Mr President....

We've had two ICE Wales Cymru committee meetings in as many weeks. The first was, as normal, held in Bay Chambers and covered a variety of matters from the Chairman, Director and members.

One of the items on the Agenda was the upcoming Presidential visit and as part of that, the second of the committee meetings. Before that took place on Thursday evening, we met the President at Cardiff Castle for a presentation on the design and construction of the new interpretation centre by the consultants Mann Williams.

The view from the Interpretation Centre roof terrace towards the motte:

We then had a tour of the Castle itself, including a room in the clock tower which is normally out of bounds. The Marquis of Bute entertained friends in this room and he owned every piece of land you could see from the windows:

Me with ICE President Paul Jowitt:

After the tour we walked through Bute Park to view the bridge that Alun Griffiths (Contractors) Ltd. have just finished building off North road, then went to the Marriott hotel for the Presidential committee meeting. The guys from Engineers for Overseas Developments (EFOD) gave a presentation as well as Gemma Hancock and Mark Legge from the Graduates and Students Committee (this year and next years G&S Chairman), then I gave a presentation on my time as Apprentice.
Friday saw a visit to the White Water Rafting Centre for a presentation on it’s design and construction as well as the nearby Pont-y-Werin bascule bridge. It required the largest mobile crane in the UK to lift its four sections into place and will open up this area of the Bay for pedestrians whilst allowing river traffic to continue. After the presentation there was a ‘Meet the President’ meeting where Mr Jowitt gave feedback on national developments and their impact on the Welsh region.

The visit was rounded off with the ICE Wales Cymru annual dinner and awards evening. Karyn Thompson (ICE Wales’ Marketing and Communications) had orgainised an impressive stage set-up from the events team that do the stage/I.T. for ICE conferences.

I sat next to David Lloyd-Roach who is ICEs Membership Director. Not only was David interesting he was a good sport, and didn’t mind the guest speaker poking some fun at him. It turned out to be a late night but worth it, and our President was happy to stay in the bar until the early hours to talk with me and the guys from G&S, despite him having a flight early the next morning. I was surprised and pleased to later receive a note from Mr Jowitt saying how much he enjoyed the visit and dinner, so I think we showed him a good time!