The Scottish Region Dinner - Thursday 10 November 2022

At the Voco Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow on 10 November, Scottish Region chair John Yellowlees welcomed ninety guests to a dinner like no other since lockdown had changed how we lived - so gone at least for now were black ties, toasts, lengthy presentations and raffles.

Instead, the focus was on enabling everyone to catch up with each other after so long an enforced separation, but to give food for thought to match the excellence of the meal there was time to hear from chief executive Sharon Kindleysides making her Scottish debut.

Sharon told us how a career spent mainly on Intelligent Transport and Smart Cities had drawn her to the lure of CILT's remit which, by embracing the challenges of 2020s living, represented a cause whose time had truly arrived.

It was, she said, a huge honour to be leading the Institute at such a pivotal time, since the transport, logistics and supply chain profession was experiencing powerful momentum as well as increased public engagement and admiration.

Sharon congratulated Glasgow Caledonian University International Supply Chain Management student Milliam Mclellan on winning one of CILT's postgraduate scholarships, and Angela Sutherland told us about other winners. Commander Dave Pinder introduced us to the Greenspace project which inspires awareness of STEM subjects by inviting school pupils to assemble a flat pack kit of a sports car, and pupils of Knightswood Secondary School led by teacher Gordon Cooper were on hand to attest to its impact.

Professor Ed Sweeney looked forward to the annual Logistics Research Network gathering coming to Heriot-Watt University next September. And finally, since our venue was at Glasgow Central Station, Network Rail tours organiser Jackie Ogilvie urged everyone who had not yet done so to come on a highly-acclaimed Glasgow Central Tour which now includes a museum of railway artefacts and a restored Victorian platform which will soon host a steam locomotive.

Before inviting everyone to make the rest of the evening their own, John concluded by thanking regional officer Douglas Norris and his organising committee, who had received support from Linda Morrison and Samantha Radford in the Regions and Nations team at HQ, for a very successful evening which by attracting many younger faces augured well for the Institute's future strength in Scotland.

Report and photograph by John Yellowlees.