It’s been an extremely enjoyable, if slightly exhausting, event hosting week.

I’ve hosted hundreds of events over the years, but never done a full-day conference followed by an awards ceremony in the evening.

I finally managed that on Wednesday, with the brilliant In-Whisky event in Glasgow, then the celebratory forestry and wood awards dinner in Edinburgh that night (and a train, and rapid change of outfit in the loos at Surgeons Quarter in between!).

The day before this double-header, I ventured into a topic I knew little about - soil health and the importance of good soil monitoring. It was slightly nerve-(w)racking to facilitate four lengthy discussions on complex topics in a room full of experts, but it was a fascinating and enjoyable experience.
It was a real pleasure to interview Stephanie Macleod, an articulate advocate for Scotch whisky, and to hear her call on the industry to be confident in its strength, and ability to rise to the challenges it currently faces - as it has throughout history. Her call was repeated by whisky legend Billy Walker in an amusing and insightful Q&A session with Mark Littler.

I’ve hosted the forestry awards dinner for Confor: Confederation of Forest Industries (UK) over a number of years, and seen it grow and thrive. As ever, there was a real buzz in the room (forestry people LOVE to talk) and a superb array of winners, from the hugely impressive Jillian Kennedy (Future Forest Leader) to the total professional David Edwards. who took away the Dedicated Service to Forestry award.

I reflected afterwards that healthy soils are extremely important to both our whisky and forestry industries and that there was maybe more in common between these events than I realised beforehand.
One thing that definitely held all the events together was the passion, commitment and skill of the people who have made their careers in each of these areas. It was a pleasure to meet more of them this week, and to recognise how much these communities do to help the world go round - and to do two of the events with my youngest daughter Liv Lee Allen beside me.

So thank you to the The James Hutton Institute, KDMedia Ltd and Confor for the opportunity to host these events - and here's to always being curious and finding out more.

And thanks, of course, to Phil Wilkinson, whose photography and video work continues to be consistently brilliant. It's such a great lesson in running your own business to recognise what you can't do, and work with people who are amazing.