After procrastinating for the past couple of months, I finally made up my mind this week to go to Dublin in October for the LHSA annual meeting, which is taking place in the Irish capital. So it is now all fixed, registration, hotel and flights on Aer Lingus.
My last LHSA annual meeting was at Wetzlar in 2018, when we had the opportunity to meet many of the factory bigwigs, including Dr Kaufmann himself. Encouragingly, Stefan Daniel, Peter Karbe and, possibly others, will be at the conference this year. Jono Slack will be there, as will Robin Sinha and Sarah Lee, who spoke at the Leica Society meeting in Buxton earlier this year.
In addition to Robin and Sarah, Ana Maria Gosen will also make a presentation. She was the 2020 winner of the LHSA grant and the Oskar Barnak Award in 2021.
Much of the planning and implementation of this Dublin event has been undertaken by our long-time friend William Fagan who is a board member of the LHSA and the organisation’s European representative. He seems chipper enough at this stage, six weeks before the event, but I do wonder if he will regret volunteering his city for this world event as the pressure mounts. However, William tells me he is always up for taking on challenges… so it’s alright, then.
October is likely to be a busy month for Leica news, with the Dublin conference, the announcement of the Barnack Awards, and the possibility of a marketing event to launch at least one new product, rumoured to be an additional film camera.
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look forward to seeing you again Mike (and also William)
Good to hear you are coming to Dublin. I think that you are based in Copenhagen, am I right about this? It will be good to have a number of European countries represented at the meeting. It will be a good way of getting some feedback about other possible European events.
William
Hi William,
Yes, I am based out of Copenhagen. My first time to Dublin and very much looking forward to the Irish hospitality 🙂
Thanks William and Mike, I’ll look forward that. I’ve sent my email to Mike.
Also good to see European representation on the LHSA Board increasing with Jono Slack’s appointment. Congratulations Jono!
Hari Subramanyam from Heidelberg, who is a regular visitor to Wetzlar, will also be joining the Board, making it 3 members based in Europe. At this time, nearly one third of the LHSA membership is based in Europe, but a lot of work remains to be done to provide services and meetings in Europe along the lines of those available for US based members. We will have a lot to do.
I look forward to seeing you again in Dublin, Keith
William
Good decision! Look forward to seeing you there, Mike.
I heard you were going, Keith, and look forward to meeting you again. Mike
Hello Mike, I will be there and look forward to finally meeing you in person!
Will you be in Wetzlar for the LOBA Awards? I will be there too!
Look forward to meeting you, Bill. No, I had not planned to go to Wetzlar.
I’m not going to LOBA either, as I have been in Wetzlar twice in the past year. I’ve also been asked to speak on Old Leicas at the Annual Meeting of the Photographic Collectors Club of Great Britain (PCCGB) on the following weekend. Bill, as the editor of a prize winning magazine, LHSA Viewfinder, you would love the quality of their magazine called ‘Photographica World’ and newsletter called ‘Tailboard’. I will show you examples when you are in Dublin. They also organise great research Zooms on vintage cameras, in fact, I am on one tomorrow morning. There is surely scope for something similar, specifically about Leicas.
William
Thanks again Mike, somewhere in the back of my mind I had a memory of a conference fee but I wasn’t sure
Philip, the situation is as described by Mike, but I believe that non members can attend if they pay a fee. There will probably be an event at Photo Museum Ireland (formerly Gallery of Photography, Ireland) at Meeting House Square in Temple Bar and, if that happens, I can invite you to that as I am the Chairperson of Photo Museum Ireland. If you give Mike your email, I will contact you after the conference to arrange a meet up anyway, seeing as you are in Dublin.
William
Sounds like u will have a great time and w enough Jameson Mr. Fagan will introduce you to the Leica Leprechaun who uses an M3 ! Enjoy
Well, I’m taking them to Guinness for a tour and a bit of the black stuff. They could also visit Irish Distillers as well, to take our famous Irish v Scotch v Bourbon test. I have also suggested that they try the rather lovely ‘Green Spot’ Irish whiskey which goes very nicely with a ‘Red Dot’. We will also go cultural and send them looking for the ghosts of Joyce and Wilde and few other Irish cultural icons. It will be a varied event, with the only rule being that if anyone takes things too seriously they will get sent home!
William
Thanks Mike !
Sorry, Philip. I didn’t really answer your direct question. Yes, you have to be an LHSA member to attend, but even then the event is restricted to those members who pay the rather hefty conference fee. Mike
I live in Dublin, will there be any public events or do you have to be a LHSA member to attend. Thanks Philip
I’m sure William will answer in detail. As far as I know, this is a private event. But if you hang around the hotels you will certainly bump into many Leica users!