As I sit down this morning back at my desk for the first time in a week since I left home to head down to the Gold Coast to assist in delivering BILT ANZ, I am overwhelmed by the posts of happiness from the community that presented, sponsored, or attended the event. I personally can’t believe we made it, and more importantly to the outside world, apart from the usual minor issues any event has, the attendee experience was in line or better than any other previous BILT event.
I normally like to write about the public experience of the event, but this time I thought I would share a more personal journey. Primarily for me to place down as a signpost to myself, but also for the community to understand how we all experience things differently.
This event was my tenth event. Only one of those ten has been on the attendee/presenter side. For the other nine, I have been involved on the committee, six as part of the local ANZ committee, and three as an international committee member. Ironically this event for me personally and the rest of the team has been one of the hardest events we have had to deliver. Which for us and the community is hard to understand when the team has delivered so many successful events in the past.
Being on the committee is a volunteer role, we don’t get paid to do what we do. Maybe we are crazy because honestly, it would be economically cheaper to purchase my ticket as a delegate and pay for travel and accommodation, compared to the time that we donate to this cause. But it is my passion (along with my other committee members) for building and maintaining this community that keeps me coming back.
The committee this year have gone over and above what we signed up for to keep the community together. Adam Sheather, Ceilidh Higgins, Chris Needham, Clay Hickling, and Melanie Tristram, I have to say we thought we were family before this event, the challenges, and the uphill battle we faced together on this one, have taken it to a whole new level. Almost like going to war together we held strong and worked as a team to cover each other and support each other as challenge after challenge was presented to us. All the while our businesses and jobs were taking the backseat.
Our final PCO Expertise Events, and the work of their team, led by Gary, prevented catastrophic failure, and without their incredible amount of work, there would have been no event.
One would wonder why I am so emotional when an event was a success! Success has so many different measures, and when the volunteer committee takes so many hits, is it really a success? The next couple of months will provide a great break for the committee and hopefully, we will be all back to deliver another event in the future.
Watch my Vlog from the event here
