Dear colleagues,
Organizing an International Conference (and an intercontinental academic association) is teamwork. Most of the work has been done – of course – by the Spanish local organizing committee, Miguel Muñoz, Francisco “Paco” Polo, Lourdes Orozco, Javier Vidal, Domingo Cuéllar and many others, and we are most thankful for their great achievement! At the same time, impact, output and success of a conference (and an association) to a large extend is a function of involvement and commitment of many scholars, members and participants.
Not only in this respect, the Madrid Conference of T²M on Intermodal Mobilities was a great success. It offered an inspiring and touching involvement of the more than 120 academic participants and 60 supporters in very different roles and functions: as speaker, discussant, session chair, computer administrator, photographer, singer in the choir of the foundation or as a member of one of the T²M committees.
From a perspective of organizational sociology, an association is as good as the number of meaningful and expedient activities and occupations it creates, offers and distributes. Conferences are our commitment highlights. I am not sure, however, whether we offer enough possibilities for commitment and involvement in-between conferences, especially for newcomers to our association.
Our “Interdiscipline” of historical transport and mobility studies is dependent on developing new meaningful occupations and projects especially in-between the annual conferences. I would be most thankful for ideas and suggestions how to develop and florish our academic field by new commitments and projects.
Let’s take Madrid as a paradigm. I would like to thank our Spanish colleagues for this model!
It was a wonderful example of voluntary involvement. We acknowledge and admire that you, dear Spanish friends, have organized the conference in economically rough weather and stormy times. By the conference organization, you underlined the vivity, academic strength and commitment of the Railway Museum and the Spanish Railway Foundation. Museum and archive form an internationally important hub for historical studies and education in transport, traffic and mobility. We hope and trust that both the museum and the archive will develop and florish in the future.
Best wishes, Hans Dienel
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| | Hans facilitating discussion. | |
Gabriel Tortella receives a gift from Juan Pedro Pastor at the opening.
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T2M Executive Committee Meeting, Nov. 15th in a Dining Car in the museum | Manuel Zirm, our T2M Secretary |
Choir of the Fundación de los Ferrocarriles Españoles at the
opening event.
Congratulations and thanks extended to the T2M 2012 conference organisers.
Images by Federico Pérez Franco and Keith Harcourt © T2M 2012.
