Megan Quinn talk and film showing
In a mini coup Transition Town Market Harborough managed to secure the services of Megan Quinn while she was in the country to come to our town and show her film and do a talk for us on the subject of ‘Peak Oil’.
This was our first event and so we were a little apprehensive to see how comfortable Market Harborough would welcome our efforts. Posters were distributed around the town and we were very please to gain permission to have our posters put up in the Farndon fields farm shop and the Co-Op.
The Harborough Mail placed two articles upon their pages to help promote the event, HFM listed the event in the community events and in a couple of extra items along with an interview on the day with Megan. BBC radio Leicester also took a sound byte off us and played that for the week prior to the event so our media coverage was pretty exhaustive.
The group initially booked the Octagonal hall as the preferred venue in the hope that the ticket take up would be large, feedback was minimal so we switched to the ‘Community lounge’ which meant that we did not require to hire an AV pack for projection, a saving of £300+
On the day we set the venue up at 6pm and was ready in plenty of time ready for the anxious wait from 7 until 7.30PM to see how many people attended the event. A steady trickle entered the room including some familiar faces from ‘Transition Leicester’ and ‘Sustainable Billesdon’ and many more that were new to us. In total I think we had 40 attend the event.
Megans speech was well received and the film was very much enjoyed by the audience, The ‘Harborough Mail’ turned up to video the Q&A session on the film before we stopped for a refreshments break where Marion turner asked the audience to consider what they could do as individuals and also what could be done as a community.
No one left in the break apart from Chris Sewart who had to leave, but from our brief conversation before he left it was obvious that he felt uplifted and enthused by the experience. A 30 minute discussion on the issues raised ensued facilitated by Marion and myself before we wrapped up the event at 9:30PM.
Congratulations must go to Mark Baverstock for MC’ing the evening and keeping a tight schedule on track, also thanks must be given to Marion for her input to the event not forgetting Marks wife, Gillian, and children as well as Lydya who manned the refreshments station with a most professional manner and took the entrance money.
The atmosphere of the event was wonderful and a sure sign that there will be plenty more successful Transition events on the horizon. The group still however made a small loss on the event which will have to come out of our own pockets but we are overall very satisfied with the event.
Lastly many thanks to Kirby & West who donated the milk for the event (glass reusable organic semi skimmed) and to Sainsbury’s who donated a jar of Fairtrade coffee and a box of tea bags. Leicester First Aid Team who had attended the event on the understanding that a donation would be made were so impressed that they donated their attendance for free, thank you to you guys... Conrad and Wilf.
Darren