INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS SERVICES FAIR AT LEICESTER UNIVERSITY

This afternoon I’m helping out at the University of Leicester’s International Students Services Fair, which is being held at the O2 Academy in the Percy Gee Building (aka Students' Union). The Council of Faiths is supporting the International Chaplaincy with their display, mainly though the loan of our pop-up banners.

We took part in this fair in 2010 and 2011; both of those were very busy events. The O2 Academy was rammed with students on both occasions and there was a great variety of exhibitors from the university itself and the wider community in the city. This time, there's hardly a quarter of the exhibitors compared that there were in previous years (most of them promoting internal services provided by the university itself) and even fewer students. It’s still worthwhile being here; we help several students with enquiries about the International Chaplaincy and local faith communities, but compared to the last two years, it’s very quiet indeed.

Next to our display (or overlapping it, as you can see from the presence of our banners in the photo above) is Amarjit Sanghera, currently operating as @CampusCops on Twitter. Between us we seem to be the busiest corner all day - as you can see in the photo below (we're top right).

During a brief break in the Student Union Starbucks, I pick up an email inviting John Coster and I to attend a meeting on Friday, in advance of the Big Launch of Leicester Speaks (scheduled for Monday 8 October). John and I were Co-Chairs of Leicester Speaks in its first and second years but we both agreed at the end of the 2011 event that we wouldn't be doing it this year. Somehow or other, that hasn't got through to whoever it should have gotten through to and we're still signed on!

After having lugged the exhibition the short distance down to the Gatehouse (home of the International Chaplaincy) a the end of the day, I get to sit a spell with Akua and Wahida, of GBMag, who were exhibiting at the Fair. GBMag describes itself on its Twitter profile (@GreatBritishMag) as "the ultimate lifestyle guide for international students in the UK, with information and advice on living in the UK, British events and cool free giveaways". I like their tops!

The International Chaplaincy is holding on to our exhibition for use in other Freshers Week events over the next few days. So our banners are sleeping in the Gatehouse for a little while. I've kept one "generic" banner back to use in the Street market Community Fair at De Montfort University Students Union on Thursday.