In June, several past and present IACD Board Members attended the World Community Development Conference in Dundee, Scotland. The conference theme was People, Place, and Power and it took place over the 23rd – 26th July followed by several practice exchanges from the 27th – 28th July.
For the next few months, IACD will be spotlighting delegates who attended the conference. This week, we are featuring reflections from two of IACD’s past Board Members – Stewart Murdoch and Keith Popple.
Stewart Murdoch served on the Board for a number of years and was on the Executive Committee. He was also an indispensable member of the core planning team for WCDC2019. Here are Stewart’s impressions of the 2019 conference: “I found the lead up to and the event of the 2019 WCDC conference a real pleasure. Having been in the chair for the Organising Committee of the Glasgow conference in 2014 I was acutely aware of the workload and pressure carried by Clare and I give her huge credit for the way she carried the process forward and for her rule during the event. I was also reminded of the special nature of this city. In Glasgow it was frankly a struggle to get the University to come on board as a partner, there was a willingness from the city to help but the processes were complex and there was no one in the city that really embraced the event so it felt like we were always trying to find ways round and through things – how different our experience in Dundee this year. Political support, agency support, civic goodwill and a great planning team created the context for a totally different feeling and contributed hugely to the outcome.”
Keith Popple also served on IACD’s Board for a number of years and has attended many of IACD’s conferences around the world. He had the following to say about the conference: “The well attended conference was a happy, celebratory one with a good mixture of stimulating speakers, interesting workshops and a lively social side. Clearly a lot work and attention to detail went into making the conference a success. I was pleased with the response to my workshop on writing for the Community Development Journal and there is a real possibility of some of those attending submitting articles for consideration for publication. It was great to stay in Dundee and enjoy the art and culture of the city. The train journey from Edinburgh to Dundee in the early evening during the summer was something else. Beautiful! Keep up the good work at the IACD office!”
