by checking 2nd proofs of an article I had been asked to contribute to one of the GA's Journals: Teaching Geography, which began in 1975 with Patrick Bailey as the Editor. This will be published in the Summer 2022 edition.

The GA's Governance Working Group meets ahead of the GA Governing Body, to set the Agenda and also consider some strategic decisions and thinking. We decided on a date for meetings later in the month and year.

The official images from the GA Conference are generally shared by the end of April, and work goes on to write an illustrated summary of the event for the GA Magazine. These were added to a Flickr album here. See if you can spot yourself if you were there. If you missed the event completely you can purchase a set of recordings from the GA Shop.

The Geographers Gaze project moved on with web pages being built and captions added from the work I completed with Peter Fox.

I had a CPD meeting with Guy Nunnerley - the Head of Geography at Wisbech Grammar School -  regarding my own PDR (Professional Development Review) - an annual or biannual obligation for many teachers - focussing on KS2-3 transition. Thanks to Guy, who I used to work with when he started out in his career - for giving up the time to meet with me and share what he and his department are doing, and their plans for next year. It's important as teachers that we get to see what other schools are doing and I've been very fortunate to visit hundreds of schools over the years in various roles.

Open Day was held on the 7th of May at school - we welcomed visitors and parents who were thinking of joining the school. I then headed home to join the Charney Online Conference.

This was an excellent one-day event with good conversations. I used the presentation here:

Thanks for the kind words. I also learned a lot from the other presenters and have access to their presentations as well.

The following week was a D3 Multiplier Event.

The GI Pedagogy project had been presented at the EuroGeo Conference in Mytiline in Greece the weekend before but I was unable to be there. We heard that the British Council had approved an extension due to COVID preventing a lot of our work, which was good news, so thanks to them. Another ERASMUS project involving my school: Rise the Life was also able to carry out its long delayed residential mobility to Turkey as well.

The ESRI UK User Conference returned to a face-to-face format, and I had permission to make my way down there. Sophie Wilson and Brendan Conway from the GI Pedagogy team were there. I also had the chance to meet up with the ESRI Education folks, Steve Brace from the RGS, Shanique Harris (who is leading a new RGS project called Geography for All) and Francisca Rockey from the Black Geographers group.

I had articles published in three of the GA's journals - I missed out on 'Geography' this time round. Catch them here if you are a subscriber.

Add them to your membership perhaps.

There was also a meeting of the GI Pedagogy project the following week.

Other things that I did this month:

- Completed some consultancy for a VR firm who are building scenes for students to explore with additional educational content. 

- A day working at the Forum library in Norwich 

- Attending part of a meeting of the GA's Post 16 and HE Committee - one of several who support the work of the GA and give up time to meet at weekends and also complete work according to a Work Plan which is then reported to Education Group.

- Discussions with Alastair Owens: the GA Vice President, about the format of the GA's Awards and preparations of papers for Governing Body

- Working on some resources for TeachIt Geography

- Working on a forthcoming book project which I can't mention

- Consultancy with a design agency

- Worked on some materials for the BBC to accompany a film made by De'Graft Mensah, which is part of a series on Empire and Ghana (where his family is from).

COBRIG is the Council of British Geography and has been in existence for many years.

The Council seeks to include representatives of all major geographical organisations in the UK. It invites representatives from the following organisations:

British Science Association (Geography group recorder) (BSA)
Conference of Heads of Geography in British Universities
Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment, Northern Ireland (CCEA)
ESTYN
Geographical Association (GA)
Office of Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, England (OFSTED)
Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) (RGS with IBG)
Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS)
Scottish Association of Geography Teachers (SAGT)
Welsh Joint Education Committee/Cyd-bwyllgor Addysg Cymru (WJEC / CBAC)

Alan Kinder was unable to attend and asked me to stand in for him. We had several papers which were included in the agenda and I gave an update on activity largely based on the National Research Report.

Image: Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license

The final week brought some more projects:

 - an article for a cartography magazine, which looks good

- some consultancy with a design agency and others

- preparing for the next Governing Body meeting in June by writing some papers

- many personal emails and DMs on social media to share resources and ideas

- discussions around GIS use in the profession

GeogPod is the GA's Podcast, which is hosted by John Lyon. There have been over 50 episodes of the podcast so far, and remarkably I hadn't been asked to do one until now.

Paula Richardson and I were interviewed about the National Fieldwork Week. This runs from the 6th to the 10th of June.

This should be out next week.

The month ended with the start of half term holiday. Just another half term to go before a much needed summer break, when I hope to progress some projects but also decompress as we approach the end of my Presidential term, and support those stepping up to the next stage: Alastair Owens and Denise Freeman.

I was also interviewed on the morning show on BBC Radio Guernsey.

The theme was the National Fieldwork Week.

You can listen again until the end of June. I'm on from 11.16-11.30

The usual Twitter stats at the end of the month. Quite a lot down on the previous month which had all the tweets relating to the GA Conference which were all amplified.

That's three quarters of my Presidential year done.

Official GA Conference 2022 Photographs and Recordings now available

If you were present at the GA Conference 2022, you will have seen Shaun Flannery, the official photographer for the event, who was very busy moving from one event to the other and capturing the variety of sessions that were on offer.

A selection of his photos are now available on Flickr.

Here's a couple featuring me - if you were there, see if you can find yourself:

Me opening the GA Teachmeet in the evening of the first full day - copyright: Shaun Flannery / Geographical Association 2022

At the Public Lecture and GA Awards we announced the next Vice President (and future President) of the GA: Denise Freeman - copyright: Shaun Flannery / Geographical Association 2022

Now if you missed out on coming along to the conference and booking but are now regretting it, we also have an offering for you.

Around half of the overall conference sessions were streamed live or recorded on the day.

They can now be purchased separately. 

GA Presidency Month 8: April 2022

This is the big month for any GA President since 1976 (prior to that the GA Conference was held over the New Year and the first week of January to kick off the President's year and allow them to set out their stall.)

The first part of the month was obviously dictated by the preparations for the GA conference, and ensuring that as many people as possible were able to attend in a format which suited them. This resulted in a number of late changes to the programme - inevitable when there are so many hundreds of people involved and their circumstances change.

We were also keeping a wary eye on COVID cases rising and the need to avoid unecessary contact with others - although guidance had also changed. Some people reconsidered their plans to attend the conference.

As always, the approach to the Easter holidays meant a great deal of extra work for the team at Solly Street and building excitement with late bookings pinging in minute by minute towards the deadline for registration, which was then extended for a few more days as there was a rush of last minute bookings.

April started with me already on holiday, and there was plenty of pre-conference organisation and admin to do. It was time to complete my GA Presidential address, which I thought I had done, but kept tinkering with until a week or so before the time.

I updated my Chirpty circle diagram ready to put into my Presidential lecture, which shows the people I interact with on Twitter.

There are many elements to draw together for a conference and they all came together well. I am so grateful to everyone who took part, and particularly to Isabel Richardson, Becky Kitchen and everyone at the GA, many of whom came along in person.

I prepared my presentation for the GEOLive event, which was based around my book 'Why Study Geography'.

My Presidential lecture was also finalised, and then tweaked endlessly, and there were still things that I remembered I was going to say.

On the 10th of April, I headed over to Guildford - first long drive for a while and first time on the M25 since before the pandemic. 

I got involved in a few things:

 - Arriving on Sunday and spending four hours helping to set up the GA reception desk and stand, stuff delegate bags, prepare lanyards etc. Also finally got my GA Presidents badge.

- Meeting the team who were going to be live streaming sessions, including Maddie Duggan who I had met before

- A lovely Italian meal in Guildford the evening before everything started, up on the High Street.

April 11th-13th was the actual GA Conference. It was really wonderful.

- Talking to exhibitors and welcoming delegates - I spoke to as many people as I could

- Welcoming and chairing the Public Lecture by Professor James Cheshire

- Attending the wine reception and also the conference dinner on the first evening

- Sorting accommodation 

- Chairing a number of sessions, including Professor Ian Cook's excellent Follow the Things session, 

- Trying to speak to as many of the attendees, exhibitors and delegates as I could

- Doing my Presidential Address to a large crowd - a little down on previous years, but there were people joining online and I was very pleased with how it went - thanks to Alastair Owens for the introduction

- Chairing a discussion with the author Cal Flyn - her book 'Islands of Abandonment' was one of my favourite reads of recent years and has been nominated for (and won) a whole range of awards. It was lovely to see Cal, although there were a few technical issues on the day which meant she couldn't see us.

- Attending a number of sessions including those presented by Sharon Witt and Helen Clarke, Alan Kinder and Eleanor Rawling

- Lunch sat in the sun with my department from King's Ely Geog, who had come out in force to supprt me. Particular thanks to Claire Kyndt for stepping up and presenting a workshop on her fieldwork ideas based on the 'Dear Data' book

- Up to the Teachmeet at the end of the day, at Seasons Restaurant near the Cathedral. Some wonderful presentations, particularly the one from Iram Sammar. You can watch a recording of the Teachmeet here. 

- Food at the networking and board games evening - a chat to Peter Vujakovic of the British Cartographic Society

- Down to the Beermeet - a bit of a walk - some great conversations and thanks to those who bought me a drink

- Chairing a session on Follow the Things by Professor Ian Cook

- Watching several excellent sessions, and also presenting my own session at the GEOLive event.

- Helping to take down some of the conference elements that I had helped to set up on the Sunday

- Chairing the final session of the day: the Rex Walford Lecture

A few images from the day - there are many more to come, but I haven't been given the links to view them just yet.

Delegates will be able to access copies of the recordings now.

Thanks to all the GA Solly Street HQ staff:

Copies of presentations will also be appearing on the GA Conference webpage.

Some other things I got up to this month:

- continuing to work on ERASMUS projects, including contributing to the GI Pedagogy project

- liaising with the various schools that I work with in a number of ways

- creating some materials for the MAT that I am supporting for the next term and a bit

- setting up multiplier events for ERASMUS

- pencilling in meetings at the Council of British Geographers (COBRIG) at the RGS-IBG

- working on my paper for the 100th IGU in Paris - my session has been scheduled for the Wednesday of the IGU.

- heading down for a day wandering London, visit to RGS-IBG and then an amazing conference 

- setting up a D3 multiplier event on Eventbrite

My Ordnance Survey webinar needed preparing for the end of April, and this was on the theme of fieldwork. Thanks to those who came along. The recording will be available for that soon as well.

Slides here:

Digimap for Schools - Fieldwork Webinar.pdf from GeoBlogs

Also preparing a suite of resources for a Prince's Teaching Institute event in June.

April 29th saw the GA going green...

Make sure that you start planning for the National Fieldwork Week.

I rounded off the month by sharing the news that we have a new elected Trustee vacancy and also have a new co-opted trustee who will 

I also visited Cambridge and got a copy of a number of new books, and saw some excellent art from Ai Wei Wei, and David Hockney.

As usual, here are the month's Twitter statistics - a bumper month with a quarter of a million impressions.

I'm also closing in on 7000 followers having added over 1200 in the 8 months since I made my Tweets open for my Presidential year, and 200 in the last month alone.

GA Conference 2022 - Sessions 126-139 now previewed over on LivingGeography

I'm taken the time to share a little preview of all of the sessions at the 2022 GA Conference in the coming weeks, and will also update them after the event with links through to the conference resources that are shared. This concludes the process.

It will be lovely to have my hand on a physical copy of the final programme and go through it with a highlighter as a ritual of attending conference since 2004.

You can book to see your choice of sessions here. 

Here are the people involved in the final batch of sessions in the programme, which have now been added to the blog:

• Nicola Walshe
• Ben Hennig
• Coco Huggins
• Caiti Walter
• Edward McGowan
• Philip Maudsley
• Becky Kitchen
• Alice Mollison
• Elena Lengthorn
• Luc Zwartjes
• Karl Donert
• Daniel Raven Ellison
• Fiona Sheriff
• GA Publications Board
• Alice Hoy

GA Conference 2022 - first 25 sessions previewed

I'm going to share a little preview of all of the sessions at the 2022 GA Conference in the coming weeks over on Living Geography. and will also update them after the event with links through to the conference resources that are shared.

You can book to see them here. Early bird available until the end of the month.

Here are the people involved in the first 25 sessions in the programme, which have now been added to the blog.

• James Cheshire x 2
• Alice Mollison
• Josh Payne
• Laurence Matthews
• Jo Harris
• Charlotte Foster x 2
• Steve Brace
• Stephen Scoffham
• Steve Rawlinson
• Chris Hoare
• Damien Scott-Masson
• Chantal Mayo-Holloway
• Nona Anderson
• Damini Sureshgar
• Paul Turner
• Kit Marie Rackley
• Catherine Owen
• Jake Shepherd
• Becky Kitchen
• Anthony Barlow x 2
• Karin Doull
• John Wilkinson
• Bob Digby
• David Holmes
• Joanna Norton
• Alan Parkinson
• Dion Burgess
• Andy Funnell
• Lauren Hammond
• Mary Biddulph
• John McKendrick
• Simon Catling
• Catherine Walker
• Simon Ward
• Margaret Roberts
• Alice Matthews
• Charlotte Milner
• Sarah Trolley

GA Conference 2022

The conference theme is  Everyday Geographies.

Yesterday was a good day as the first emails went out to those who submitted a proposal for the GA Conference in April 2022. Immediately there were some very excited people on Twitter sharing the news.

Along with the submitted proposals there's also a whole programme of invited speakers who will be announced in the coming months.

There will also be some other emails coming out as well next week, so if you submitted a proposal and haven't heard from us, please check your spam (depends on the sensitivity of your work systems) or wait until the end of next week. There are still a few slots to be filled. The President is always involved heavily in the conference, including choosing the theme. For many decades, there were conference organisers, who have featured on the blog in previous posts.

Here's a sample of the tweets that were sent out on the day:

Thrilled to hear proposal for @The_GA conference 2022 has been accepted. We are thrilled to share our lively, practical workshop #PlaceMotifs linking place, colour & everyday geographies. Come along to share ideas of curious practices and geo-response-abilities 😊#GAConf22 pic.twitter.com/cVJhoxbJTo

— Clarke&Witt (@Attention2place) October 22, 2021

Really excited to be hosting a session at the #gaconf22 with @SusanJPike on transitions in geography! 🌍

— Denise Freeman 🌎🙋🏻‍♀️ (@geography_DAF) October 22, 2021

Delighted to have news from @The_GA & @GeoBlogs that proposal for @RGS_IBGschools on 'What do young people actually think about geography' accepted for #gaconf22. Be sharing research with 500 YP on why they did/didn't #choosegeography, views on the subject & options re. careers

— Steve Brace (@SteveBraceGeog) October 22, 2021

Great to see all the tweets this afternoon from folks getting emails of approval for presentations @The_GA conference next April. And I got a couple too, including one where I'll be presenting with @HafsaBobat on tectonic misconceptions & how to address them in geography! pic.twitter.com/IkEknauszm

— Alistair Hamill (@lcgeography) October 22, 2021

@DrCNayeri & @RushtonDr will be contributing a workshop at #gaconf22 ‘Supporting students to publish their ‘everyday geographies’ in #Routes - excited to continue to conversation 🌎🌟📚📘🖌🎞🎨

— Routes Geography Journal (@routesjournal) October 22, 2021

GA Conference 2022

The early bird booking for the GA Conference in 2022 is now available from the GA website.

I would love to see you there in person, but we are also planning an exciting remote offering with speakers from a number of countries speaking as well.

The Annual Conference and Exhibition 2022 will take place from Monday 11 - Wednesday 13 April at the University of Surrey, Guildford, and online.

2022 will be the first year that the GA has held a hybrid Conference. We are going to be offering a full face to face Conference supplemented by a slimmed-down online version.  

The face to face Conference at the University of Surrey in Guildford will include a programme of over 100 lectures, workshops, teacher-to-teacher sessions, research papers and field visits with social events in the evening and the opportunity to network with other delegates and exhibitors. 

The online version will include a combination of lectures and workshops but the programme will be smaller than the face to face version with roughly half the sessions available.

The delegate fees are shown below.

Everyday Geographies

Plenty of mentions in the latest GA Magazine, and also in 'Teaching Geography'. Details here of how you can get involved in next year's GA Conference. Far more to come on this over the coming months of course. 

GA Conference 2022

The details of the 2022 GA Conference are now up on the GA website.

The theme is EVERDAY GEOGRAPHIES. Geographies of the every day, and encouraging thinking about geography every day.

Everyday geographies

‘Little minds are interested in the extraordinary; great minds in the commonplace’ – Elbert Hubbard

My theme for 2022 encourages exploration of everyday geographies. We are all living geography. Our diurnal routines connect us with places, people, environments and cultures. Repeated exposure means we sometimes forget how significant these are in shaping our identity and impacting the planetary emergency we all face.

Our quotidian experiences are both individual and shared. Speakers and delegates will be encouraged to revisit the stories of the commodities, cultures and landscapes that shape all our lives, unpicking the geographical connections behind them. In recent challenging times, some of those connections were temporarily severed or amended, and others deserve reassessment.

The 2022 Conference will be an occasion where we can once again come together and take the time to celebrate what makes us who we are: now and in the future, and explore how revealing the powerful hidden magic in these everyday stories can enrich our personal curriculum journeys.

Alan Parkinson, GA Vice President 2020-21

I hope to see you there, but more importantly for the time being, I hope to see you next week for the GA Conference 2021.

A few days left to book.