IHEEM’s new President Paul Kingsmore (pictured, seated left, with branch chairman Nigel Keary and committee members) opened the 10th Bi-annual Conference of the Institute’s Northern Ireland Branch at Bangor’s Marine Court Hotel recently – a successful event attended by an audience of over 200.
Founded in 1947, with its inaugural meeting held on 12 April that year at Belfast’s War Memorial Hostel, the Northern Ireland branch is one of IHEEM’s oldest and largest. This year’s conference theme was “Shaping the Future”, with Paul Kingsmore, who was himself brought up and trained in Belfast (HEJ – June 2010), giving the opening keynote. The first day allowed delegates to gain greater knowledge and understanding of the care environment, and to hear presentations from a number of exhibitors. The Conference Dinner saw comedian Sean Cromie entertain around 160 dinner guests with his topical humour, and Lucas Vogan (an IHEEM Northern Ireland committee member) spearhead the charity auction, this year in aid of the Belfast Samaritans. Another branch committee member, Gordon McKeown, whose wife Dorothy is the chairperson for the Belfast Samaritans, gave an informative insight into the organisation’s work. The auction raised £3,000, and the branch would like to thank both the exhibitors that contributed, and all those that bid. The conference’s second day focused on areas including sustainability, risk, design, and “future-proofing”. Planning for the next IHEEM Northern Ireland conference, in 2012, has already commenced. For further information, and details of how you can participate, either in the NI conference or any IHEEM branch event, contact your local branch representative, or refer to the branch pages on the IHEEM website, www.iheem.org.uk
