(Update from Ben Sullivan)

The annual UK/European EMu Users Meeting was held in the week prior to Easter at the Royal Academy of Music in London. 

For a day and a half the 45 attendees were kept busy with a full program of presentations on a range of topics that included: data clean-up techniques in EMu; future Conservation module developments; delivering collection information through EMu Narratives; plotting object information using Google Maps; and future EMu developments.

Attendees received a bag of goodies with souvenirs from a variety of museums and galleries in attendance. The mini EMu eggs were a handy snack during the day and the EMu drink coasters worked well with a beer or glass of wine at the evening function.

Thanks must go to the people who helped organise the event, in particular Louise Andersson-Gylden, Marion Raiser, Keri Myers, Julian Tomlin and Samantha Pettit. Sam was away on maternity leave at the time of the meeting and we congratulate her on the birth of her second daughter, Ruby Elizabeth.

Thanks to Janet Snowman and Frances Palmer from the Royal Academy of Music for their interesting tours of the academy and the stories that surround the collections, building and past students – Elton John included.

The Natural History Museum also hosted the attendees on various tours through the Mineralogy Department, Palaeontology Conservation Unit (PCU) and the Darwin Centre “Tank Room”. I'm not sure how well the smell of all the preserved fish in alcohol went down after the evening reception the night before but it was definitely worth the visit and nothing a clothes peg couldn’t fix.

Thanks to Dave Smith, Caroline Smith, Mike Rumsey, Chris Collins and his team in the PCU, and Clare Valentine for their time.