The year 2022 has started on a high; I have just delivered a full weekend of in-person, face-to-face training. That equates to more in-person hours than the past 22 months and it felt amazing to be back ‘in the room’. 

Just like the rest of the world, my life has relied on the internet to keep me connected for work, rest and play since March 2020 and I adapted quickly and with ease; I love tech (which is why my book is all about the topic). However, I also love being around people and especially love the energy I get from being in a courseroom with real humans. 

The weekend training was in my volunteer role with Girlguiding and the team I worked with have spent the past 2 months developing a bespoke package of sessions for the county we were working with. The planning process has been creative, insightful and I loved connecting with the other trainers (virtually) to design the event. 

Of course, the real joy was at the event itself, seeing the hard work come to fruition and actually working alongside my co-trainers and the willing and enthusiastic volunteers who came along to learn and develop together. 

We deliberately had lots of flexibility across the weekend so we could respond to the evolving needs of the participants and I enjoyed the collaborative way the event shifted and developed to ensure we were meeting the needs of the participants and responding to their questions as we went along. It was a real thrill. 

Ahead of the event we had all created plans, developed resources, and a Padlet (an online storage platform) had been set up to share all of that with the participants; risk assessments had been reviewed.

The day before we were due to travel, I awoke from a dream where I was risk assessing an activity I was leading on the first evening and had decided it was not suitable for ‘COVID’ times, so, I had also dreamt up a replacement activity. I kid you not!

I emailed the training team with my dream idea and we all agreed to go with the new activity.

That sort of thing has not happened whilst I’ve been working remotely, not once. It got me very excited and raised my energy levels even further (can you imagine!?). What’s more, the activity went down a storm and set us up for a weekend of fun and a sense of belonging. 

I’m going to save the reveal of what the activity was for another time!

Towards the end of the weekend someone said to me ‘your energy just doesn’t ever stop’. I had high levels of energy all weekend (except by the end of ‘Taskmaster’ on Saturday and I was ready for my bed). 

But here is a secret for you…I’m having a quiet week now to recover…it was exhausting but also, joyful and rewarding. I can’t wait for the next one.