Apocalypse Now.

May 17th 2017 – the date for this year’s JKSL seminar….be there or be not there…but you will be missing out.

So are you coming then….?

I tend to think that if people knew the time and effort that went in to these things then they would appreciate it a bit more. This isn’t just a series of people doing a sales pitch for their companies.

This isn’t Mike Clough doing a one man Japanese knotweed show…

This takes months and months of planning – months of heartache and late night phone calls (mainly me to Suzanne…sorry Suz)

Reading books, articles, tweeting and tweet following, Facebook reading – then discussing and refining what we think people want to hear about. Then maybe a little of what we think they should be hearing about. Maybe a bit of political slant toward protecting the environment and a bit of habitat saving ….but generally a lot of thought going into trying to find the most interesting people that we can find to stimulate our audience.

Suzanne and I start thinking about next year’s seminar …pretty much as we start putting away last year’s props and clearing the tables of the ideas that came up with to entertain our attendees.

There’s usually a bit of gentle ribbing between Suzanne and me – along the lines of… ‘never again’ and ‘…this is all your fault Mr. Clough …’…but generally it’s a good humoured banter as we both get a real buzz from planning and executing one of the events of the year.

This year we have ‘upped the ante’ by adding a celebrity to the speaker list in the guise of Michaela Strachan – she of ‘Springwatch/Winterwatch/Really Wild Show’..fame. This may slew our attendance figures and result in a huge number of new bookings – so those of you who are regulars at the event need to get your request for tickets in early please to avoid disappointment.

We also have further speakers to entice and beguile;

Trevor Renals – a regular at our events and a great speaker – talking about the Environment Agency…and its concerns for our future.

Dick Shaw of CABI – talking about bio-control of invasive non-native species.

Mark Avery – author of numerous books, scientist, naturalist and wildlife campaigner – who will be putting his take on what we should be worried about….

Warren Slaney – river keeper on the Haddon Estate – who will be discussing the difficult task he has of keeping the rivers that he manages free of invading non-native species.

…all of this…plus Mike Clough with his slightly unusual take on what is happening in the world of Japanese knotweed and the other invasive non-native problem species that we deal with.

Don’t hesitate – get on the phone, get on your computer and reserve your place.

Mike C