Summertime
“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy, Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high, Oh, your daddy’s rich and your ma is good-lookin, So hush, little baby, don’t you cry..”
With just 117 days until Christmas Day (!), the need to inject some sunshine into this blog is very Important! To mis-quote Ella Fitzgerald, this month’s blog title should read Summertime, and the livin’ is quite hard!
Another new learning in this journey is that August really is a holiday month. You will be asking me if I live under a rock, I know. For me, I’ve always enjoyed August working. I don’t have kids, it’s quieter, it’s easier to commute and the cost of a trip away from the UK during this time is super expensive. This month I have had a wonderful project to work on for MPI (Meeting Professionals International) which involves interviewing some amazing European women leaders. But I forgot that it is summer everywhere else except this sceptered isle I currently live on! My lesson learned is to understand the cultures of the varied client base you have, and work within their parameters, not yours!
Whilst having a few hours spare this month, this has enabled me to do is improve my tennis, spend time with my parents, good friends and get prepared for all the conferences I am working at over the coming months. Life is good 😊
Mental Health Awareness
With the #eventwell19 campaign just around the corner, it is important that all of us have a focus on our health and mental wellbeing. This month, I learnt the sad news that an old school friend took his life. Many of us remembered him on the outside to be a super happy person always with a smile on his face. I ask us all to remember that the outside can so often not reflect what is happening on the inside. Take a little time when you return from your vacation, or when you are in the office to check in on colleagues, call and say hi to friends you haven’t heard from for a while and of course, remember family. For any support or advice check out https://eventwell.org and this month (September) why not attend Venues & Events Show in London on September 18/19th. Both days are set to be great and their content programme on Thursday is jam packed with interesting well-being seminars including a not to be missed session by Richie Bostock, aka the Breath Guy
Innovation in Events – What are you trying that is new?
#ConventaCrossover – Ljubljana, Slovenia
My first moderation of the new season has just finished. 2 days of moderating Conventa Crossover, in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Thanks to Masters in Moderation who have me as part of their agency of great moderators (😊), I have had the opportunity to work with Gorazd, Natalija and their amazing team at Toleranca Marketing as well as the incredible hospitality and welcome from Miha Kovacic and the team at the Slovenian Convention Bureau this has been a really memorable event.
If you are in the business events world, this is an experience you should read about and engage in next year. There are some incredibly creative agencies, corporates and suppliers throughout this part of Europe. I got to MC the awards ceremony of the Conventa Best Event Awards where we saw some great examples of this regions creative and business solutions and experiences. It was exciting to see that a finalist was the European Meetings & Events Conference 2019 With tough competition, it was a joy to see Gijs Verbeek pick up 2nd place in the B2C Category. This was my first job as Samme Allen MC, back in February and I feel very proud of the MPI Netherlands team for their incredible achievement.
#ConventaCrossover is a sandbox experience featuring innovative design concepts, which challenges a moderator. Something I really enjoyed! The feedback from the participants appears to be positive and I look forward to sharing some testimonials from the event. Do check out their social media feed or mine for some highlights including beekeeping on the roof of the Congress Centre in central Ljubljana and participants throwing snowballs at me, in August!
Check out my short video!
https://www.magisto.com/video/NFUdO1obFz4oRxZgCzE?l=vsm&o=w&c=c
My first….
Podcast 🙂 Although I have been in the EventLab New Digest Team, podding every 2 weeks for the last year so you could quite easily say this isn’t my first podcast. 😊
However, in this episode, I was interviewed by the lovely George Barker about great tips for getting the most out of your emcee or moderator and enhancing the experience for your guests. It was lovely to sit in the “comfortable” chair in the recording studio and I felt quite nervous. Click on the link above and have a listen. The EventLab podcasts are really interesting, diverse and I thoroughly recommend subscribing here.
With 117 days until Christmas Day, how is Samme Allen filling the time?
As you would imagine, as the conference season ramps up its gears, so does the diary of Samme Allen MC-Facilitator-Moderator. We will have lots to chat about next month! I’m looking forward to an event every week to keep me out of trouble. 😊
If you are interested in the future of events, come and join me in Bruges at the Travel to Tomorrow conference where the future of sustainable tourism, flourishing destinations and building a thriving industry will all be discussed. The week of the conference is also my birthday and I hope we will be celebrating with a Belgian chocolate or 2. Next in the calendar is Venues & Events (read above) and lastly but certainly not least, I’m chief designer and facilitator of 3 workshops x 350 people (yes, 3 workshops of 350 people a workshop..) at a corporate event in the Midlands. Then we are back to Belgium (twice) Serbia (maybe) and London, all before November! Well-being will be playing a big part in being able to deliver for my clients so first, I am taking a vacation. I will be off the grid the first week of September re-charging the batteries and enjoying some rest and relaxation with friends and family.
My final thought for this month’s blog is my out of office quote from Confucius.
“Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life”
Every day I wake up and am so grateful for the wonderful clients I have, great events that are being designed and innovated and participants who are engaging, learning and developing. What’s not to love?
What have you in store in September? I’d love to hear where you are, what you are up to and any comments on my blog.
Be Happy,
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