Notes on week 28 of 2024


3 things this week: 


Preamble 

“Hello darkness weeknotes my old friend, 

I've come to talk with you again,  

Because a vision softly creeping, 

Left its seeds while I was sleeping, 

And the vision that was planted in my brain, 

Still remains, within the sound of silence.” 


Opening lyrics from The Sound of Silence by Paul Simon recorded 10 March 1964. 



Thursday evening I sat outside, in the Summer Sun, listening to the Sounds of Solitude by Paz Sounds. 


As I watched insects dance in sunbeams, Paz’s ethereal sounds chilled me out. 


And girl, did I need it. 


After 3 full days of community profession related stuff, I was done. 


Let me lay it out for you. 



Monday 

Can’t remember. Next!



Tuesday 

A meetup at Fabrik (Old Street, London) entitled Community-led World Summit: The Previa Meetup in London. 


Basically, an unstructured pre-meet for the following day’s all-day meeting. Lots of people and noise in an enclosed space. Grabbed a desk and put my headphones on (I'm autistic). Did interact a bit, but knew when to take a break. Mostly. 


Pizza for lunch.



Wednesday 

A conference at Rich Mix (Shoreditch, London) entitled Community-led World Summit: London & Online. 


I offered to help run this a few weeks ago. It’s a speaker-led event, as opposed to the participant-led stuff I normally do. So it was a good learning opportunity. I managed the speakers and their slides, sorting out their speaking slots and collecting slide decks / initial post-talk questions. 


Fascinating to see the other side work. 


So I arrived at the venue at 8am and helped bag the merch. Then moved on to setting the stage up and check-in with the hostess / emcee + the filming / technical crew. 


Before each talk, I’d pop backstage and check with the speaker(s) about timings / questions. Then walk out and sit in the front row with a countdown timer, to keep people on track. 


When there were panels or fireside chats, I’d move furniture onto the stage. The photographer helped me with the sofa. Plus put some water next to each seat. 


There were some challenges.  


The radio lapel mic had a mute switch, which some speakers would activate. So the next speaker couldn’t be heard by the online audience. 


Mid talk, 1 of the handheld mics went dead, requiring a tech crew person to run to the stage and change the batteries. 


Mid another talk, a 10% battery warning popped up on screen, covering a speaker's slides and disabling their handheld clicker for the slides. I calmly got up, walked to the tech crew’s box and showed them how to plug the power in. Tech support, ftw. 


Stage lighting was suboptimal. Slides would be shining in people’s faces, occasionally with comedic effect. When speakers stood to the side, out of range of the projector, the tech crew rarely activated the necessary spotlights. Need an "x marks the spot" for standing speakers next time.  


Communication with the hostess / emcee was challenging, sometimes. We used WhatsApp, but I guess there were signal issues backstage in the green room. So occasionally a talk / panel would come to an end, and I’d have to get up and run the Q&A with the audience. No hassle, as I love running about serving people. 


At lunch there was a massive queue for sandwiches, blocking access to fire escapes. So I moved the queue into a snake formation by the tables with the food. Would have helped if the tables where in the middle of the room, rather than against a wall. I suggested to the lead organiser we move them, but it would have been tricky. 


There was more, but that’s enough. 


Basically I enjoyed it and learnt a lot. 


There was an after party, but I needed to escape and cycle home. Again, I'm neurodiverse. Maybe a silent disco next time? 



Thursday 

An event back at Fabrik, entitled Connection: The Community Community Unconference.


Which was almost perfect, IMHO. 


My co-host was comfortable with change, so we got on great. The number and type of attendee was perfect. The space was perfect. Just the cheap sticky notes initially let us down, but we soon came up with a workaround. 

Sticky notes and paper arranged in a grid on the front of some square-doored lockers. The column headers are times, the row headers are spaces. Each cell in the grid contains a piece of A4 paper to which a group of handwritten sticky notes are stuck.

Unconference grid of all the talks.

We all walked to Whitecross street market for lunch on a beautiful, sunny day. Came back to the venue and ate / nattered. 


Then had more discussions, followed by a really lovely wrap-up where people shared how they felt and anything they wanted to plug. 


It was as close to perfect an unconference I’ve ever done. 


Very happy (-: 


Cycled home, slowly, stopping to listen to 1 of the attendee’s music (see Preamble above). 



Friday 

Back at Fabrik co-working space, where I’m a member. 


I have a Civil Service interview on Monday at 11am. Thanks to being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, bipolar and dyslexia, I can apply under the Disability Confident Scheme and request reasonable adjustments. 


Which I did weeks ago. 


But my request hadn't been done by 11am today, as requested. So I sent a "disappointed / suboptimal process" email to the recruitment team and asked them to reschedule it. 


To relax, I had a lovely walk and lunch / natter with a fellow member. 


Then did some stuff and typed these notes, thanks to Agile in the Ether’s blog club. 


Radio 4’s PM programme starts in 10 mins, so I’ll pack up and walk home listening to it. 



In summary: