I ventured in. The venue, the faces, the format were all new and even a little foreign, but there was a strange familiarity that I just could not put my finger on, until much later as I drove home.

Somewhere around 10 years ago, I was part of a core team that dreamt, and made things possible. We allowed our creativity to overtake perceived boundaries, and after selling our vision to a broader group of individuals we were able to make a real difference in our immediate community. We still look back at that time every now and then, with great fondness. It was hard, hard work, but the freedom we gave ourselves to dream, the sense of greater purpose, the lack of egotism and the knowledge that each time we met we would be a step further in our journey, albeit sometimes in an unexpected direction made the hard work not just worthwhile, but fun and attractive.

This atmosphere of passion, creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation, was something I did not realise I missed ... until last night.

I left the my comfort zone and decided to attend the 27Dinner. I am a naturally reserved person, and doing something like attending an event that has, as it's very premise, social interaction, solo is not something I do often. But I decided to bite the bullet, or more accurately chew the Dirol, and make an appearance ... and (this may come as a surprise to some of those that I met) I am glad I did!
I really appreciated the genuineness that permeated through the evening. People were genuinely happy to meet each other, even if for the first time. While there was a fair amount of tech and marketing talk, what I really enjoyed and appreciated was the interest everyone had in each other's endeavours and the amazing openness and willingness to talk about themselves.

There was a sense of purpose amongst those attendees I met. What that purpose was, was to me not immeadiately evident, but I look forward to finding out over the next few such events.

Thanks to E, R, H, F, G ,M & N amongst others for the conversation and interaction. (Initials used in case I forgot or misheard anyone's name, there was a lot of ambient noise!) I look forward to gaining inspiration and passion through our future interactions.

As I processed the evening on my trip home (it was quite a long one) I was inspired enough to come up with a mantra, which I will be applying to all facets of my life in the foreseeable future : 'Dream it possible.' I look forward to finding out exactly what that means, and how it will apply to me.

If you want to know more about the 27Dinner concept you can pop over to the Wiki page, or pop back over the next couple of days and I will paste some links to other blogs and sites that may have more concrete reviews of the event.

Thanks Dave for all the effort you go to to organise the event.

Related Posts :
27Dinner viii - un-relish-ed
Hot and sweaty 28/8 Dinner
27 Dinner report back
27-8
27dinner on liquid fuel

Labels: 27dinner, eish

Posted by eishman on Tuesday, August 28, 2007 at 2:34 PM | Permalink