Julia Buckroyd 23rd June 2009
Getting ready for Julia’s lecture went something like this.
We met a couple of times to work out what we needed to do. The date was planned and we published the tickets on eventbrite. This was exciting for me as I had never seen an event from this very first stage before! Within a couple of hours there were tickets booked and e-mails were flooding into my inbox. This made it very exciting as every time I logged in to my inbox I seen the interest for Julia’s interview with all of the tickets flooding in.
I was helping with the online candidates. John and I decided it would be a good idea to be in touch with them in advance. I sent an e-mail out to advise everyone of the Octia website’s video, using this to check if their pc was ready to watch the live broadcast. There were a few responses from this but most, I take it, managed to get logged on. So as the days went by there were e-mails flooding into the mail box. There was a worry that everyone would be online and not anyone in the room. These fears went when I started to see tickets for the lecture theatre coming in.
John, Janette and I spent a couple of sessions brain storming. This came up with some good ideas for our business look. Janette set to work sourcing badges for us so we could be identifiable as a team. There were a few samples bought and decided on a Blue Lanyard. This felt very exciting!
A couple of trips to Staples also followed, thinking the shop assistants might think I’m planning to buy the whole shop! Deciding on badges to get for the delegates, pens, folders, display stands, labels, and card. It was all very well gathering all this equipment together, then it was time to get everything started.
I started to make up the delegate packs, Janette had put together research from Julia’s books. This went in the pack along with an agenda and delegate list, thinking of what to add, the pack was getting bigger and bigger. There was a Certificate also to be made, so this was completed and one printed for every delegate.
There were a couple of evenings spent at Centrex Conference Centre. Practicing the layout of the cameras and sound. Dad worked on getting this set up. We tested the computers and set up the cameras with them. We also had a photo session, getting our photos taken for our id cards.
More trips to staples and I was ready to complete the packs. Making the name badges, signing all the certificates, printing the agenda, attendee list, Julia’s information, information about onlinevents. Filling 40 packs takes longer than you think! Once the packs were ready they were all taken to Centrex on the Monday night. This made everything seem so real. We made sure everything was there ready for the next day.
Arriving on the Tuesday afternoon I noticed everything was ready to go. Laying out the packs for the delegates, setting up my pc. I was very excited to meet Julia. I listened in while John interviewed her for the website. I found this very interesting and only caught some of it as I had to get things organised. Laughing as is tried to creep up the stairs quietly so the noise was not captured on the video. Forgetting the camera was miles away from the stairs!!
All the team were in and we were ready for the attendees. A little surprised I must admit and excited when our first candidates arrived. Janette and myself underneath the banner trying to put it up but not managing very well!! Managing to get ourselves together we introduced ourselves and all rolled on from there. Fiona was there to greet all the guests and make them feel very welcome. Josh was a great help in placing the cameras and general organising (and tidying up) Dad had worked on setting out the cameras in the morning so it was just to be tweaked for the lecture. Martin was ready for his new role on the computer systems, I was excited about this as this was the first time we worked together.
As I was checking the chat room and finalising things with martin, I decided to pop out to the dining area to get something to eat, I couldn’t believe when I seen everyone milling about and all having a really good time. I couldn’t help but thinking “my goodness I have helped organised this and it is a great success!
As everyone gathered in the lecture theatre I could feel the excitement, and to be honest my nerves!! Martin and I set to get started as John introduced the evening. Dad beside us getting the cameras ready, what a team!!! The lecture was fantastic! I was listening online and answering a lot of enquires from online candidates. Some were not able to attend but letting me know which was nice, others were finding it difficult to watch the video so help and advice given to them, and others were enjoying the chat room facility. There were questions asked in the chat room and I was able to ask some of these to Julia.
After the lecture, we spent some time getting to know some of the candidates, and sharing experiences with the team and of course a little wine! Again I had a great feeling of accomplishment and excitement at what we as a team accomplished. There were great comments from everyone, at the conference and online as they all enjoyed the experience with us.
I am really looking forward to getting the next event organised!!
