12 September 2021 - In person events - London Admins - we're back!

On the 19th August 2021 I left my home and ventured onto the train into central London. 18 months ago this was almost a daily ritual, something that I didn't really have to think about. I would get up, get ready and go into work. After work I would regularly meet friends in a social setting, and quite often that would mean a Salesforce Community event of sorts. And then our worlds changed with Covid and with that our work and social activities moved into a virtual space. 

They say that forming a new habit can take only 21 days to stick. 18 months is a long time to change habits and our routines are firmly different now. But on the 19th August we took a step back into old familiar territory, an in-person London Admins meeting. 

I had forgotten how much planning is needed for an in-person event and the risks involved. We have got used to only thinking of a date, finding a speaker or two, then communicating it out and hoping that people would login to Zoom to join us on the night. An in-person event is so much more involved, especially now too. Fortunately, there are potential sponsors proactively contacting us, wanting to help - which is lovely and very encouraging. Sponsor sorted, next comes venue. Some sponsors have their own locations which is handy, especially if there are last minute changes that we need to abide by. We have to work closely with Facilities Teams to ensure that we follow any special guidelines in these 'living with Covid days', with considerations to numbers of people allowed on site, mask wearing, sanitising stations, and how food and drink can be supplied safely.

For our first event back for an in-person format we had to consider all these elements and our sponsor and host, OwnBackup was fantastic. Next, we had to think about our content for the evening. We consider the fact that we hadn't seen each other for so long that we didn't want it to be a standard gathering of presentations - we know we can do that easily in a virtual format. We wanted instead to encourage our members to engage with each other and mingle. 

We also wanted our members to feel safe. We have all gone on our own journeys with Covid and have feelings towards our own person space. We decided to come up with a simple traffic light system using stickers. Everyone was asked to pick a coloured sticker: 

Red = I was never a hugger and I'm not starting now

Amber = I'll initiate any hugging

Green = Hugs all round

Black = It's been too long, let's get a room!

Everything planned, let the evening begin! It was so fantastic to have everyone in the same room together. I did mention, if this was a bit strange and they were missing not seeing their own faces for them to pick up their phone and use their selfie camera for comfort. 

We got the audience mingling with our first game of Lockdown Bingo. We asked everyone to chat and find out what people had been doing over the 18 months; anything from gardening, passing certs to getting a pet, while adding a different name against an activity, with some completing the whole board. Well, our Admins are a chatty bunch!

The next game was a collaborative exercise, asking people to get into teams and come up with a design for a new mascot for Slack. We let the creative juices flow, along with the drink and top up of food (nicely delivered as packed lunches and single serve drinks), to see what inspiration took. Afterwards, we gathered the teams for presentation playbacks and picked a winner. 'Our Sammy' was chosen but as you can see from the pic below, each team made a great effort to come up with a worthy mascot.

Formal proceedings completed, some of us headed to the after show party pub for congratulatory drinks on a successful evening had and time for more chatting and hugs.

The LAUG in-person event gave us an opportunity to get together again. We had missed each other. Yes, we continued to have meetings every month, but in a virtual format. We were there for each other to talk about our experiences of how our work and social lives seemed to be never ending screen time. We now crave human interaction. Our senses need to be stimulated and screen time is just too monotonous. In-person events where we can gather are so important. They feed our soul. For now, LAUG will continue to host in-person events and we are already busy planning September, October and November meetings. We missed everyone and loved getting back together again.

Hope to see you at one of our events in the future. Sign up, show up, select your sticker and join in.