The annual conference of the Society of Leather Technologists and Chemists (SLTC) was held this year in Lancaster, in the north of England, in an attempt to find a location more suitable to members from Scotland. Whether this was a successful tactic remained unclear but an interesting agenda certainly attracted a sizeable attendance with a many questions for the speakers.

The keynote Procter Memorial Lecture was given by Roy Thomson who has just retired after a lifetime in the industry, mostly with the Strong and Fisher Group, but latterly as director of the Leather Conservation Centre based at the University of Northampton. His subject was the conservation of leather.

Other lectures included a description of the manufacture of parchment by Tova Irving of William Cowley, and a paper by Mercedes Catalina of the BSLT on the extraction of gelatine from chrome shavings. In talking about lean practice experience in the furniture industry in the UK, John Baldwin highlighted many of the problems faced over the last 20 years by the European leather industry that had made them so vulnerable to overseas competition.

A major paper, classed by the organisers as a "discursive" was presented by Phil Shaw of SATRA on the place of leather in the global supply network. 

A minute's silence was held for Tony Mossop, who died a few weeks ago. He had  been a long time member and supporter of the Society, and  was awarded a posthumous honorary member. Cecil Bickley was also made an honorary member.