Regional BIAZA meeting at Sealife in Weymouth

For those who are regular followers of our Blog you may remember that a few weeks back I mentioned that Seaview Wildlife Encounter had been accepted as a provisional member of BIAZA (British & Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums). We were invited to attend our second meeting yesterday that was hosted by Sealife Centre in Weymouth. We left Seaview at 7.00am and arrived just in time for 'kick off' at 10.30am (having driven across the Island, commuted by ferry from Yarmouth to Lymington and then 'sat navigated' our way to Weymouth).

Approximately 30 delegates attended - from all over the UK. These included big players such as Veronica from Dublin Zoo (which has the UK's second largest number of annual visitors after London Zoo), and smaller zoos, wildlife parks, aquariums as well as a private collector who keeps Zebras. There were also representatives from an online marketing company and a specialist insurance company. The wide assortment of people made for some interesting exchanges of ideas around the table. Forums such as these where discussion and debate is encouraged amongst like-minded wildlife professionals is crucial to opening up the communication process, identifying shared concerns and objectives and agreeing on timeframes and modus operandi on agreed action points. Hopefully BIAZA, in addition to arranging these meetings, will be instrumental in consolidating and manifesting some of the ideas that came to light.

We're looking forward to our meeting on Monday 24 May, here at Seaview Wildlife, with Miranda Stevenson from BIAZA along with our BIAZA-mentor David Field from London Zoo. David will hopefully be assisting us to fulfill the necessary requirements in the months ahead to become full BIAZA members.