Convention 2018 - October 20th, 21st
The Holiday Inn
London Heathrow, M4 Junction 4
Another successful convention!
A new venue in the south of England and close to international airports. After several years in Leicester in the Midlands we felt we needed to give members in the south of England a chance to attend a convention nearer to them. The hotel we chose is a very large modern hotel just off the M4 at junction 4. It dominates the sky line after leaving the M25.
In spite of a number of difficulties with the hotel, delegates thoroughly enjoyed the event, renewing friendships and of course, adding new favourite bottles to their collections.
On Saturday we were in the Thames Suite, a room made smaller by the recent refurbishment. The day started well - it was the seventh annual IPBA Day when members reach out to other members around the world to reaffirm friendships. Phyllis provided some bubbly to celebrate.
Phyllis opened the convention by welcoming members including several first time attendees. We were pleased to welcome IPBA President Deborah Washington once again and Deborah updated us with current IPBA initiatives, including the new Perfume Passage at the home of Jeffrey Sanfilippo near Chicago.
Mohammed Jamal told us about the latest exciting developments with his company and described a small number of valuable bottle samples that he has created.
Next, Mark Loveday of Pochet de Courval made a return visit (he spoke at our 2012 convention in Leicester) with Nickie Jones to tell us about his Company and the innovative techniques they use to produce most of the commercial bottles in stores today.
After a tasty lunch, Antoine Poujol reprised his fascinating talk that he gave to the IPBA Tyson’s convention in May about the early history of Lancôme.
Julie Carry of Lalique followed with a very interesting talk on the story behind the design of Lalique bottles.
Yvonne Redgrove ended the program in the perfect way with a slideshow “Out with the
new” talking with her usual passion about more of her favourite bottes.
Our thanks go to all of our contributors for sparing the time to prepare and present interesting and informative talks for our enjoyment and further education.
Those difficulties: the hotel had somehow double-booked us and we couldn’t have the room that we thought we were having. That meant that on Saturday we used the Thames suite for presentations and then after the buffet and auction had to move everything (the raffle prizes, displays and auction lots) from there to a storage room overnight. On Sunday morning we had to set up the room from scratch before the sale could start at 9:30. The hotel was undergoing a complete refurbishment and the restaurant was out of action. This meant that lunch on Sunday was at the other end of the hotel in the temporary restaurant and some continuity was lost as people went for lunch. However, hotel staff tried hard to help us and the trolleys at midnight were soon forgotten.
The sale on Sunday was well supported this year by regular dealers and traders and also some that haven’t been for a while. We welcomed back Linda Bee and Jennifer and David Allen. Also, first time dealers and traders Caroline Dobbin, Ron Knee and Agathe Urquhart.
Thanks must go to our regular supporters: Vivienne King, Vanessa Turner, Dot and Ron Fray, Stefaan and Tom from Belgium, June Victor, Raluca Burns and last but not least, Connie Williams, all the way from New York.
After lunch several people took advantage of the Collectors’ Market and set up small tables and this proved to be popular once again.
A highlight of the convention this year was the auction, held after the buffet on Saturday evening and which raised a record amount.
As usual we rely on donations from members for the raffle and auction and we’re very grateful again to the many contributors.
We were very lucky this year - just before the convention a web site visitor offered many bottles “free to a good home” and we were able to collect them on our way to Heathrow. Amongst many attractive bottles were five “Les Beaux Arts” bottles which led to much interest in the auction and raised a considerable amount for our funds. In addition we were given a bundle of magazines “The Perfume Collection” from 1999 which are so full of information that we will be sending them to the IPBA library for future research by members. (It is planned that the library will be digitised over time and so these will be available online to everybody.) 
The highlight of the auction though, and the highest price paid, was a giant bottle donated by Mark Loveday and Nickie Jones of Pochet (Gilles Cantuel Creature) which was won eventually by new member Patty Haji-Savva.
Thanks also once again to our auctioneer Chris Hipkiss who squeezed out many bids for the lots with good(ish) humour!
UK Chapter has it’s own Mini!
Pochet de Courval kindly offered to produce a personalised bottle for us (they did the same in 2012) and one was put into each goody bag. (The bottle measures 4cm x 6cm and is filled with black ink) Thanks again to Pochet!