I'll be honest this event was a struggle. I'm experiencing a high level of pain due to a medical issue and taking a lot of pain killers to try and cope with it, but I'm still feeling light-headed and dizzy at moments. Nonetheless, I still wanted to participate in the conference and have the opportunity to speak on a topic I care pasionately about; European youth mobility.
I enjoyed wandering around the cofnerence stalls and was beckoned over to the International Greens stall by someone who apparently recognised me and thanked me for my campaigning work. They had by far and away the best freebies on this stall, both in terms of the beautiful visual design but also the quantity of items - I picked up a copy of their magazine, a book and some badges.
The Green Party women's stall had some fabulous cards which my friends will absolutely love for their birthdays - so, I bought £10's worth. I had to go out to find a cash machine, but it was worth it.
Before the event, which started at 5:30pm we put out European Movement and Young European Movement leaflets out on the chairs. I'm not sure why green is the favoured colour of both organisations to be honest, but it worked well for this particular conference.
The panel discussion was chaired by Molly Scott Cato, who is a former Green Party MEP and currently the Senior Vice Chair of the European Movement UK. The other speakers included Catherine Rowett, Former MEP and the Green Party spokesperson o work and welfare, myself and Ray Kirtley, Chair of UK Global Learning Association.
I really enjoyed the discussion and listening to the different perspectives from academia, politics and schools - I decided to focus on the arts and the impact of Brexit on young artists and musicians, as well as giving some personal anecdotes to make the speech a bit less dry.
I can normally blag my way through these sorts of events, but I knew I was going to struggle, so I prepared a text in advance - with the intention of not following it word for word, so that my talk didn't come across stilted and robotic. However, this plan back-fired when I lost my thread midway through and started rambling in circles for a couple of minutes. I edited a shorter video for my social media with my more coherently made points, but it's fair to say you can tell I am struggling to focus a bit. Given that I was feeling so light-headed I was worried I might pass out just before giving my talk it's a miracle I got through it at all!
I also realised watching the video back that I seem to talk more with my hands than I do with my words.
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