Saturday, September 27, 2014

Singapore Dream Project Workshop 2014

Some interesting lessons from this experience 

Firstly, the opportunity came when I learned my friend Catherine Lim from my Bukit Brown connection was giving a talk on "women of the straits settlements". Catherine had previously seen me doing GR scribing for the Bukit Brown advocacy community. I asked her to ask the Organisers to let me do GR for her.

I registered for the event (Eventbrite) and found there were 18 items 10 minutes each, on the agenda!
I received a very positive email response from the organisers, and asked if I could bring in a team of co-recorders: Affirmative response soon came.

The team of Lim, Lim and Lim was soon assembled.


I decided to use A0 foam core board for the recording: I got the metal tripod and extended the central holder in case I was going to record in portrait mode. I was worried about the toothyness of the paper surfaced foam core board, so bought three sets of quick and nasty sharpie type permanent markers,.

At 5 am, 9 hours before the event started I decided to staple a flip chart onto each of the 18 foam core boards. I was planning to stack recorded boards as a triangular tower.

(To add to my fun I had a Sketchwalk urban Sketchers event 9 am -12:30pm in the vicinity)

Sketching done, I joined my team at 1 pm at Theatreworks.
We prepped our boards and assigned the tasks equally, 6 sessions each.

We used blue tack to fasten three boards on the wall at eye level.
The blue tack held for some but gave way for others. 
We continues to record on the tripod.
The scribe continued finishing touches with board on our knees 
while next scribe readied next board on the tripod.
We peeled off completed sheets and blue tacked them on the wall.
Without the foam core board the flipcharts stayed blue tacked to the wall.

10 minutes per session was quite fast: 
Some sessions were content light and a breeze to do.
A few sessions were content dense and one even rambling!

Participants and audience liked our work and many came to take photos,

Calling cards were exchanged and potential gigs are in the offing!

LESSONS LEARNED
Team work is invaluable
Expect the unexpected 
Adapt and adjust.
Probono work has its rerwards!
And thanks to Bernie for portrait lessons the evening before!
























1 comment: