The first two hours at the CIPD annual conference

Having registered and had coffee with several other community 'regulars' I went to visit the exhibition.
The exhibition is in a maze of halls attached to the main conference centre While the halls are very quiet (it is early on day one) there is a pleasurable atmosphere , unlike HRD at the Excel centre. My first walk around any exhibition is just one of orientation , to see who is here and who I may want to talk to. Unlike many, I rarely plan my visits to exhibitions, preferring a more gestalt approach.

Networking has started well meeting Margaret parkin (she does great use of story telling), Adrian of the training foundation as well as Cheryl and Martin from the CIPD. Cheryl asked me not to publish a photo of her having coffee.

Conference bags.
This year are a black satchel style bag containing much the same as the joining pack sent last week.
Missing items appear to be paper and a writing implement. Missed sponsorship opportunity ?
Its near to 11 so off to my first session.

update - it appears that there should have been a pen in the bag - and the handouts are provided at each session for note taking - but something hard to lean on would be appreciated.