Caroline Bell from Clear as a Bell Marketing was the speaker at the latest meeting of Dumfries Rotary Club.
She had come along to give an insight into her background and told members about her role at the European Lunar Symposium (ELS) which took place at the Crichton in June.
ELS is the only academic conference in Europe which focuses on the science and exploration of the Moon and was attended by delegates from NASA, the European Space Agency, the UK Space Agency and the Japanese Space Agency.
The conference was chaired by Professor Mahesh Anand from the Open University This was the 12th incarnation of the conference and its first time in Scotland with previous venues including Berlin, London and Amsterdam.
In total, 127 papers were presented to delegates in plenary sessions showcasing their latest lunar research, but it wasn’t all work as a dinner and ceilidh were held for delegates to mix and relax and there were outings to Crawick Multiverse and to Langholm where, as seat of Clan Armstrong, NASA astronaut, Neil Armstrong, spoke in 1972. Indeed, Rick Armstrong, son of Neil paid a visit to the Symposium at the Crichton on the Tuesday of the event.
Local school pupils were involved in the Symposium on the Wednesday and there was a careers fair promoting careers in the lunar sector and showing that there were a huge selection of varied careers available – not everyone is a spaceman.
Caroline’s main role was as the local marketing and communications consultant, liaising between the organisers and the media and she was able to say that the Symposium will be featured on a future edition of Border Life on Border TV.
She has also had to turn her hand to some more mundane things, too like being a taxi for delegates booking restaurants and creating 200 or so locally sourced “treat bags” for the delegates, apparently the tablet was lovely.
Caroline finished by saying that while the event had been a success it was more important that it was seen that there could be a legacy from it with further events coming to our region.
The vote of thanks was proposed by Rotarian Andrew Walls.