At the midpoint of my musings, we go way back. Returning to International Headquarters last week after my leaving lunch (salmon fishcake, poached egg, frites, pea shoots and tartare sauce, rounded off with a crème brûlée, since you ask), I had a chance encounter with Charles Durman, who reminded me of our time at The Salvation Army United Kingdom and Ireland Territory.

Part of my remit there from 2003-2009 was to look after a few hundred largely volunteer web authors. Charles was one of these. The idea was that every part of The Salvation Army – geographically and functionally – would be able to add updates to a single website that in time would become the hub of all things national and local.

And so it came to pass that I devised a half-day training module that could cover the basics of using the content management system and also cover some key digital communications principles. I held this at least once a month in the IT training suite at the office, but also regularly took the training out and about, liaising with regional communications colleagues (such as Ann Stewart and Adrian Prior-Sankey) to gather together trainees in locations the length and breadth of the British Isles.

This was always quite hairy – one could never be 100% sure who would turn up, whether the internet would cooperate and quite what the spectrum of experience might be at any one place. But as Charles will hopefully attest, they were invariably convivial, illuminating and fun. And, as much as the training itself, it was the genesis of building a trusted network of go-to people who could be relied upon to be eyes and ears (and, occasionally, mouth!) when things went wrong.

The regional training took me all over the place, from the esoteric delights of Hatfield Peverel to Perth in the Scottish Highlands. My final such workshop in May 2009 took place in Douglas on the Isle of Man (there, we got to the point eventually), which is an independent island in the Irish Sea and not part of the UK. As well as being my final web training workshop, it was also notable as being the only time I have accessed a work location via horse-drawn tram. I seem to recall that the internet connection was similarly Victorian, but the delegates (and trainer) made it through intact in the end.