Eima Karim and Purnima Gamage share their experience of attending last year’s Life Beyond the PhD conference.
Last minute train ride
Shortly after announcing that we were selected for this year’s Life Beyond the PhD conference, the Doctoral College put us in touch to organise our travel to the lodge. We emailed back and forth, then settled for the train, so met each other for the first time to plan and book our train tickets. From then on, things escalated quickly. Without even realising, we were planning a road trip to Windsor. The conference was to start late afternoon on the first day, and we would be finished by midday on the last day, giving us enough time to plan a road trip, stopping off at various places of interest along the way.
Although we had our travel plans set out, Eima’s car had different ideas on the day before the trip, needing a long and expensive trip to the mechanic. We ended up resorting back to our original plan, taking the train down to Egham station.
Once we arrived, we took a local taxi through Windsor Great Park to the lodge. Our 5-day stay in the middle of nowhere had begun…
Getting stuck in the middle of Windsor Great Park for 5 days
The further we got, the more we felt like we were being sent away from the rest of the world. ‘Looks like we are stuck in the middle of this park for the week’ we both said.
The lodge is a Grade II listed former royal residence in Windsor Great Park. The building was granted to the educational foundation now known as the Cumberland Lodge in 1947.
The reception led us to the beautiful drawing room of the lodge where we collected our conference packs and access keys to the lodge. After a quick break to settle in at the lodge, the events started.
Back-to-back sessions bringing out all our hidden sides
Events at the LBTPHD conference were unique. The conference had much to offer in terms of knowledge as well as skills development: none of which were delivered in traditional lecture style. Our schedule for the conference days were packed with diverse activities. Just as we started our day, we found ourselves drawing our PhD into a picture, with the aim of guessing what each of our research interests are.
We had the pub quiz on the first evening, where we got to socialise and get to know one another. This was a great evening, and we even won the quiz!
The rest of the week entailed a variety of different activities. We had to act, we had to engage in group discussions, we had to put our journalist hat on to work out article titles, deliver mini speeches, create TikToks and even maintain character in a role play for a full day.
Ambitious 6am walks and Jenga tower
There were many things we could do during our free time: indoor and outdoor games, drinks at the bar or walks in the park. We found ourselves going for walks in the park twice a day: at 6am in the morning and soon after dinner every day. Places like the lakes and the walk up to King George’s statue were so beautiful; we did these walks in various times to enjoy the morning view as well as the evening view. During this time, we discovered a hidden talent…building the tallest Jenga tower, and the realisation of how competitive we are!
Closing thoughts
The LBTPHD conference turned out to be an unforgettable experience, blending learning with creativity in a stunning setting. Despite the initial hiccup with our travel plans, the journey to Cumberland Lodge became an adventure. Engaging in unique activities was a fantastic way to easily engage with the topics covered during the conference. The serene walks in Windsor Great Park provided a perfect balance to our busy schedule.
While our Cumberland Lodge notebooks are filled with many notes that we cannot fit into a post of this nature: here is one of our favourite takeaways from the LBTPHD conference: ‘Have faith in the process. You will be surprised by how many doors open after your PhD!’
Joint blog post by Eima Karim and Purnima Gamage
Eima is a former Manchester Met Doctoral student whose research focuses on investigating the potential for repurposing drugs as anti-thrombotic therapies.
Purnima is a 3rd year doctoral student from the faculty of Business and Law.
