It's all in the tone of voice

And relax... Back in Glasgow after the MA Conference in Liverpool. Two jam-packed days of talking, talking, talking and more talking - almost from the minute I got on the train in Glasgow to the minute I walked through my front door. Perhaps even in my sleep too.

I was delivering a programme of training sessions all day Monday. Mine was on writing in a specific tone of voice - when I do in-house writing training, people often specifically ask about how to do it. To me, it's not just about the words and grammar you use, you also need to be really clear about your own organisational values, who your audience are and which stories are going to best capture their interest.

The highlight for me on Tuesday was the debate - Crisis? What crisis? - between the Director of National Museums Liverpool, David Fleming, and the Chair of the Arts Council, Peter Bazalgette. Fleming was passionate about what his museum service does and frank about the very real impact that funding cuts are having in Liverpool, reading a long list of all the projects which they've had to cancel. Bazalgette adhered to the idea that there's a wealthy private sector waiting to fill the gaps in funding. As other talks made very clear, that might be possible in London and the Southeast but not so elsewhere - and I think our London colleagues would argue that it's not too easy for them either.

As usual, it was a full-on couple of days that will take a while to digest but the message is still loud and clear that museums are working hard to be exceptionally creative even in such tough times.