Homecoming Scotland has been a fantasic year of events to draw back the diaspora to Scotland, so it seems remarkably naff that the event's final celebrations should have a competition that is not only just a tad cringeworthy, but which discriminates against most of the Scottish population!
Here goes:
Throughout 2009 Scotland has celebrated its year of Homecoming with a programme of more than 400 events taking place across the country. The finale to this spectacular year will take place over the weekend of St. Andrew's Day (Scotland's national day) with Scotland’s biggest ever St Andrew's do!
We are inviting Andrews around the world to mark the occasion and do something special for St Andrew's Day by joining the Homecoming Finale celebrations. As a special incentive we'd also like to bring one lucky Andrew/Andrea (and friend) 'home' to Scotland in January 2010 for a fabulous 5-night break that will include:
•A five night break to Scotland for two, including return flights
•Accommodation in Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh
•Two evening meals during your stay
•Unique Homecoming Scotland experiences which will include:
- a visit to St Andrews
- a VIP visit to a whisky distillery
- guest attendance at a Burns Supper and
- tickets to Celtic Connections traditional music festival!
Sigh...
Still, they got most of the rest of the year spot on!
Chris (not Andrew)
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
But have they really got the year "spot on"? Putting on a series of events, to me, really didn't do justice to the whole potential of the Homecoming concept. If the target was to induce the diaspora to come home, then the real issue is how this message got communicated internationally. The idea that "events" were required to incentivise visits seems just a little strange. The forces of relatedness that were available to pull people back to Scotland are far more powerful than (name event here).
ReplyDeleteI thought the year was an opportunity missed.
ps. agree with you about the Andy thing - bet they don't even have Murray in the bag.
Homecoming Scotland has been hugely successful on many fronts, and maybe not so on others - you can't please all of the people all of the time. But to me, the biggest success is that it actually happened, and that we had an event that said to the world, "here we are, this is Scotland". It may have been a twee Scotland in parts, with a few too many kilts and shortbread tins, but it also had a great deal to motivate the genealogical community, which is what I am more intersted in. There were successful international events such as the Gathering, and others perhaps less so, but it motivated a lot of people to move forward with their projects and schemes. My only regret that is that so much of it was spent on Robert bloomin' Burns related projects. There are and were many other Scots!
ReplyDeleteIt's always possible to say it was a missed opportunity, but I think it was more a glass half full celebration than one half empty!
Chris