Rewarding Conversations

Our new programme of online events has proved a great hit with a wide variety of people – and there’s still plenty more to come. The free ‘Conversations Build Understanding’ series, in conjunction with Icon, has attracted sizeable audiences on a Wednesday evening and it’s often difficult to bring the discussion to a close, there’s so much to say.  Equally well-received are the more rigorous CPD lunchtime webinars, which explore topics in greater depth, offering relevant, targeted training for all those who deal professionally with heritage ironwork, and related built heritage.

Feedback from these events often touches on similar ground:

I liked the broad range of speakers and I have certainly learnt a lot.”

Good to have a range of different perspectives on each question.”

Excellent to have time for a detailed Q&A session.”

It’s been really informative to someone who is only just starting out in the conservation world – good to know how it is approached by different parties.”

This dialogue between different disciplines is very encouraging.”

Rosanne Eardley, a post-grad student on Birmingham City University’s ‘Conservation of the Historic Environment’ course, who took up one of our free student places, writes:

“I felt it was every bit as good as being in the same room as the speaker.  I like the use of the chat room for questions, as it can be quite daunting to ask a technical question in a room full of strangers.  Sometimes you’ve forgotten your question by the end, so being able to type questions as you go along is really useful.    I found the online format meant it was easier to take time out of the working day to attend.  Not having to account for travel time and expenses keeps the cost down. 

Although the seminar was focussed on ironwork, I found the general sections on how to approach writing a specification really useful.  For example the way Rhys broke the process down into “What have we got? What do we want to achieve? How do we get there?” was a really simple but relevant process to keep in mind. 

It was also encouraging to have my views reinforced that conservation work is very much about collaboration and learning from others.  Also that writing a specification for conservation work requires a different approach because there are generally a lot of unknowns about the building until you can start opening it up. 

The section which covered different types of metal work in buildings and repair techniques was a very useful introduction.  I was particularly interested to learn, for example, how the grading of sand is very important in specifying the required finish, and that casting methods are now evolving quickly with the development of 3D scanning techniques. Clearly a seminar of this length can only give an overview of these aspects, and I will be looking out for further NHIG events where I can learn more about these areas in the future.”

Coming up in 2021, we have Adrian Legge and James Grierson discussing the potential for an Accreditation scheme for Conservation Blacksmiths, and Geoff Wallis revisiting the ‘Procurement’ conversation, with an in-depth, step-by-step guide to managing the process from beginning to end.

Visit our events page for further details: www.nhig.org.uk/events

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