After and before

Yesterday we had our second EULEAP meeting, and I’ve just put together the minutes and tried to do some more networking to get people involved. EAP practitioners are notoriously shy about networking – or could it be a lack of interest, after all? There is #EAPchat, which is connecting up many of the players, and we’ve got this baby Ning going, which will soon grow into a Ning Plus, sponsored by Cornelsen, which will allow Calendars and Groups for a more Ivory Tower feel.

Done with that. And now I’m just putting together everything I need to go to Paris for the BESIG Summer Symposium: Laptop, headphones, cables and connectors, my flip mino and recharger, and some notes on the people whose sessions I’ll be recording, and those I’ll be interviewing. It’s daunting, the number of skills needed to be a part of the BOT – Besig Online Team: You need to be able to run an Adobe Connect session with satellite partners; to use a handheld camera to record several hours of talks without a glitch; to interview someone you haven’t met before and only know a few things about, for an international audience and all online posterity; and to keep all of these different activities sorted on computers and the camera, with the power infrastructure in place, all on the road and without a quiet space to come back to, to collect your thoughts. Yesterday I also made some video tutorials for the BESIG Ning, since we’ll be closing the Yahoo group soon, and opening up the Ning, so we’re expecting a flood of new users needing support. I hope everything works out, both in Paris and online.

On Monday and Tuesday after the conference I’ll be teaching in Cologne for Management Circle. And before I start off, tomorrow I have lessons that I haven’t begun to prepare, so there’s quite a bit of materials to coordinate before and after the main event, too. And tonight I’m expecting a dear visitor who’ll get a nice dinner. Oops, and then there’s the laundry and ironing. OK, well, back to work.