Year of the Dragon - by Richard Handscombe

This year, the Year of the Dragon, is considered the luckiest Chinese year, which bodes well for the Chinese athletes who are training in Leeds ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games.  Not that they seem to need much luck, as they topped the medal tables at the last Games in Beijing.

Seven years of work came good late last year when Leeds was finally announced as the training base for this “superteam”, but that’s when the really hard work begins!

Think about it – nearly 300 Chinese people, with us for almost a month, many of whom will never have visited the UK, or eaten European food, don’t speak English and are, well, Olympians!  These boys and girls are at the highest possible level of their sport.  This will be their last training camp before the Games, so stress levels will be high.  This is set to be an interesting year full of challenges for the events department, catering services and Sport.

Bev Kenny has accepted the considerable menu challenge, and as I write this is in the midst of organising some pretty exotic offerings which will be delivered by our own chefs aided by some of the Chinese team’s chefs.  Residences are gearing up to welcome around 10 disciplines to Storm Jameson Court, all of whom come and go on different dates during July.  Sport and Physical Activity (SPA) is planning to install specialised equipment for such sports as fencing, taekwondo and table tennis.  And these are just some of the issues to be covered.  

BBC cameras broadcast the show live to China.

At the beginning of February, the BBC broadcast a variety show from the Refectory, live to China in celebration of the Leeds training camp.  The show was presented by one of our own students, Marie Tulloch, speaking in fluent Mandarin Chinese.  This was incredibly impressive but did nothing to ease my own worries about my own challenge to learn basic Mandarin so that I can at least greet our guests, and maybe even answer simple questions.  The one thing I’ve learnt so far, after just two lessons, is that there is no such thing as a simple question in Chinese.  Just one small two-letter word can have six meanings depending on how it is pronounced, and many of these will probably be offensive!

So, this is going to be a great year to be in Leeds, with the University playing a valuable part in the Olympics – Bev can be happy in the knowledge that she has helped fuel every medal won by the Chinese.  Residences and SPA will know that they have played an important part in preparing the athletes for every gold, silver and bronze they take back to China.   And I’ll probably have insulted everyone in every possible way, as I stumble thorough the Mandarin minefield.  But it will be a year we will remember forever…  

Find out more about the event at the Refectory:

• Read an article in the Yorkshire Post
• View the video
• Take a look at some pictures

A Burning Question - by Richard Handscombe

The editor of Exhibition News recently posed the question:  “are live web-feeds from building sites really necessary?”.

As a question, I’d guess it won’t feature on Newsnight any time soon - although I can almost hear the cynical tones of Mr Paxman himself looking into the camera and asking the question.

We recently featured on our website, a series of stills showing our new conference asset, Storm Jameson Court, rising from the ground as if by magic.  It was fascinating.  There for all to see was the artistic scaffolding, the mysteriously shrouded delivery trucks, big digging thingies, and occasional glimpses of Bob in his yellow hard hat as he went around building.  

This was stirring, gripping stuff that I’m 100% positive had the whole nation glued to their PC monitors, eager to see what would happen next.  A bit like Eastenders, only much, much more interesting.  Gradually this epic building, an emerging star in the conference universe, emerged from its chrysalis.

And now, that fascinating time is all over, and the building has been revealed in all it’s glory.  Soap fans will have to go back to watching their favourite TV shows, struggling to catch up on the storylines, and sadly missing the Storm Jameson Court Saga.

And just in case national opinion says that building site pics are not in fact necessary, we’ve removed them from the website.

Conference bookings are now being taken for our magnificent new building. Take a look on www.meetinleeds.co.uk/stormjamesoncourt

I’ve seen the future! - by Richard Handscombe

You’ll be glad to know it’s not orange.

But Leeds is on the move!  Those who know about our conference facilities here at Leeds will be well aware that we are on the brink of a step change, with the impending completion of a new residence, Storm Jameson Court. 

What’s so special about this building?  Well, this contemporary hotel-style facility  has been designed throughout to appeal strongly to the conference market, as well as our student customers.  We will be blogging some more about Storm Jameson Court towards the opening, but yesterday I took a trip around it for the first time in a couple of weeks and my goodness, it looks great even without furniture!

The development is just days from being handed over to us so that we can complete the fitting out with furniture and soft furnishings.  The builders are currently busy cleaning and taking care of all the little finishing touches to the décor, as well as landscaping the grounds, and although there is a little way to go, it is looking stunning!  It’s remarkable how much it looks like the computer-design fly-through we commissioned all those months ago – viewable above or at: www.meetinleeds.com/stormjamesoncourt.  The change from building site to building has been remarkable in the last few weeks, and has all of us at meetinleeds confident that here we have a superb product, which combines with our other superb facilities to make Leeds and the University a must for organisers.

Watch this space for updates on the final stages of the project, towards its opening in September.