6 The Energist | Vol.2 No.1 Winter 2015AMT Energy Conference 2014 - “The Best Ever!”Reports and delegate feedback from the annual AMT Energy Conference at The View Hotel, Eastbourne,UK, November 1-2 2014, described by many delegates as the “best conference I have ever been to!”I didn’t think that the AMT EnergyConference could get any better, but thisyear has been nothing less than aparadigm shift for the energist communityas a whole.For many years we called the GatwickEuropa Hotel our home, but as The AMTcontinues to grow and expand, we chose totake an evolutionary step and move venue.This was not a decision we made lightlyand spent two years searching up and down the country, visitingcountless hotels and meeting spaces. There are so many factorsto take into consideration including location, travel accessibility forboth home and international delegates, how much delegates payfor hotel rooms, do delegates have alternative accommodationoptions in the area, can they park their cars easily, do theconference rooms offer natural light, are there opening windows,are there food options both at the hotel and in the surroundingarea, does the area offer outstanding natural beauty and so forth.It turned out that the perfect venue was right on our doorstepand I believe we all fell a little bit in love with The View Hotel inEastbourne on England’s sunshine south coast.Living and working in this town, we’ve all passed this great venuehundreds of times over the years, but it’s owners, The Unite Union,have only recently decided to make it available to the public.They’ve spent millions of pounds doing the venue up - and it shows- but unlike many hotels we visited, you still feel like you’re talkingto real people and not walking/talking “terms and conditions.”The timing for the move was absolutely right for us as we neededlarger meeting spaces for the increased numbers of energistscoming, and it was also the right time for the hotel who have justopened their doors to outside business.They are also creating a whole new meeting space for 2015suitable for at least 200 delegates, meaning we can look forwardto coming back next year and also grow the conference in manydifferent ways.This year we sold out the conference with all 150 ticketspurchased. This is still a 25% increase in numbers on last year andI felt the new venue and our AMT team of Zoe, Stephen and Aimeecoped brilliantly. A big thanks to all the staff at the venue who wereso helpful no matter what we threw at them, Gill, Simon, Joe, Ian,Fran, Maxine and Stevie to name just a few.Speaking to delegates and presenters it was clear that there wassomething special happening here. That wasn’t just what washappening in the workshops where people were having profoundemotional and learning experiences, but also in the corridors whereit was great to see a large number of interviews taking place, booksbeing signed, email addresses being swapped, and plans beingforged for the future, long after the curtains closed for this year.A few people separately said to me that the AMT EnergyConference “has great energy” and commented on how it wasfantastic that we “walked our talk.” I was surprised to hear thatmany people’s experiences with similar energy conferences is thatthey lack energy!What I do know is that the number of people smiling, grinningand laughing throughout the weekend was fantastic. It was apleasure to see people’s positive energy being so visible.On my own personal evolution, this is the first year I’vepresented so thanks to everyone who showed up and was a partof my talk on “Internet for Energists.” It was a real amazingexperience to give back to the AMT community and I’m hopingthat by putting all the links and technical advice in the manual youdidn’t mind spending the workshop on doing some practical energyexercises to ensure that blocks to your internet success areremoved and your next online steps are effortless and apparentto you.One of the sad things about being conference organiser isthat I didn’t get to sit in many of the presentations, but I didhear wonderful things about everyone!We did however, get an incredible amount of video footagefrom this conference and will make this available to delegatesand presenters free-of-charge in the following months.We’ve read all your feedback forms and have begun makingpreparations in advance to make sure that the AMT EnergyConference 2015 returns bigger and better than ever onOctober 10-11. If you’d like to secure your place and save somemoney by booking early, then you can do so by heading to ourwebsite, TheAMT.com/conference.Finally, a big thank-you to all our wonderful 2014 presentersand delegates for being an absolute pleasure to host. All of usat AMT headquarters haven’t stopped smiling since getting backand have been loving all the “wasn’t that great when…”, “didyou see…” and “have you heard…” stories you’ve been tellingus about.We hope you had many wonderful experiences at theconference and we look forward to welcoming you back inOctober!~ Alex Kent, Director of The AMT & Conference Organiser.
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