Final Seminar

During our project in Manaus, we held 3 workshops over a course of about
8 months, and last week we had a final seminar. Each time we invited
about 2-300 stakeholders and have had between 130 to 200 people come
each time. Needless to say, this takes a lot of time and effort to
prepare in advance, but after the first one, we had a formula of how to
get everything done. Also, after three prior experiences, I now knew to
expect the pace at which things would proceed; this is good to know in
order to preserve your sanity. Plus, it is always good to keep in mind
that unexpected things may happen.
To give an idea of the scale of these events, the first workshop was
groundbreaking for most involved: over 180 people attended and we had to
provide space and staff to hold separate group discussions for 100
people in the afternoon. Somehow we managed to pull it off above
expectations and that served as a model for the next two workshops. The
final seminar attracted about 150 people throughout the day, but didn't
include a workshop to discuss the issues at hand, just a Q&A
session--which anyone familiar with Brazilian culture will know is quite
a fiery affair in itself.
Brazilians most certainly love their language, and some might say they
celebrate it with gusto at every opportunity. As an example, after the
first workshop, we decided to use a smaller piece of paper for people to
write and submit questions because people were tending to write short
essays, which would then be read in full and answered at length, well
into the lunch hour. That obstacle is compounded by the fact that in
Brazil if you say something starts at 8am, most people show up around 9
and the event gets going around 10. So my main worry at these events is
how we will ever get through the busy programs we schedule in a limited
number of hours. However, even with a late start at the first workshop,
we were able to adjust the program only slightly to accommodate all of
the planned activities and still end at 5pm. So at this final seminar,
when it was 9:30 and the guests of honor who would give the opening
addresses were still nowhere in sight, I wasn't too worried. By 10,
things were underway. Even when a heavy thunderstorm outside knocked out
the electricity at 10:20, no one panicked, no one stirred. The glow of a
few laptops lit the auditorium, but other than that it was dark and
silent for a minute or so, with the thunder and rain just audible. After
a while, an official made an announcement that the power would be back
on shortly, and in 5 minutes the house lights were back up. Five minutes
after that, the computer and projector were back on and the speaker
continued with his presentation. The seminar ended without further
incident around 4pm, and amazingly, slightly ahead of schedule.