You'll have to excuse my indulgence today. I'm not going to be writing about video games, or anything even tangential to video games, other than this weekend's Block Party/Digifest.
My brain is all over the place, and so this is going to be more like a regular, typically rambling, blog post - of the sort I don't really do on Digitiser2000. It's intended to be an attempt to regroup and ground my slightly overstretched and fretting brain.
I've never organised anything on the scale of Digifest. It has been a team effort: lovely Dan "Teletext" Farrimond has been responsible for bringing the daytime schedule together, and dealing with the potential sponsors, but the evening stuff has mostly been down to me and my other half.
Inevitably, when organising something like this there are numerous hiccups in the road. Little things... like losing our sponsors (and then - possibly - un-losing them...). Or discovering that the booking for the hotel a lot of us are staying in hasn't been processed, and the hotel is now booked out.
Or that the venue where the festival is taking place has been double-booked with another event. Or potentially not being able to find a food van, so that people can eat. Stuff like that... which is all workable, and solvable, but provides stress in the moment.
And on top of that... there's the preparation that has gone into the merchandise we're offering for sale, the needlessly ambitious videos we'll be showing, and pulling all the elements together to offer a whole evening's entertainment - including a full-on game show, for some reason. Right now I've a long list of things that need doing, or require my input.
My brain is all over the place, and so this is going to be more like a regular, typically rambling, blog post - of the sort I don't really do on Digitiser2000. It's intended to be an attempt to regroup and ground my slightly overstretched and fretting brain.
I've never organised anything on the scale of Digifest. It has been a team effort: lovely Dan "Teletext" Farrimond has been responsible for bringing the daytime schedule together, and dealing with the potential sponsors, but the evening stuff has mostly been down to me and my other half.
Inevitably, when organising something like this there are numerous hiccups in the road. Little things... like losing our sponsors (and then - possibly - un-losing them...). Or discovering that the booking for the hotel a lot of us are staying in hasn't been processed, and the hotel is now booked out.
Or that the venue where the festival is taking place has been double-booked with another event. Or potentially not being able to find a food van, so that people can eat. Stuff like that... which is all workable, and solvable, but provides stress in the moment.
And on top of that... there's the preparation that has gone into the merchandise we're offering for sale, the needlessly ambitious videos we'll be showing, and pulling all the elements together to offer a whole evening's entertainment - including a full-on game show, for some reason. Right now I've a long list of things that need doing, or require my input.
REGULAR TON
Aside from all that, I've also got a shed-ton of regular work to get through before now and then, and a couple of important deadlines to hit.
This is by no means intended as a whinge. I mean, I've actually loved all the organising.
I've loved creating the stuff for the evening's Digifest, and coming up with ideas. It's all completely overboard - I know people would've just been happy for us to show up, do a Q&A, and bugger off - but I wanted to offer something more, which is going to justify them schlepping all the way to Cambridge. I want them to have fun, and feel that the spirit of Digitiser has been brought to life.
I think I'd be less worried if we were holding it in a big travel hub like London or Manchester - but I know it's a big ask of people to travel to Cambridge. We kept ticket prices as low as possible - but that has a knock-on effect that the tickets are right at that sort of disposable cusp.
Indeed, if I were to pay attention to what my dreams are telling me, my biggest anxiety isn't that we won't be offering up a great time - I know we are - but around nobody showing up. It's just like when you organise a party. Slightly too many people have emailed this week to say they can't make it, and kindly offer up their tickets to others who might want one, but I think that's playing on me.
It's one thing to be the host of the party, and worry about guests not showing, but I don't want Tim, and Violet, and Chris Coltrane, and our other guests, to feel they've made the effort for nothing.
I mean, I had one dream last week where I'd put Digifest on at my old high school, during a wet lunch break. Those that did turn up weren't paying attention. Then the night before last, I had a dream that everyone kept wandering off during the talks. I went outside to call them back in, and when I returned somebody had pulled a big screen across between the stage and the audience.
Read into all of that what you will, Dr Freud.
Aside from all that, I've also got a shed-ton of regular work to get through before now and then, and a couple of important deadlines to hit.
This is by no means intended as a whinge. I mean, I've actually loved all the organising.
I've loved creating the stuff for the evening's Digifest, and coming up with ideas. It's all completely overboard - I know people would've just been happy for us to show up, do a Q&A, and bugger off - but I wanted to offer something more, which is going to justify them schlepping all the way to Cambridge. I want them to have fun, and feel that the spirit of Digitiser has been brought to life.
I think I'd be less worried if we were holding it in a big travel hub like London or Manchester - but I know it's a big ask of people to travel to Cambridge. We kept ticket prices as low as possible - but that has a knock-on effect that the tickets are right at that sort of disposable cusp.
Indeed, if I were to pay attention to what my dreams are telling me, my biggest anxiety isn't that we won't be offering up a great time - I know we are - but around nobody showing up. It's just like when you organise a party. Slightly too many people have emailed this week to say they can't make it, and kindly offer up their tickets to others who might want one, but I think that's playing on me.
It's one thing to be the host of the party, and worry about guests not showing, but I don't want Tim, and Violet, and Chris Coltrane, and our other guests, to feel they've made the effort for nothing.
I mean, I had one dream last week where I'd put Digifest on at my old high school, during a wet lunch break. Those that did turn up weren't paying attention. Then the night before last, I had a dream that everyone kept wandering off during the talks. I went outside to call them back in, and when I returned somebody had pulled a big screen across between the stage and the audience.
Read into all of that what you will, Dr Freud.
WHADDAYAKNOW?
I know it's going to be a brilliant day whatever happens.
Even if there are only twenty of us there it's going to be worthwhile and special, but there's always that disconnect between what we know and what we feel. You can have that intellectual discussion with your feelings, but feelings will usually do their own thing regardless.
I'm trying to view this as a dry run for a bigger event next year, but I want it to be a success in its own right.
I want it to be enough of a success to justify doing it again, because for all the stresses over the last couple of months - especially the last couple of weeks - it has been a joy.
If you'd asked me three years ago whether I could ever imagine helping to stage a teletext and Digitiser festival... I'd have vomited with disbelief. Yet here we are, and it's happening. And it's happening because so many of you have been so kind with your words and support since I started Digitiser2000 two years ago.
And maybe that's the real root of my stress: I feel I owe everyone who has supported me since Mr Biffo emerged from his semi-retirement, for giving me something back, which I hadn't even realised was missing.
Though you won't all be there in Cambridge on Saturday, it's my attempt to say thank you.
I know it's going to be a brilliant day whatever happens.
Even if there are only twenty of us there it's going to be worthwhile and special, but there's always that disconnect between what we know and what we feel. You can have that intellectual discussion with your feelings, but feelings will usually do their own thing regardless.
I'm trying to view this as a dry run for a bigger event next year, but I want it to be a success in its own right.
I want it to be enough of a success to justify doing it again, because for all the stresses over the last couple of months - especially the last couple of weeks - it has been a joy.
If you'd asked me three years ago whether I could ever imagine helping to stage a teletext and Digitiser festival... I'd have vomited with disbelief. Yet here we are, and it's happening. And it's happening because so many of you have been so kind with your words and support since I started Digitiser2000 two years ago.
And maybe that's the real root of my stress: I feel I owe everyone who has supported me since Mr Biffo emerged from his semi-retirement, for giving me something back, which I hadn't even realised was missing.
Though you won't all be there in Cambridge on Saturday, it's my attempt to say thank you.
So, with that in mind... we DO have a few ticket returns, so there are a handful left if you want to come along. Email digitiser2000@gmail.com if so.
Ticket holders: you'll be getting an email later this week with the timetable and full details of the event. Watch your inboxes.
Ticket holders: you'll be getting an email later this week with the timetable and full details of the event. Watch your inboxes.
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