While it might not be my worst nightmare, like many people, public speaking doesn't come easily to me. So, when I was asked if I wanted to be a Greenspeaker, to talk to members of the public about Greenpeace's latest campaigns, though I didn't lose sleep over it, I wasn't sure I'd be good enough.
We were set to attend training at Greenpeace UK HQ in Islington back in January, but due to heavy snowfall, the event was cancelled and delayed until next month. Awkwardly, I had already signed up to speak about fundraising to a group of art and design students at Kingston University. There turned out to be at least 60 people crammed into a big studio, some clearly more enthused to be there than others. Hoping to pique their interest, I told them about the Design the Flag for the Future competition judged by Vivian Westwood. Since then, I've also recommended the project to our local Sea Scouts in Petersham.
Training day finally arrived on Saturday 23rd February. It was my first visit to the offices in Canonbury Villas, and I was really impressed by what I saw. It's a great building with really amazing facilities and full of brilliant people. There were 18 trainees, plus two experienced Greenspeakers, Athen and Peter, the Greenpeace outreach team (Tim, Rachael and Abi), and our excellent trainers, Hannah and Matthew from the Rhizome Network. The session was the perfect opportunity to try out new ideas, make mistakes and learn from them. It made me realise that, providing that you can physically speak, with practice and guidance, anyone can develop the confidence to speak effectively in public.
My worst nightmares usually involve some sort of post-apocalyptic future, a world torn apart by environmental destruction and nuclear war. If talking about our problems can act as a form of therapy, I look forward to telling more people about the important work of Greenpeace, and how it helps to prevent my bad dreams from becoming a reality.
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