Psychometric Society IMPS 2009 Banquet
Thursday 23rd July 20.00 - St John's Banqueting Hall (Dress - smart)
The IMPS conference banquet is always a chance to catch up with old friends and make new ones; to network with colleagues; to celebrate achievements and discuss what you’ve heard so far. It’s a welcoming event. This year it was also an architectural, artistic, musical and culinary experience which was not to be missed.
It was held in the renowned St John's Banqueting Hall, perhaps the most magnificent Cambridge college hall. It is housed in a 16th century building and seats a maximum of 500. The hall is built with fine old linen fold panelling and an impressive hammerbeam roof made from ancient molded oak. It dates from the time of the great houses and castles of medieval England.
The hall is hung with portraits of college notables: politicians who contributed to English history such as Strafford, Villiers, Castlereagh, Palmerston and William Wilberforce; poets William Wordsworth and Matthew Prior who attended the college; the great Classical scholar Richard Bentley; Alfred Marshall, the founding father of modern economics; John Couch Adams who discovered the planet Neptune by prediction; Paul Dirac the physicist, and numerous others.
The meal was accompanied by music from Minstrels Gallery, a group of musicians specialising in medieval and renaissance music. They perform in both contemporary and authentic period costume and play over 40 different early instruments. The group was born out of a series of informal concerts held in the Great Hall of the British Museum.