Last night, Oxfam North West hosted its first ever Speaker Social – a fun opportunity for speakers from across the North West to come together and share their skills and experiences of speaking about Oxfam’s work in schools. The event was well attended, with speakers from Didsbury, Stockport, Chorley and even Leeds venturing out.
We began with a round up of all the exciting things the Youth and Schools team in the North West have been up to, including our fantastic climate change conference, and the video messages students sent to their MPs, before the action really kicked off with Speaker Speed Dating (quite appropriate with valentines day on Sunday!). Many of the speakers hadn’t met before, and it was a great chance for them to get to know each other a little better, as well as sharing their top tips and ideas for speaking in schools. A three minute date turned out not to be enough for our chatty speakers – they lived up to their name and required lots of nudging to move on to the next date.
At the end, we had a round up of the main themes discussed over some yummy biscuits from the Co-Op, and it was really encouraging to hear how active the speakers have been, as well as their creative solutions to the problems of working with school age students.
Unfortunately, after all that talking, we didn’t make it to the pub as planned, which is a great excuse for having another event in the future! We’d like to say a huge thank you to all the speakers who attended, as well as those who couldn’t make it – you’re doing a fantastic job, keep up the good work!