Patrick’s Musings

I’m on the train home from Powershift at UWS. I was up at 6am and left the house by 6.30 to setup the EWB stall not to bad an effort considering everything except the tables and chairs was taken onsite by me by train.

A huge thanks to Sophie from the AYCC who has received numerous txts, emails & calls from me in the last couple of days after I decided to attend at the last minute for Engineers Without Borders.

The keynotes were fantastic, if a little cultish, and it was a shame that some activists couldn’t let Nathan Rees have his say in peace. From 11.30 to 3.30 I manned the EWB stall with the help of a number of EWB volunteers, the interest was greater than I expected and we had a lot of interesting discussions and got a few new members and people for our mailing lists. Overall the time was well spent, though I feel a little more structure may have been better.

From 3.30 to 4.30 I was in the “Communicating the Climate Change Message” breakout, the discussion was good, but not long enough, only a few questions were asked. I think 2 hours per breakout might have worked better.

I then traipsed off to room 2.02 to hear Keillen from Greenpeace talk “Media Engagement”. After 15 minutes waiting I left. Advised the AYCC team at the front desk that our facilitator hadn’t shown and headed for a bus/taxi home. I didn’t have the good to walk up two flights of steps again.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow, and even more to future events, when AYCC can apply what it learns this weekend and hopefully hold many more successful events.