Updated Poll Results, Fluidity Organizer Retreat

Sep 30, 2022

Matt here again. First a bit of fun, then I want to report to you about the Fluidity Forum organizer retreat which I’m on right now.

Rival Voices (@nosilverv) read the last newsletter, got excited, and reached out to me enthusiastically about coming over from Portugal to attend Fluidity Forum. He tweeted the treemap of the poll results which showed which blogs/podcasts/communities the poll respondents participate in. (Here’s the poll.)

After Rival Voices boosted our signal, here’s what happened to our poll:

I’ve been very encouraged by those who have contacted me to get involved with running Fluidity Forum, such as George Walker. Evan and I have had some calls with him in mid-August. We decided to go on a planning retreat in September (that’s where I am now).

George introduced me to Duncan Horst, who also wanted to go on the retreat. Duncan has a clear vision for the sessions of the event and how to ceremonially structure the flow, to transition from one experience to the next. I’m excited about it.

George came out to visit me early this week, and got me on a video call with his friend Eileen Martz. He had shared with her the list I wrote of roles in the organization, and she was interested in either Treasurer, Registration, Signage, or Hospitality Suite (you know how the best moments of a gathering are the hallway conversations between session? A hospitality suite with good seating, complimentary snacks, and soft drinks serves as a traffic-flow center to make that happen a lot). Eileen and I both go to science fiction conventions and have a lot of cultural factors and organizational style in common. She could not have made a better impression. Right now she and I think Registration is probably the right role for her.

It was too short notice for Eileen to come out to the organizer retreat, but I, Evan, George, and Duncan are staying at a house on the shore of Lake Michigan, walking on the beach and talking about our experiences and how we see running events.

There are two main outcomes I want from this retreat as I see it.

One main outcome is cohering on a vision; what kinds of people and activities will be there? What will be the tone? Do we agree on what this scene is and is not? What size do we want the event to be and why?

The other main outcome is to go through my to-do list and where each item stands. Who each of us said we would be reaching out to; ideas on the sessions we brainstormed; my preliminary budget; organizational roles yet to be filled, which is almost all of them on my list; some of the details of the Request For Proposals document I’m sending to the tourism board as I shop around for more venues; and so on.

And I mean obviously, we’ll also get to know each other better and have a great time. That much is already assured. Expect more about the retreat after this weekend!