This week what have I learned? No matter what language you speak, "Force Majeure" is the same throughout the world.
Finally ZombieBall and Halloweekend have passed. It was a roaring success, yet left such a sweet and sour taste.
Sour you say, why? Well the one thing we didn't counter on being in Egypt and all... was the floods. Thursday 27th of October was, for us, a very, very sad day. Now it's passed I'm begining to feel very sad about it all.
Anyone that works in organisation and planning of events knows that you need to take the highs with the lows. There are normally some giant adrenaline highs pre and during the event, and then successful or not, a major low for the few days afterward. This time it's stuck with me a little longer than what I'd want it to. It doesn't help that my immune system's done it's favourite trick of shutting down on me too, but that's to be expected.
I moved out here in February to see my dreams and concepts come true (and yes, I'm well aware that life isn't THAT easy) but I never thought that post event I'd feel this low. I didn't expect our first event to literally fall apart by the rain. I'd imagined all sorts of scenarios... but the rain? seriously?! But really it's not even the normal time of year IF the floods were to come!
In the scheme of things, Team Submerged got away lightly. Our event nearly was trashed by the fact that most visitors, even from Hurghada couldn't make it down on the roads. They closed off the main road from Cairo, Ras Gharib just 150km away from El Gouna and unfortuntely that really affected everything that we did.
Our poor sponsors and artists took over thirty hours to do a normal five hour trek. Within that time they experienced Mother Nature at full fury; flash floods, camping on top of petrol stations whilst watching people swimming through the mud and seeing others lose thier dear possessions, whether it be thier car or thier home, or worse, thier lives.
Don't get me wrong...we made it through and put on a damn good event. Everyone rallied around each other and helped. It was mental. Our massive set up was put up within 9 hours instead of the planned 48! We worked overtime to ensure that once the doors opened, everything was rightly where it should be.
It went ahead, and yes, ok, we didn't quite get where we wanted to be. I'll be the first to admit that. However we made exactly the impact that we wanted. It proved exactly what I wanted to show. There were so many positives to come away with... the crowds that did make it absolutely loved the design, the party and the concept and had a fantastic night. That's the bit that keeps me very happy despite the sadness.
What I did learn was that working with hundreds of children the day after a large adult's event is... interesting. An hour's sleep after three days of hell only to try and organise 350+ kids on a beach, plus all of thier parents was a success, but not without a few "head in hands" moments. Part of the day was ruined by the post-flood experience so once again it was a rush around to get everything done on top of the groundwork needed within the actual event.
We have a few post-wash up plans on how to improve next year, but for now I feel the need for a little headspace before diving into the next planning. I'm totally lying... I'm already on to the next one as I write!
All I can say is that last weekend we showed what we were made of and then some. If those are the odds that life want to throw against us and we can come out the other end smiling and at least slightly successful... bring it on! (Yes, I know I'm tempting fate with that statement.) I work in a great team, with amazing people from both the location, local companies and community all round. I cannot thank many enough for pulling out all the stops on what was one crazy weekend.
I'm so proud to have done what I've done, I don't regret a single moment. Leaving the UK was the right choice, and I'm even luckier that I get to work with my partner in business and personal life and I wouldn't change it for the world.
In the meantime I'm sparing my thoughts to those poor people in Ras Gharib and further afield. Life can suck, bigtime.
Finally ZombieBall and Halloweekend have passed. It was a roaring success, yet left such a sweet and sour taste.
Sour you say, why? Well the one thing we didn't counter on being in Egypt and all... was the floods. Thursday 27th of October was, for us, a very, very sad day. Now it's passed I'm begining to feel very sad about it all.
Anyone that works in organisation and planning of events knows that you need to take the highs with the lows. There are normally some giant adrenaline highs pre and during the event, and then successful or not, a major low for the few days afterward. This time it's stuck with me a little longer than what I'd want it to. It doesn't help that my immune system's done it's favourite trick of shutting down on me too, but that's to be expected.
I moved out here in February to see my dreams and concepts come true (and yes, I'm well aware that life isn't THAT easy) but I never thought that post event I'd feel this low. I didn't expect our first event to literally fall apart by the rain. I'd imagined all sorts of scenarios... but the rain? seriously?! But really it's not even the normal time of year IF the floods were to come!
In the scheme of things, Team Submerged got away lightly. Our event nearly was trashed by the fact that most visitors, even from Hurghada couldn't make it down on the roads. They closed off the main road from Cairo, Ras Gharib just 150km away from El Gouna and unfortuntely that really affected everything that we did.
Our poor sponsors and artists took over thirty hours to do a normal five hour trek. Within that time they experienced Mother Nature at full fury; flash floods, camping on top of petrol stations whilst watching people swimming through the mud and seeing others lose thier dear possessions, whether it be thier car or thier home, or worse, thier lives.
Don't get me wrong...we made it through and put on a damn good event. Everyone rallied around each other and helped. It was mental. Our massive set up was put up within 9 hours instead of the planned 48! We worked overtime to ensure that once the doors opened, everything was rightly where it should be.
It went ahead, and yes, ok, we didn't quite get where we wanted to be. I'll be the first to admit that. However we made exactly the impact that we wanted. It proved exactly what I wanted to show. There were so many positives to come away with... the crowds that did make it absolutely loved the design, the party and the concept and had a fantastic night. That's the bit that keeps me very happy despite the sadness.
What I did learn was that working with hundreds of children the day after a large adult's event is... interesting. An hour's sleep after three days of hell only to try and organise 350+ kids on a beach, plus all of thier parents was a success, but not without a few "head in hands" moments. Part of the day was ruined by the post-flood experience so once again it was a rush around to get everything done on top of the groundwork needed within the actual event.
We have a few post-wash up plans on how to improve next year, but for now I feel the need for a little headspace before diving into the next planning. I'm totally lying... I'm already on to the next one as I write!All I can say is that last weekend we showed what we were made of and then some. If those are the odds that life want to throw against us and we can come out the other end smiling and at least slightly successful... bring it on! (Yes, I know I'm tempting fate with that statement.) I work in a great team, with amazing people from both the location, local companies and community all round. I cannot thank many enough for pulling out all the stops on what was one crazy weekend.
I'm so proud to have done what I've done, I don't regret a single moment. Leaving the UK was the right choice, and I'm even luckier that I get to work with my partner in business and personal life and I wouldn't change it for the world.
In the meantime I'm sparing my thoughts to those poor people in Ras Gharib and further afield. Life can suck, bigtime.
