Andrew Arbuckle: A polished lesson in how to stay ahead of the pack in austere times

IT WAS a seamless and polished performance and the facts and figures that rolled out were relentlessly positive. The graphics, the pie charts and the little notes that came in PowerPoint balloons all brought upbeat messages.

Turnover rose almost 5 per cent to 49.8 million and profit in what is not a profit-motivated company was also up with a surplus at the year end of 1.3m.

The organisation provided advice to more than 7,000 clients in the past 12 months; a rise of 1,000 over the 2005 figure.

Possibly the most startling image of the evening was the map of the UK showing where these customers operated. Despite being a Scottish-based organisation, its sphere of influence covers the whole of the UK.

Income from pure research also rose with more than 6m shown on the balance sheet; a fair proportion of which came from the Scottish Government.

By now, Bill McKelvey - chief executive of the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) - was enjoying his presentation of the annual report and he occasionally let a slight smile cross his normally quite stern demeanour.

For the press, being faced with this endless stream of positivity all this was difficult to handle. Our reputation, if not the reality, dictates that we must be questioning and curmudgeonly about life.

I looked around and yes, I was surrounded. I will not use the phrase "by the great and the good" as it infers a superiority, so I shall merely say that if the roof of the hotel caved in there would be a major loss within the Scottish academic community; there would possibly be a large acreage of land come on the market and there would be a bucketful of vacancies on myriad quangos.

And that started me thinking about the audience. McKelvey had remarked that the SAC was working with the three Scottish land based colleges - Barony , Elmwood and Oatridge - on a "holistic approach" to providing rural knowledge.

This, he mentioned, would involve offering students who wanted to go beyond the education on offer at the further education colleges the opportunity to go to SAC for a degree course.

He has always had a gleam in his eye about SAC having a leading role in this situation.And I saw various college chairmen and principals scattered in the audience.

I looked around again and saw the Moredun glitterati in force as well as representatives from the Royal Dick Vet School, with which SAC is a partner in a major new project building.

I then recognised a few university academics - their attendance might possibly be linked in with a joint development at Ayr, but possibly also because (though I am not sure if I am allowed to mention it) SAC is rumoured to have ambitions to become a university.

And there were several of the top civil servants present that chimed in well with the information that SAC was working with the Scottish Government on a number of major issues, including climate change.

By now, I wondered if I had stumbled across McKelvey's cunning plan, which must be to dominate the rural sector in Scotland. But then it might just be that he is an extremely shrewd operator.

He did, after all, latch onto the climate change agenda well ahead of the rest of the pack. He did, after all, realise that the advisory service south of the Border was not as functional and linked up as the SAC model. And, through forming partnerships with other organisations, he has just possibly produced a survival model if the economic cutbacks really bite.

And lest I am accused of being totally overcome by the general upbeat tone, can I just point out that the beef served up at the subsequent meal was rather dry.

There goes my invite to the SAC annual meeting next year…