Three days of creativity

“Hi, there is a good opportunity to meet a bunch of creative young people. Would you like to join?” “Sure, I would!” - was my quick answer to the message, though, I had no idea what this offer was about. “Go viral” – claimed the headlines on the website with the attractive design and, most important, with the catchy content telling you how many people from different sites of the world and various backgrounds in culture, business, science, and technology were coming to Almaty to “go viral” with us.

Did I hesitate? Well, I had to come up with the good excuse in order to persuade my boss to liberate me from two working days as well as I had to explain my motivation to the event organizers why they needed me and I needed them. So the first thing I did was procrastinating and postponing everything I had to do to “go viral”. I even started forgetting my excitement and desire to attend the event if not my friend’s call: she had already registered, could I stay behind?

We got off the train to the beautiful sunny weather: though it was the middle of June, Astana was still cold and wind made people wear warm clothes again. However, my friend and I were 1,266 km away and didn’t care of weather (at least for three days). We were immerged into the colorful “Go viral” atmosphere which I will remember for all my life.

So, why should people try to go viral in Almaty at least once in life? I have the clue:

1. MEDIA, BUSINESS, CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY: what’s your agenda?

Go viral positions itself as a creative platform for people who strive to develop and are open to new ideas even if these ideas lay beyond their sphere of interests because real creativity has no boundaries. So was there: do you want to know more about media, women’s rights? Are you into technologies, or thinking about setting up a new startup? It’s only your choice – you can visit whichever discussion, master-class or presentation you want. Organizers created a special app where one could see the agenda, know more about the speakers, get acquainted with the participants and – this is crucial one – generate his/her own agenda following the general one.

I downloaded the app and was overwhelmed with the program: there were six or seven rooms for discussions, workshops, movies, presentations and music! The main problem was to make a choice because all this cool staff was happening almost simultaneously. So if you decided to hang out for two hours at a master-class learning how to campaign effectively (as I did), you could really miss other six fascinating events taking place at the same time. 

I think only there I truly realized the matter of a choice: it’s always about setting priorities. So did I: from the bunch of Go viral events I selected the most interesting for me and created my own agenda that mostly consisted of the lectures in the IMPACT HUB where the speakers shared the ideas on how to make a social impact and be an active citizen. (No surprise from former TM officer)

2. LIKE-MINDED: We finally met!

But what truly makes an event - these are people that run or constitute it. Go Viral was not only the educational platform, but a meeting of forever young, those who are always in search and stays motivated despite an age. Although the participants were mostly in their twenties and thirties, I met several elderly couples and I don’t think they came with their grandchildren there: ideas has no boundaries.

However, the most exciting for me was the very get-together with the members of Almaty Toastmasters Club (ATM)! Toastmasters went viral as well: the officers and active members conducted three workshops on public speaking and communication for Go viral folks which turned out to be a blast: a room was full of people at 10 a.m. while other Go viral activities usually started at 11 a.m.People wanted to speak!

One of the session was dedicated to structuring a speech and presenting it to the audience. Here the participants divided into the groups and discussed each part of the speech together: beginning, body and conclusion. But first, the toastmasters themselves provided an example. It was a shock for everyone when the toastmaster of the session Gaukhar left the room in anger. We did not have a time to realize of what had just happened, when she came back with a smile on her face telling us: “a beginning should be an eye catcher”.

That was a joy to see the way Almaty Toastmasters conducted each of their sessions always interacting with the people who never attended and heard of the community before: in result everyone in the audience got his\her minutes of fame and a chance to be a speaker.

People were leaving the room after one of the sessions with their eyes shining and cheeks blushing – speaking publicly is always challenging yet exciting. Guys from Almaty did a great job by taking on the opportunity to conduct their own workshops instead of being just a participants, think as a toastmasters community we should seek such platforms and use it for spreading and branding Toastmasters.

Yet what a toastmaster who met another toastmaster usually does? They go to social out, so did we!

3. It is JUST AN IDEA!

3 days, 8 visited master-classes and presentations, 5 pages of tips and notes, 4 bottles of water, 3 personal acquaintances, 1 discussion with Dossym Satpayev and 3 beautiful music performances – this is how I went viral in Almaty. Other thousand participants might have another statistics, however, I am sure that we share similar emotions of joy and pleasure that fulfill a soul after getting out of the comfort zone and overcoming a challenge. 

Go viral spread the ideas yet we should not forget that in the beginning it was just an idea too!