This is what I like

Those that know me will tell you I like events. Big events, small events, charity events, tourist events and festivals - I’ve volunteered and worked at a number of them.

I have an extensive collection of t-shirts and lanyards from events like the Cat Laughs International Comedy Festival (3 years), the 2010 Cork International Choral Festival, St Patrick’s Festival (7 years), The Street Performance World Championship (3 years), the Dublin Writers Festival (3 years), The Guinness Cork Jazz Festival 2009, Arthur’s Day 2009, the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival (2 years), the Carlsberg Comedy Carnival 2009, the Cinemagic Festival (2 years), the Darklight Film Festival (3 years), the Festival of World Cultures (2008), the first Shine Unconference for Social Entrepreneurs in London 2008, the first Irish Discworld Convention 2009 and there’s possibly one or three more.

I enjoy events. I enjoy volunteering, meeting people, helping them with everything and anything from directions to language difficulties. The opportunity to inform, entertain and make someone’s experience of something that bit better has always been something I’ve tried to be good at and continually improve on. I’ve been getting involved since I moved to Dublin in 1997.

More recently, thanks to both the blogging and the twitter addiction, and through no small part in having a content influence on Boards.ie, I’ve expanded my help to “promoting” online - advising on websites, helping get blogs and twitter accounts set up, the admin of Facebook pages right down to just sticking up a blog post or sending a tweet letting people know about events they might be interested in. It’s something I enjoy doing too.

It was at the Chain Reaction event in London in 2008 where I first saw the benefits of covering live - I went, lanyard in hand and Flip Camera in pocket to interview entrepreneurs, business people, media people and more, and then was able to upload and have that content linking from the site and live blog in moments. It’s something I did for the SPWC last year as well and continue to do now.

It’s become a regular feature of my volunteering now - to ask if I can help with online promotion. I’ll stick up a YouTube video, send out a tweet or (when I blogged regularly) blog about it. I assume that it helps events, especially those with little or no budgets, because they tend to invite me back. I take that to mean they were happy with what I’ve done.

Not that I’m saying that throwing up a blog post - or a press release from the PR company - or sending out a tweet can be considered “volunteering” either - there’s far more to it than that. What I won’t do is “charge” for the content I generate but count it as a contribution towards repayment of the experiences I have. You’re as likely to see me with a map showing people where to go as a camera uploading photos to Pix.ie these days. Nor is it the same for every event - what works on one doesn’t always work on another.

I’ve been lucky - the Guinness Jazz Festival invited me down to Cork last year and paid for my accommodation. I’ve gotten many free tickets and invitations to event launches. I’ve been given exclusive access, footage and more. I’ve been offered many of the same perks as journalists have gotten, and often more. I always try to look for an exclusive edge - an interview for YouTube, a competition for the readers (be they blog, twitter or Boards.ie), an experience I can share with others. In my opinion - to be proven correct or not - finding something like that is a bit more interesting than seeing versions of the same press release on a number of sources.

There is a big hesitance in organisations to let “volunteers” become more involved - to give them access to and permission for the sort of “broadcasting” that people like Niamh, Steph and me do, because they don’t understand it. That’s okay - to a point, because I see so many organisations and events spend needless money on Flash websites, Facebook apps, blogger briefings, press photocalls and so on, where they could be putting the money back into getting their event right, getting volunteers more prepared, getting their information better and their focus correct.

There’s also an unawareness of the benefit of giving people that access can be. Maybe not for that festival per se - not for the crowds it can get to it then and there - but whenever someone searches on Google, on Facebook, on Twitter, on blogs, on Pix.ie - there should be something there - something interesting, positive, engaging. Even the negative comments or experiences are an opportunity for the event or organisation to learn from what went wrong and to not let it happen again. That’s something a hastily filled survey will never discover.

I’d love to see more people volunteer their time and experience with organisations and charities that need the help but more importantly have a willingness to learn. I’m delighted to be involved with Paul Dervan’s Help Charities in Ireland project because I can see a huge benefit in doing so - both for me in how to work with people and organisations learning just why a Facebook page can help get the word out.

There’s lots of opportunities there for sharing and for business. Time to make the most of them.