Don`t worry if you can`t, Robert. I`ll fill in with a great little lecture on Heuristics and Decision Making I`ve been working on. They won`t notice the difference.
Rob, if you are still discussing the interface axis, you might want to view the GK Rose paper I linked to in the Root MTJ thread. He discusses something he terms the calcaneo-contact axis.
Good luck with summer school. I'm sorry I won't be there, but you know the reasons why.
I will be there finally!
Looking very much forward to it... - only a shame i'm going to have to leave early :-(
but
running shoes - check!
shorts - check!
Sorry I can't be there again this year in Manchester but will certainly miss meeting Mr. Isaacs for the first time and seeing his lecture .....I've been told it is a very good one.
And, of course, will miss dancing with Bel again.....she is the best....
Hope you all have a good time at what sounds to be a great conference and maybe I'll be back again to the UK in a few years to see you all again.
As for me that weekend, I'll be lecturing at the Disneyland Hotel at the Western Foot and Ankle Conference and bringing my 7 year old grandson and lovely wife to Disneyland for a day's visit.
Disneyland is always more fun seen through children's eyes.
Good luck rob. I was due to be there however double booked my self. I forgot I was going on holiday and thought the wife would not be impressed if missed part of the holiday.
That's fair ;).
Looking forward to it!
Be good to meet people like Chris Nester and Beno Nigg who's work I have enjoyed and admired. I owe Craig a few beers (have of course bought administration a beer but it's not the same). Also hoping to bump into a few undergrads, they are always a privilege to teach. And of course looking forward to seeing Ian Linane and blinda,
two of my favourite people in the whole world. 2 days just won't be long enough!
Ask questions. Better ask a question and feel an idiot for a minute than not ask and stay an idiot for life (thanks to Ian Linane for that one).
Remember that the lectures and workshops are not the only place you can learn at a conference. You will be there with many colleagues who have more experience than you and you should view that environment like a vampire bat views a cow shed. And indeed don't be afraid to approach the speakers between talks and in the evening. Most people will be delighted you paid enough attention and had enough curiosity to ask something after the event.
Especially if you buy them a drink for their trouble:drinks. Hint.
If I had to pick out my most engaging and informative educational experiences, by and large they were not lectures. It was the plane trip to portugal with Dr Spooner, the courtyard of weatherspoons with Ian Linane, the post course pub with Ted Jeknak, the conversations about practice management in Derek Harlands living room, the Email exchanges with Blinda over the pictures of weirdomas I keep sending her. Thats the good stuff. Money can't buy it but people give it away for free!
You should view the conference as much as a chance to start building your network and steal opportunities like that as a chance to enjoy the actual timetable.
My advice for both the "teachers" and "learners" at this or any other conference is to heed the words of Carl Rogers:
"a. My experience has been that I cannot teach another person how to teach. To attempt it is for me, in the long run, futile.
b. It seems to me that anything that can be taught to another is relatively inconsequential and has little or no significant influence on behavior. That sounds so ridiculous that I can’t help but question it at the same time I present it.
c. I realize increasingly that I am only interested in learnings which significantly influence behavior. Quite possibly this is simply a personal idiosyncrasy.
d. I have come to feel that only learning which significantly influences behavior is self-discovered, self-appropriated learning.
e. Such self-discovered learning, truth that has been personally appropriated and assimilated in experience, cannot be directly communicated to another. As soon as an individual tries to communicate such experience directly, often with a quite natural enthusiasm, it becomes teaching, and its results are inconsequential. It was some relief recently to discover that Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, has found this, too, in his own experience, and stated it very clearly a century ago. It made it seem less absurd.
f. As a consequence of the above, I realize that I have lost interest in being a teacher.
g. When I try to teach, as I do sometimes, I am appalled by the results, which seem a little more than inconsequential, because sometimes the teaching appears to succeed. When this happens, I find that the results are damaging. It seems to cause the individual to distrust his own experience and to stifle significant learning. Hence I have come to feel that the outcomes of teaching are either unimportant or hurtful.
h. When I look back at the results of my past teaching, the real results seem the same-either damage was done, or nothing significant occurred. This is frankly troubling.
i. As a consequence, I realize that I am only interested in being a learner, preferably learning things that matter, that have some significant influence on my own behavior.
j. I find it very rewarding to learn, in groups, in relationship with one person as in therapy, or by myself.
k. I find that one of the best, but most difficult, ways for me to learn is to drop my own defensiveness, at least temporarily, and to try to understand the way in which this experience seems and feels to the other person.
1. I find that another way of learning for me is to state my own uncertainties, to try to clarify my puzzlement, and thus get closer to the meaning that my experience actually seems to have."
Have fun y'all. I hope Robeer presents lots of learning experiences for everyone during the conference, as I know he can- he's a great facilitator of learning.
Just got in to Disneyland Hotel for the Western Foot and Ankle Seminar about an hour ago.
Who was one of the first podiatrists I ran into?...Dan Everson, of Australia.
Just shows you that podiatry is a world wide profession, podiatrists from one country sharing with podiatrists from other countries.
Pretty cool!:cool:
Have fun out there in Manchester.
Say hi to Chris Nester and Benno Nigg for me!