What is in the palm of your hand?
Last week I attended a Community Tech, Community of Practice gathering, organised by Promising Trouble and hosted by Stretford Public Hall, a Community Business Society, like the organisation I work for.
It was a good day- a beautiful sunrise, an on-time train and a beer to end. What I wasn’t expecting was the influence of the stars and hands.
The morning was attended by those of us on the Power to Change Discovery Fund and Maker’s and Maintainer’s projects. This session was great as, for the first time we got to meet our peers in person, make that human connection and have real conversations about what we were learning and discovering. Particularly useful was chatting to those who were on the Maker’s and Maintainer’s project. They certainly had greater insight into digital tech than myself, and also some ideas of what we may come across on the forthcoming stages of our Discovery programme. I came away feeling that although there was still lots to do and there was lots I still didn’t know, there were areas I was making progress in.
This was where first the stars had an influence- On someone’s name badge their “talk to me about” was astrology. So of course I did (well once I had read it correctly and hadn’t discussed the current findings from the Bennu asteroid samples). Another person joined in and star signs were guessed and confirmed. During lunchtime astrology arose in separate conversations and then - I had my palm read!
A sceptical practical person, and one who is not easily swayed, I questioned, with a raised eyebrow, some of the findings. However, it did make me think, and is still making me think, about my life and approaches. That has to be a good outcome.
It was then came that connections-thing that I talked about last week occurred. The title of the guest speaker’ talk was “The Power is in your Hands”.
Later there were group sessions, open to people from across UK who were interested in Community Tech. I had some great conversations with people who were enthusiastic about the area/ challenge I was working on. With relief I heard them tell me how they could see it benefitting the groups they worked with as well.
There were times that I felt a fraud. On the edge of group discussion where “lingo” was being used or the “politics” of certain issues was being discussed- I definitely felt lacking in knowledge. Chatting to a group of computer science university students, I questioned why I as a non-tech person was there. Not having a clue about the personality types of certain star signs added to a background feeling of inadequacy.
Looking back on the day however, I would like to think that I was able to pose some questions to others that helped them look at things in a different way. I also made some practical sessions to help others move forward and I helped make people smile.
Whether the low-tech of palm reading making me think, or the high-tech of my smart phone enabling me to stay connected to those throughout the country and abroad who I met in Manchester, the power is all in the palm of my hand.
