Over the weekend I received this e-mail from Rob Martin who is the CLC Manager at the North East Leeds City Learning Centre...

Hi Chris, Hope things are well, I for one am beginning to see the perspicaciousness of naming your blog after a Chinese curse :) At the risk of blowing our own trumpet, I think you should know of the excellent work of your colleagues at Leeds City Learning Centres who have last week, 8th & 9th July, hosted the CLC National Conference at the Rose Bowl, Leeds.

The conference, brilliantly compared by Glen Campbell opened with a keynote from Rory Cellan Jones then split for workshops on four distinct tracks; Teaching & Learning, Technology, Open Source and Information. The evening's entertainment was provided, in somewhat of a coup for us, by Peter Bruntnell. Day 2 was dominated by an inspirational keynote from Tim Rylands on the impact of ICT on learning and teaching and the incomparable role the CLCs play in promoting the effective use of ICT.

The blogosphere has responded favourably to our open-source track, with posts on key developer blogs praising our willingness to use the technology and present it to schools as a viable alternative in these interesting and straitened times see Máirín Duffy of redhat post Talking about Inkscape, in Leeds UK, from Boston USA, via Empathy. and Laura Czajkowski of the Ubuntu Women LoCo Team, reflect on the conference. It’s not every day that the work of an Education Leeds team gets syndicated on a blog roll read by the vice-president of Novell! You can get a feel for the range of discussions via the twitter feed #clcs10

I'm sure you will join me in praising all the staff at Leeds City Learning Centres for their passion, commitment, determination, persistence and sheer hard work in putting together a showcase event. Rob."


I have heard from a number of colleagues about this brilliant event which showcased the best of the work at the City Learning Centres. We are blessed here in Leeds to have these centres but more importantly the incredible team who make these centres come alive and release their magic. Thanks to all the colleagues involved in making the two day conference such a brilliant success.
Chris