Last weekend was the very first PlannerCon Europe event. It was quite an event, I'm writing this on Wednesday afternoon and I'm still recovering from it and re-living it in my head!
My weekend started early on Friday morning with a drive south to Poitiers to catch a TGV to Paris, that all ran smoothly and the train was on time. Having done the journey several times across Paris I know it fairly well. I had a short wait at Gare du Nord for my Thalyes train to Brussels Midi. Once I got there I negotiated the Brussels Metro underground to get to the event venue to help the crew get the place ready for the conference on the Friday.
Each of the crew had also been assigned two or three of the vendors to look after over the weekend. I was assigned Van der Spek and DodoPad, as I knew the people well in both companies, this made a lot of sense. They arrived later in the afternoon and we got their vans/cars unpacked and in to the hall in reasonable time with the help of a team of volunteers.
I was also allocated the 'Tech Man' job to make sure all the radio mics and presentation tools worked. The resident staff at Square were very helpful showing me where everything was and they could get every thing all set up between talks/workshops very quickly, so it all ran smoothly without any hitches.
All the crew were issued with red hoodie jackets so we could easily be spotted amongst the crowd!
We left the venue at about 6pm with a few things left to finish in the morning. But our priority was to get checked in at the hotel. I wanted to get unpacked and showered before going out for working dinner in the evening with the rest of the crew. Mella said 'Bring your planner' so I did! We discussed some last minute details like how do you get 300+ people registered with the minimum of fuss!
As people came in they were given their 'goodie bags' they also included vouchers to collect other items from particular sellers in the main hall as well.
The contents look something like this:
Both days were full of talks and workshops you can see the
full programme here.
My own talk was the first on the Saturday about 'Choosing or Designing the Perfect Planner' My talk went well and was well received.
I hope to be able to make it available soon with a recorded voice track. It won't be exactly as given, but hopefully the same essence of the talk will be there along with the slides.
I also got to meet a lot of people in the planning community over the two days, some for the first time some I've met before. It was a wonderful experience being able to sit down and talk 'Planner' with someone or just sit and let them ask me questions.
I got asked some questions about rings and did a ring swap for Christina!
On the Sunday morning just before the raffle, Katie (one of the crew members) who in real life is a freelance music teacher had written a planner song, which she taught everyone to sing, it was so funny and quite up-lifting to see everyone joining in!
You can watch the two videos I did on the Philofaxy You Tube channel. Here is the
rehearsal and the
full song.
After the song the raffle was held. Everyone had a ticket included in their entry and the prizes were numerous and varied from Gillio planners, to unreleased prototype Filofax organisers (including a green Malden) to vouchers and all sorts of other goodies. We had a great team of volunteers helping to check the tickets and distribute the prizes in very quick succession. Full marks to those people for organising themselves so well.
I really enjoyed introducing the people doing their workshops and presentations. Helping out with the Q&A's afterwards and making sure things ran to time as closely as possible as well.
Julia Langhein from Filofax UK gave an excellent talk on the 'Perception and Reality' about how people Perceive that Filofax organisers are no longer in use, versus the reality that they are selling more now than they ever did.
Julia explained how the brand had changed in recent years and went in to the details on how new products are developed and tested. How they trial and select leathers for texture and colour.
We even got a glimpse of some new as yet not announced products.... The Questions and Answers session could have gone on for another hour on this talk, it was so interesting. I think Julia enjoyed giving the presentation to such an enthusiastic audience as we did listening.
The shopping area was very spacious and well lit. The hall was laid out with the trade stands around the outside with lots of tables for people to sit at in the middle.
The event drew to a close late on Sunday afternoon. The team helped the vendors get packed up and their things moved out of the hall in good time.
I eventually got back to the hotel to freshen up before joining some of the people that had attended the conference for a very enjoyable evening chatting about the event and planning in general.
It was an incredible experience, the whole weekend. Putting that experience in to words is not easy. But it has left me with a lot of happy memories.
I would like to thank Mella and her husband Lukas, my fellow team members Liselotte, Katie, Marie-Helene and Wendy. We all worked hard, but we had a lot of fun too.
And now to look forward to the next one... watch this space for announcements.
Some news hot off the press:
MARK YOUR PLANNERS. 
