A tent in a field – thoughts about the Do Lectures Comments Off

A few weeks ago, at the end of September 2011, I went and stayed in a tent, in a corner of Wales, with some of the most fascinating people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting up to this moment in life. This came about because I attended the Do Lectures, an event which is branded as an annual conference but I prefer to call it a gathering of people with passions and desires to be better or do better. At least this is the best way I can describe this event that left such a powerful mark on me.

Chailo Sim – Replete by Chailo Sim

And these 4 days and 4 nights (the nights were as important as the days, as it turns out) were wonderful. Full of great ideas, inspiring, fun, extremely intense and yet, in the same time, in some way even peaceful. They were peaceful because we, the attendees, the speakers and the wonderful organizers, we were all there for one thing and one thing only. To attend the lectures, to speak to each other and get inspired to do great things, to enjoy our time in the little, rainy, corner of paradise James created in that part of the world.

That common and clear purpose of us being there gave the whole madness a controlled and tranquil feeling and made it easy for everybody to make friends, talk about their passions and enjoy a good conversations.

Nobody was going home at the end of the day, to the usual problems and issues; nobody had to go to work the next day. There were only the lectures ahead, food, pints, music and endless, insightful and fascinating conversations and a little bit of sleep in between, under a reindeer skin.

Everybody was committed to this event, because of the long way they had to travel to get there, because of the bad reception (if you ask me no reception at all would have been even better), because we were all there for four days and we chose to be there, because we chose to invest this time in the being there.

In the end, after the four days had come and gone, after I was back in the real world and I was trying to slow down my overflowing brain and to rest my aching for sleep body, one thought kept coming back, when trying to figure out what made those four days so good.

And the thought was that we all lived in the moment, we all were there, not with our nose in a computer screen, how, ironically, I am doing now, not buried in worries and thoughts about a million projects we want to do and thousand of undone chores and hundreds of to do’s. We were there, in that tent, or near the struggling hot water boilers, or near the pub, or in the mess hall, or in the middle of the field.

If I learned one thing from this experience is that living in the moment and committing to that moment as much as you can pays off big time.

And this is not all that I learned. I saw so many people who showed that following a passion is immensely rewarding, no matter how hard it can be at times. I saw people who wanted to make a change, to give a gift, to build a community, to tell a story that moved. I saw optimism and energy and I felt happy. I felt that I was surrounded by people better than me and I felt that I wanted to be like them. It’s a great feeling.

As testament to how powerful this experience was, people are still talking about it, almost 3 weeks after it took place and I’m sure they will still talk a long time about it. Most conferences come and go; this one managed to leave a deep mark.

What takes place in that tent, in the middle of a field, in a forest, in a small country called Wales has the power to drive real change, for us all, as a society, and for each of those that are lucky enough to find in them enough reasons to commit to spend the 4 days in that tent.

Mine is just one of the stories the people that attended the lectures told about it. A few of the others are listed below:

• Documentally – made the most comprehensive account of the lectures I’ve seen so far, which you can find here
• Frank Chimero – one of my favorite speakers, has a great little post about the event
• Ella Salmarshe – writes a wonderful article in Wired UK - What you missed by not attending the 2011 Do Lectures
• Tom Fishburne – how I became a cartoonist

And there are more here, and here and here and surely there are more that I missed.

To end my little story about the Do’s, here is a great little video about the lectures and his amazing founder David Hieatt.