Gold Coast, Day 2

Today we had most of the day off – things didn’t start till 3:30 (some people were flying in from as far away as Perth! Gosh….). We had breakfast in a little place next door to the hotel then had a stroll through the sunday market by the beach (which is what the marquees are in the second pic), the highlight of which was a frozen mango squeezy which I slopped all down my front (predictably). I took a few quick blind pictures of the beach with my snappy cam, which doesn’t have a view-finder, so I was pointing, shooting and hoping:

After that, coffee at one of the many cafes over the road from the beach, and then back to the hotel to move over to our proper rooms for the week. Pretty much everything seems to be within a block of the beach – if you’re not by the beach, you’re probably in New South Wales (I’m not kidding – one of our conference venues is over the road, which is in a different state. Awesome!). View from the hotel, with my iPhone:

After that, lunch at another cafe, then back to the hotel to do a bit of sitting-on-the-balcony-while-reading. The Institute started at 3:30, so downstairs to register (name tag, thick folder of sessions) and meet our group members.  We started off with some introductory sessions, then drinks, dinner, then back to our rooms for homework: questionnaire about our management style.  Result: unknown at this stage, but hopefully it won’t set any alarm bells of which would result in my immediate expulsion.