On the 18th and 19th November 2009, The Asian Fire Service Association (AFSA) held their national launch at its 3rd Conference, which was held at the Second City Suite, Sherlock St, Birmingham.
Jagtar Singh (National Officer) Duncan White (NDFA Chair) Zahoor Ahmad (AFSA Chair)Jagtar invited me to the conference to take the event photographs, speak about the last 20 years disability advocacy I have been undertaking and also about the benefits of networking. These are subjects close to my heart and I shall be running two masterclasses on Networking at the annual conference of the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers in January next year with my hero Zoe Richards. http://www.zoephotography.co.uk/
It's not uncommon to hear people at conferences saying the sort of things that the delegates want to hear and then not follow them up. Empty rhetoric exposes the lack of integrity of so many people who are (as my parents would say) old enough to know better. On this occasion however, there was a tangible passion in the words I heard from many of the people there and it left me feeling hopeful that it was really going to make a difference to the people who had attended.
On the first evening entertainment, dancing and great food added to the networking opportunities. During the evening £2500 was raised for three different charities:
MacMillan Breast Cancer Awareness, http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancertypes/Breastfemale/Breastcancer.aspx
Water Wells in India http://thewaterproject.org/wells_for_india.asp
Indonesian Eathquake Appeal. http://www.baitulmaal.org/us/asia/37-asia-projects-/154-indonesia-earthquake-appeal-2009
Zahoor Ahmad, Chair of AFSA, said “I am so proud today to see that all our efforts to bring the Association onto the national stage recognised, and to see the efforts of the founder members rewarded by the commitments from Chief Fire Officers, Government Officers, Equality and Diversity officers, Sponsors and, of course, our members acknowledged in such a positive way. As someone said today, if we could bottle the energy and commitment in the room we would become millionaires very quickly.”
Jaggit Kaur Hayer
I was ably assisted in the 2 day shooting by Marta Demartini from HM Digiart http://www.hmdigiart.com/ and Jagtar's sister Jaggit, heself an active member of the AFSA who assisted with the NWFS conference 3 day shoot earlier this year.
AFSA is a consultative body, which consists of serving and retired members from various Fire and Rescue Services within the UK, who aim to assist, support and enhance the work being undertaken in Fire and Rescue Services, both nationally and locally, in achieving their equality and diversity commitments, ranging from recruitment and retention, and positive action to community safety and religious and cultural awareness.
Fire Minister Shahid Malik Signs up to join the AFSA
The main keynote speaker was the Fire Minister Shahid Malik. Like any MP who talks at events like these, he'd arrived with a speech drafted by advisors. I've been to so many conferences where the government representative merely reads out sound bites and claptrap avoiding any probing questions and then consuming a free lunch. I was therefore heartened at the AFSA conference when the minister deviated from his prepared script and without prompts or an autocue, delivered something stright from the hip - or was it the heart?
It's the first time I have encountered Shahid Malik as directly as this and of course only time will tell if his words are matched by his actions, but in a world of increasing cynicism and hypocrisy, I have to say his words gave me some new hope about the future of public services and the lives of people who are so often marginalised and let down.
Graham Ogilvie
Graham Ogilvie spent the two days creating snapshot cartoons from the text of the speeches and the dialogue generated in workshops. Not only was his artwork incredibly thought provoking, but he worked at a speed that qualifies as mass production. His artwork was displayed around the conference and delegates were asked to indicate which ones resonated with them as the two day event progressed. On the final session, people were then asked to add their own observations on the cartoon whose message covered the most important issue for them.
It's the first time I'd seen use of imagery this way at conventions and one of the main benefits as I understand it are that art and poetry enters the right side of the brain and are therefore made much more difficult to place barriers against them getting in. A psychologist once told me that music, art and poetry are the mediums to enter an open mind, although recently at the Tate Modern I was somewhat less than impressed with the work there on one of the floors and it only served to annoy me for travelling there to see such rubbish - maybe that was the intention of the artist! Who knows, not my area of expertise - but Grahams work was brilliant and inspiring.
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Funnier still was the reaction from passers by. Whilst it would be difficult for people visiting London not to know that there was a marathon going on in the capital, this was a much smaller and shorter event and the runners had to share the roads with traffic and other pedestrians. At times, people were walking directly in the path of the running nuns, oblivious to their presence until they had passed. The stewards did a tremendous job given the circumstances and most people I saw looking on seemed to have an obvious sense of humour. 
There is always a serious side to these events of course. Barnado's does vital work for children who are vulnerable and like almost every other charity, needs events like this to raise their profile and their funds to do the very best they can. The following quote is taken from the Barnado's web site. 
