The NWSDG retreat at Storrs Hall was a very enjoyable and invigorating event. It is a good mix of personal development and best practice, allied to some useful networking.
The phrase “in the current climate” was much in use, as it is in many development events. This underlined contributions from Paul Dixon from the University of Manchester , and LJMU’s own John Trantom. The tone was refreshingly honest on how development and training is perceived across the region, and also how we could change to meet demands for greater convergence of services, while also supporting colleagues facing huge structural challenges.
it was interesting that an instant on-line survey of the 25 delegates revealed the 88% 
expected their bespoke training to increase for 2011…
In the personal development side there was a bracing one hour introduction to Tai-chi. This proved just a wee bit challenging for some of us. My muscles are still reverberating!
Overall, it was a useful and inspiring two days. I will hopefully post some more photos in the near future.
