Interesting session today. All of the faculty's PhD students. I underestimated how many there were but was also a bit taken aback by the supervisors and many of the academics being there as well. (They were having a whole day of induction to the university). The briefing gave me half an hour just before lunch and I thought I would set off very early and sit in on some of the prior session just to get a feel of it.

Good job I did. They were in a part of the campus I'd not visited before and at least a mile away behind the old naval port gate. Interesting space to inhabit but modern rooms in an old warehouse type of place where the new had to be removable with no damage to the old. Anyway, what with the distance and not being too sure where I was going I just about arrived on time. Only to find they were running seriously behind in any case.

I sat through some of their induction until it was my turn but with only 10 minutes to the scheduled lunchtime and what looked like it had been a long morning, I decided to cut out some of what I planned and just cover the basics after introducing myself.

It was the right decision. All were much relieved and I felt less intimidated than I might have done trying to go into details that probably weren't appropriate to the session. Both academics that I spoke to over a quick bite to eat (including the nice Dutch lady I'd met a week or three back) and the researchers thought that it had been just right.

Phew! Given that at TheOldPlace I rarely got to see this level of researcher at all and if I did it was usually in very small groups, it had been a bit unnerving to walk in and see 50+ people and a much more formal setting than I might have expected.