Meet the delegation - Angela Milln

Back in 2008, I was privileged to be part of the UK delegation to the World Conference in Johanesburg, South Africa. Another amazing and unforgettable guiding opportunity - but such opportunities often come with a catch! At the time, I was the chairman of the national marketing and communications committtee - and I guess that qualified me for the task of leading the UK's bid to bring the World Conference to the UK in 2011. No pressure then!

The conference itself was an unforgettable experience - when else do you get the chance to sit down to breakfast every day with someone from a different country - with 140 odd countries to choose from?! And of course, because we were bidding to host the next conference, every meal time presented another opportunity to talk informally to other delegates about what we had to offer.

Our bid culminated in a presentation to the whole conference, which I fronted up. Rather rashly, I had agreed to try to kill a few stereotypes by addressing the conference in all three of the WAGGGS official languages - English, French and Spanish. Only a few words of greeting at the start of the presentation (simultanious interpretation of all sessions is available to all conference participants) and a few Q&As at the end. As a linguist, this shouldn't have been a problem - but the first question, posed in French in the stongest West African accent you can imagine, came closer to defeating me than I care to admit! Fortunately, it didn't - but we were up against strong competition - so it was impossible to tell whether we had done enough!

I cannot begin to describe the nerves that preceeded the next day's announcement of the winning bid - or the elation of being declared the winners! There were tears (yes - I mean it!), cheering - and a frenzy of texting to people who had supported us back home. One of my proudest guiding moments to date is going up onto the world conference stage to receive the world flag from the South African chief commissioner - ready to be flown again in Edinburgh in 2011!

While not a member of the delegation in 2011, it was wonderful to be able to attend the opening ceremony - and to see in person the culmination of our efforts in South Africa three years earlier. I had, however, thought that that would be the end of my involvement in this amazing aspect of guiding. Little did I realise that, as Deputy Chief Guide, I would be heading for Hong Kong this year as the Chief Guide's representative on the delegation. This time, I have a better sense of what is in store - and am looking forward to supporting new members of the delegation in engaging with what I know will be an unforgettable experience!

I'm also going to be trying to engage my own Guide and Senior Section units in the experience - with the World Guiding goes to Hong Kong resource to help me.