I was surprised when X showed interest in taking charge of conference administration. Indeed, I wasn’t sure that she would be up to the job.

On the day itself X caused some confusion amongst the delegates as to where they should register for the event and pick up their conference packs. Most would normally conceive these two tasks as a single activity, yet X provided a separate location for each. She had also forgotten to make the delegate badges. I was suddenly lumbered with sending the delegate list and a Word badge template with logo to X’s PA. I hoped that she would have time to fix X’s mistake before everyone arrived at the British Library Conference Centre.

However, I was very happy to forgive X’s mistakes when I saw the range of goodies that she had managed to pull together for the delegate packs. Everyone was offered the choice of a new patent leather handbag from a vast range in the latest summer 2012 colours. Even the men were fighting to make their choice of designer freebie.