On Saturday, I attended the Bare Foot Conference which was held at The Natural History Museum in central London.
I have to say it was the most amazing venue I have ever been to for a conference. I’m not sure that will ever be beaten as a venue in my lifetime.
It was also a very appropriate venue to host the Bare Foot Conference. Guest speakers included Barefoot Ted, Paul Chek, Louis Liebenberg, Dr de Groote (presenting the work of Professor Lieberman in the context of the Natural History Museum’s exhibits), Lee Saxby and Matthew Wallden.
I was almost late for the kick off at 10am (I decided very earlier to pass on the 8.30am 5km run) as I had decided to take my good friend Mark Buckley (who’s currently in the UK, from New Zealand teaching his FMA Strength Training Program) for breakfast at Smith’s of Smithfield in Farringdon only to find out they don’t open until 9.30am (school-boy error!). Doh!
First up was Barefoot Ted, who I had never seem speak before. I was not disappointed! He has a fantastic presenting style, which is very engaging, entertaining and funny! It did amaze me how similar in looks, physique, personality and sense of humour he is to Paul Chek. It turns out they were born very close to each other and both have native American ancestors from tribes that were very close to each other.
I was also very interested in Louis Liebenberg’s presentation who discussed persistence hunting and Dr De Groote’s presentation of human evolution from tree bearing apes to bipedal humans with large brains largely due to the adaptation required to survive following temperature reduction in Africa around 6 million years ago.
Of course Paul Chek and Matthew Walden were as always informative and entertaining.
It was also great to catch with fellow CHEK trained professionals, students and colleagues. To top it all off we also had a nice lunch sat on the grass in front of the museum in bright sunshine. All in all, a great day! Thanks to Matt for organising a great event. Here’s to the next one!