My BiCon
I had a good time, and I am grateful to the organisers. Very intense though - as is usual for BiCon.
Train: good. Accommodation/flat mates: good and quiet. Normally annoying people: not too annoying.
I ran two sessions: 'I can't: jogging for beginners' and 'general jogging'. Over the two sessions I had an average of 1/2 a person! I had a co-facilitator to jog with for the first session, and an actual participant for the second session. Both were really good despite the lack of humans! Kate my co-facilitator had a similar way of getting into jogging, so we had a lot to chat about. It was great to have a non-jogger come to my second session. We did a warm up walk then approximately 30 second slow jogs interspersed with approximately 90 second walks. I had positive feedback. I aim to run more jogging sessions in future BiCons - I think the more people are used to the idea that they'll be there the more they'll feel comfortable about having a go.
I went to two or three sessions that other people ran - mostly because there weren't many people around to chat with. I like to spend a lot of time NOT in sessions.
Dancing! I love the dancing. Really love dancing at BiCon and BiFests. Yay for the DJs! Gwa called me the most enthusiastic dancer :D
This is an important thing so it gets its own paragraph: I felt good enough to talk to anyone. I wasn't scared of approaching people. There was no-one there that I thought of as too cool to talk to (although there were plenty of people I admire there). Woo! This is a mixture of me doing good work in therapy and me having a high profile in the UK bi community.
Apart from bethanthepurple I spent very little time with many people. Shine smile hug move on/repeat. I enjoyed this. I did almost no flirting (on purpose) and had no sex (on purpose). I had to really hold myself back from flirting with a far-away person; I know how carried away I can get at BiCon.
Taking care of myself was high on my priority list. I had at least an hour and a half quiet time on my own every day. I mostly remembered that it is good to eat meals but forgot that if I don't have a coping strategy I will overeat in the evenings. This isn't a big deal in the context of just a few days. I also kept up with my physio, didn't spend too much time doing that painful 'sitting' thing, and was physically active for 3/4 days. I drank lots of water.
I did some looking after others, but not at the expense of myself. (Another woo! thing.) I particularly enjoy making newcomers feel welcome; this is something I am skilled at.
I promoted Bi Coffee London and Hackney Bi Celebration as much as I could. I even managed to delegate some of this! (I had to re-delegate and oversee things, but then this is the reality of delegation sometimes.) There was general networking.
I learned at BiCon that I am doing too much bisexual activism. Mostly this is Bi Coffee London stuff. On the train coming back I wrote a list of the things I do for BCL. I plan to build a team to help me run it, and hand over as much as I can. This will take time and effort. 1) Getting people to commit to stuff is hard. 2) It will be difficult to let my baby grow up!
Future BiCons - I keep thinking I ought to take a BiCon off, but I get sucked in to being enthusiastic about it. Hm. Something to ponder. I want to widen my social network beyond the beautiful bi community; I can still do that *and* go to BiCon. We shall see.