Aftermath

Yesterday was the final day of the big Brookings-Google PHEV event and I am still absolutely knackered. We had an amazing turnout, so much so we nearly had an issue with the fire marshall. I listened to some amazing speeches from and dialogue between people at the top of their field. There were some boring ones as well. Luckily, there were few-if any-lectures with power point slides. We also got great media exposure, which I realized means that there are story packages on CNN, Bloomberg, and the like in the middle of the day for a few minutes and not brought up in the national conversation.

I am now in the afterglow/hangover from the event. The first reason is that I noticed how much of a bubble people get into when working on events and projects. When you are in it, you (meaning I) expect it to completely change the world. Stepping out of the bubble you see that it has made little effect on the general population. You start to come to terms with the fact that you are now a pebble tossed in to the sea and are making waves that will take a long time to reach the shore. (ooh metaphor!)

The second reason only affects me: The main reason I was hired was to assist with this event. Now the guillotine is hanging over me as I wait for a last minute reprieve because of these weeks of good (Nay, excellent!) behavior.

Edit: OH! I forgot why I was going post today: Got an e-mail from Brookings Global Dev with papers from an event they had in May: What Works in Development? Thinking Big and Thinking Small