We went virtual! Article for Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland magazine

‘I didn’t think you could, or should do it. I was wrong.’ Such was the strength of feeling in some quarters, that a virtual Rotary District Conference as a substitute for a face-to-face event was impossible or unwise. We were determined to show it could be done. I can’t say that it was easy to deliver – there was so much more work to carry out, new skills to learn, more back-up plans to address the ‘what-if’s, and the stress of the unknown. But we did it! being virtual, it reached a greater number of people than a traditional conference; it was truly outward-facing (after all, what is the point of having a conference to tell Rotarians what they already know about themselves and their great organisation?; and it came in under budget.

I was invited to write an article for the Rotary magazine for the country – here’s the online version of it. ‘Don’t let the flame of the Rotary conference fade.’ 

Don’t let the flame of the Rotary conference fade – Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland (rotarygbi.org)

Pictured is Eddie the Eagle, who was one of our key speakers. More to come about him and the other speakers – he was an absolute joy to work with, so professional and a lovely man to boot. And on the day, I had the honour of conducting the live Q and A sessions with the speakers – again, a greater challenge being virtual when you can’t see an audience’s body language to gauge when it’s time to wind up the session, but feedback in our evaluation post-event told us the sessions were well-received.