{"id":73,"date":"2010-10-08T11:41:41","date_gmt":"2010-10-08T10:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uncharted-worlds.org\/blog\/?p=73"},"modified":"2010-10-08T11:41:42","modified_gmt":"2010-10-08T10:41:42","slug":"big-bi-fun-day-retrospective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uncharted-worlds.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/big-bi-fun-day-retrospective\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Bi Fun Day retrospective"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\tI did go to the Big Bi Fun Day<\/a> back in May, and I thought I’d write a bit about it here.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

About 40* people gathered at the Friends’ Meeting House in Leicester on a sunny May afternoon, and half or more went on afterwards to the nearby park.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

* That is, I seem to remember looking round and counting up and making it about that many. If anyone has a more accurate\/official figure, then I’m happy to be corrected.<\/p>\n

<\/a>The general flavour<\/h2>\n

\n\t\t\tThe general flavour was mellow and conversational. It was perhaps rather like the last day of a BiCon – lots of sitting around and sharing snack food and saying hello to different people as they wandered by.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe blurb had said\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tIt is not a BiFest. This event is not intended to be an introduction to bisexuality. However, new people are welcome to come along.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n\t\t\tand also suggested it was a place to\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tcatch up with friends\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n\t\t\tI did have the sense that reconnecting with friends from across the country was a big part of what people enjoyed about the day.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI think this description was well crafted for priming people to know what to expect and to decide whether to go. Personally, I don’t think I’d have enjoyed it much if I’d gone as a newcomer, though some people might have found it OK. Depends how comfortable you are with going up to people you don’t know and introducing yourself.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd yes: events like this don’t substitute for BiFest. They are a different kind of contribution to the community – less about outreach, and more about nurturing ourselves and our friendships.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

<\/a>Families with children<\/h2>\n

\n\t\t\tFor me a huge positive of the event was the way children were included, in an elegantly low-effort way.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBy “low-effort” I don’t mean “inadequate effort”. What I mean is that the effort was primarily in family-friendly choices, and the thinking about them, rather than in additional child-specific facilities. For instance, it wasn’t in a venue with a lower age limit, such as a pub.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOne child-specific resource was a fence around the garden, with a gate which toddlers couldn’t open. That’s a great help to parents of small children with a tendency to exploration. (And I know this was<\/em> one of the advantages of this venue which influenced Sanji to choose it.)\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOther than that, the ents\/resources available were as follows:\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n