https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=619387341431584&l=4897586169289778953

First off may I apologise for the poor video handling in this post.  I’m a novice at this aspect so am stumbling about.  I guess the easiest thing I could have done would have been to scrub this through YouTube but that is another story.

So the Curve.   For those of you who do not know the The Curve is the newish theatre complex in Leicester.  It is a huge building slapped down in the middle of the city with no real feel for its surrounding.  However, yesterday I attended my son’s degree ceremony at the venue when he was ‘officially’ awarded his Doctorate and so I’ve been through two other of these ceremonies but none of them compared to the experience of the Curve.   Yes the actual degree ceremony was a bit of a shambles, the wrong Professor stood up to announce the wrong graduants  which caused some confusion and why do Vice Chancellors insist on boring the audience rigid with long speeches that are at best adverts for the University and at worse incoherent ramblings…yesterday’s was somewhere between the two.    None of the audience cared – they were there for their children/friends to walk on to the stage and get their certificates.

That was the magic that the Curve brought to the proceedings … it was presented as a stage show with the students the centre of the show – quite literally as they appeared from behind a curtain at the back of the stage at the start waving to the audience – this got a great cheer from all.  The only thing they got wrong was the sound system which spoiled the DMU Gospel choir by almost drowning out some great singing.

The proceedings outside the ceremony were also handled in a much more professional fashion.  The building is designed to deal with a large audience and so there was plenty of space inside, this was the middle of winter after all, to meet and greet as well as capture all those smart phone shots.   The official photos were  well handled as well with a large room set aside for the purpose and a bank of six photographers ready to capture those all important family shots.

So all in all and great day in a great venue…just wish the vice chancellor speech wouldn’t go on and on.  They are not the centre of the proceedings the graduants were and they were the only ones who mattered.