Yay!

The European Textile Forum has been in the planning for a longer while than usual this year, due to the - again - scarcity regarding catering possibilities in the lovely place that we usually hang out in. After a certain point in the year, this makes me more and more anxious. The Forum, after all, is a full week, and the people who participate have to plan for this week in advance - taking off work, for most, and this should be done well in advance for most people. So I've been biting my nails for a few weeks now (figuratively, but still).

To my very great relief and utter delight, it looks like this is being resolved now, and hopefully I can do the final calculations soon, and all things will be set into motion. 

Resolving this, just like the last time, was done by asking what feels like a gazillion of people. I am, in general, of the opinion that most problems can be solved by finding the right people. This, however, can take time. A large network usually helps, but even then you have to ask everyone (or what feels like everyone) and hope that they have someone in their network, and that said person will come back to you.

Of course I didn't only ask my friends and colleagues, I also wrote to a number of different possible people or institutions that could have been an option. And this is where I'm actually rather disappointed, as there were some companies who are offering meals for companies or institutions (so they are obviously professionals in that regard), but my inquiries never got an answer. Not even a short "sorry, we don't do that kind of thing". I know that there's no right to getting a reply (and I have a few dark spots on my vest myself, when a request or mail just fell behind and then was forgotten at some point - and if that was one of yours, I'm sorry, I do try hard to answer to every mail, but sometimes I do fail) but it is getting harder, after a while, when you ask people and instead of a "no" there's just... silence.

But enough complaining - I am a very happy woman today! (And if you're interested, there's more info on textileforum.org, where there will also soon be the CfP and the registration form and so on. Focus topic of the year is "knots", which means that I will face one of my arch-problems, because I am fantastically bad at remembering knots with only a very few exceptions...)