So what happened today? Dinner is only just over, yet the day seems to be fading into the mists of time, so perhaps a brief backtrack will serve to resurface the highs, lows and interestingly corrugated bits of the day…
This was to be a day of Divergence, Digression and Damnation, where we were encouraged to brainstorm our projects with our fellow participants, to re-examine our fundamentals (cue the inevitable Frankie Howerd quotes) and to start to focus on what we thought we could (and should) deliver rather that what we'd originally said we could do. So, having promised to reinvent the world on a budget of luncheon vouchers and damp string, Jon and I cast a bleary eye over the turgidly stuffy meeting room, panned left to the glowing sunshine and snow-capped peaks outside and went for a two-hour walk. The whole walk'n'talk thing is a remarkably productive way to discuss, compare and contrast experiences in a completely non-confrontational way, so we returned to be healthily smug at the pallid indoor types and to focus our efforts on the elevator pitch for our project. That process was helped tremendously by a re-focussing conversation with the Beeb's ever-helpful Matt Cashmore, as he drove me on a brief and emergency trip homewards over the Duke's Pass.
Our initial pitch on Monday had been characterised by its length, ambition and a deal of incomprehension on the part of the audience. Although if certain members hadn't started the interruptions just as I got to, "Hello, I'm…" bit, we might have brought a tad more clarity from the chaos. The comments however were hugely useful in making us realise how and where we needed to pare, hone and polish.
Our second attempt, this afternoon, went from the computational equivalent of designing a Capability Brown landscape to that of growing a few nice vegetables in a cold frame, causing more confusion in the audience as they hurriedly ducked under our swinging conceptual pendulum. Tomorrow, we'll try aiming for somewhere in between.
Posted by Richard at 11:25 PM