After I made the commitment, I thought, "how am I going to fill up the hour?" ----- On a few occasions I have spoken for maybe 10 minutes or so but a whole hour!!Once I put my mind to it I had more than two hours of material ---- then I had to whittle down some of it, after all I didn't want to bore the audience.
A few days before the event my friend Nanci was saying, "tell the office that you will need twenty five chairs." Well, knowing how the attendance for other programs has been in the past, I figured I would be lucky to have 10 people participate.
On the day of the session I had arranged with Susan to meet one hour before-hand and go through the agenda. Well it took her a while to set up and people started to arrive early so there was no time to run through the program.
We were running out of chairs and had to call the office several times for MORE CHAIRS. More than thirty people showed up!! That was one of the biggest turnouts ever, even when food is served!!
They listened, laughed and learned.
Susan was at the computer and walked the group through, "how to set up a blog." Not only that, she made a post on "Summittimes.blogspot.com" Now we are talking about making that a community blog. I'll have to find out how to get that going.I showed some of the "I Can't Open It" series, which they enjoyed very much, when I looked out at the audience I saw a lot of smiling faces!!
There was quite a reaction from the audience when I told them about one of the reasons I enjoy blogging, " I'm not interrupted, I can complete my thought." I guess that happens to a lot of us.
I went on to tell them about the blogging friends that I have made from all over the world, how I have met one from Florida, will be meeting one from Paris and another friend from Maine.
The most important part of my presentation was when I spoke about how important blogging can be for older people who have lost friends and family or who find getting out and about more difficult and less frequent.
There were about a half dozen people in the group who have computers, some use it to pay bills, some for e-mail and some to play games. My friend Nanci reads a few blogs, (my influence).
Those who attended walked away learning some of the things the computer can do for them and maybe it will wet their appetites to learn more and TRY IT!!