07 November 2018
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The Medal fair proved to be a hit
Events at the first-ever Orders & Medals Research Society Convention to be held in Nottingham proved hugely popular with attendees.
The new venue, the Nottingham Conference Centre, a superb recently refurbished building in the heart of the city, proved ideal. The elegant glass roof provided a light and spacious area for exhibitors on Saturday and the OMRS Medal Fair on Sunday.
The talks by Major John Monn on Norwegian awards, Air Commodore Graham Pitchfork on the evolution of the Royal Air Force and Paul Evans on military archives, were well received and greatly aided by superb technical facilities. The arrangements for refreshments also went down well with the university-level pricing proving particularly popular.
Although overall attendance was down from the Stratford-upon-Avon 2017 record of over 400 to just over 330, there was a big turnover of members registering. A quarter of those who came to Nottingham did not go to Stratford the previous year, including new attendees from New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and Canada. One of the principal aims of moving the Convention out of London and around the country was to encourage new people to come to the weekend and this is clearly happening. It is hoped that some of the newcomers will become regulars. Attendance in Nottingham was higher than in the final year in London.
The standard of exhibitions was once again extremely high with six exhibitors being awarded gold medals. On Sunday there were 24 trade stands at the OMRS Medal Fair, with was a distinct buzz in the room and dealers reported trading as being fair to very good.
The Orders and Medals Research Society is a UK-based organization with a global membership dedicated to studying and collecting orders, decorations and medals and through research to preserving the memory of the men and women to whom they were awarded. For further information on the Society look at the OMRS website at www.omrs.org.
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