...........................................................................
Kim
Morrissey's
Guide to
FESTIVAL
PLANNING
Our Time Bank Community
Which culture is friendship?
What colour is laughter?
We're one family
And we learn from each other.
-- Purple Poet "Babushka"
Safe Assumptions To Make about
Poets*
1. Poets rarely have any money.
2. If you move poets from A to B,
half end up at C
and the rest end up at D.
3. Poets like to talk to each other.
4. Poets find it almost impossible to make choices at
a Conference.
*poets, playwrights, fiction writers, biographers, journalists, artists,
musicians, academics etc.
FOR A CONFERENCE, IF POSSIBLE:
Offer Billets.
(ASS. 1).
Offer free or cheap accommodation.
(ASS. 1)
If possible, offer the accommodation in the same building or hotel
with all the other poets.
(ASS. 1,2,3)
Where-ever possible, combine the accommodation with the Conference Rooms,
so that if the poets get lost, they're still in the same building.
(ASS. 2)
Give every poet a name tag which attaches to them in some way, with the name,
address and phone number of their accommodation on the back of the name tag.
(ASS. 2)
Never include more than two events scheduled for the same time.
(ASS. 4) It is preferable to have only one event,
so poets don't have to make choices.
Leave time between events for people to talk/eat/etc.
(ASS. 3)
Leave time at the end of each evening for the party.
(ASS. 3)
If poets are travelling separately, arrange for someone to meet each poet
at the airport/train station/coach station and arrange to have someone take
the poet back to the airport/train station/coach station in time to get on
the plane/train/bus.
(ASS. 1 and 3).
You need five things for a successful afternoon:Poets, Food, Drink,
Wheel-chair Accessible Reading Spaces, Well-Kept Loos.
1. We are all poets. Ask everyone to sign your registration
book, and give everyone a name-tag, or a piece of paper to write their name,
so everyone feels welcome.
2. Offer free food and drinks for participants
throughout the Conference (a large fruit bowl costs very little). If you
are serving sandwiches or other unpackaged food, make certain you separate
the food so that different meats are not stacked together, and meats
are not mixed with vegarian options. Offer people fruit juices and water
as well as wine, and stock up on cups, so everyone who would like a drink,
can have one.
3. Check that your event is not being held during any religious
festival (for example Lent or Ramadan) and if it is, take the dietary
considerations of such festivals into account when planning food and
drink.
4. If the space isn't wheel-chair accessible, find another space.
5. Toilet facilities and accessibility issues are important to everyone.
Assign volunteers to check the toilet facilities, to be certain they are
acceptable, every half hour throughout the Conference (and stock up
on necessities such as soap, toilet paper, and paper towels, in case stocks
run out).
This is an educational site.
© resides with Kim Morrissey. All rights reserved.
For permission to use any of this material
please contact the West Euston
Time Bank.
poetry by the West Euston Purple
Poets |
