Last weekend the Westray Development Trust held its second conference, the first having been held 25 years ago. I was at the first one and I know what organising went on for that one. The attendance figures for the Friday evening and Saturday events will be somewhere but just now I can’t find them but beuy, there were a lot of folk about.
This is not the place to explain what all the details were discussed but fair to say anything and everything to do with living life on the edge in one of Orkney’s North Isles was discussed. Due to unforeseen circumstances I was unable to attend some workshops but the one I could attend was on tourism, having a bit of an interest in that subject. The Visit Scotland co-ordinator set the scene for tourism in Scotland in general and Orkney in particular then Karen Penn, chairperson of the Westray and Papa Westray Tourist Association led the question and answer session at which point everyone had their say.
The room was completely packed out with folk sitting on school desks, chairs and even the floor. I was not taking notes, no room to do so, I just enjoyed the banter. There is an enormous amount of help available to support island tourism, from the tourism and enterprise bodies not to mention the Orkney Islands Council and I am sure they will all be ready to pitch in when the directors of the Development Trust have had time to process the notes from all the workshops. Two days of intense discussions will require so much work from the office staff and volunteers, and I look forward to reading reports or perhaps a Development Plan when their work is completed. This conference has built on all the successful work done by the Trust and its directors over the previous 25 years.
Catering was typical for Westray, plenty of it, lots of happy faces and no complaints. The youngsters (see notice pictured below) looked after everyone and nobody had any reason to complain. The weather on the Friday did its best to deter folk from coming but it failed thank goodness, and as at all Westray’s major events the two day conference came to a happy ending with a dance for everyone.
I have lifted these two photos from the Development Trust’s facebook page. If you log into that page you will find lots more pictures from the event. All I can say is well done everyone, to the directors and willing helpers, thank you for all your hard work and we shall look to the future when the Trust has processed all the information. I don’t envy them that task.
https//facebook.com/westraydevelopmenttrust
My apologies for such a short piece this time, it’s been a strange couple of weeks.