Our hotels, restaurants and taxi firms will all have done well out of it. But, more importantly, it put Exeter on the map, yet again.
As well as all the world�s leading scientists on climate change, there were a large number of journalists from all round the globe.
Articles and reports appeared daily in many countries, with Exeter as the location and the Met Office building as the backdrop.
But, more importantly, still, it helped establish an international consensus on climate change.
Until recently some maverick scientists and some Governments were still questioning whether global warming was actually happening and, if so, whether human activity was to blame.
They reminded me of those �experts� in the 1990s who insisted there was no such thing as AIDS in Africa.
But the unanimous evidence presented to the Exeter conference was that climate change is happening, that is being caused by the increase in greenhouse gases and that we don�t have long to deal with it.
There is still a debate over whether some parts of the world (including our own) might actually benefit from warming. For the UK, that will depend on what happens to the Gulf Stream, which we depend on for our mild, temperate climate. If the Gulf Stream changes direction (and the likelihood of that was put at 50% at the Exeter conference) our climate could actually get much colder.
The consensus in Exeter was that, whatever the small localised benefits, the overall effect of such dramatic global warming over such a short period would be extremely serious. Sea level rise, loss of vegetation and biodiversity, the spread of disease and mass migration.
The good news is we can do something about it. And here in the South West we are particularly well placed to benefit from the development of clean energy from wind, waves and tide.
