There was this bike workshop at Symbiosis and I was a little worked up with the many things at hand. Din’t want to mess it up so did spend a good deal of energy on it. I actually washed my bike after a long time so that it doesn’t look so dirty. It hadn’t rained in ages and I was hoping I don’t have to clean it for sometime. It rained the same night and almost every evening after that for a few days! :))
I got some really good slides from Pradeep which they had used for the Ignite Bangalore. That saved a lot of effort but I did wake up late not making it to the starting point for the ride to the Ecity. I asked Pankaj to move on forgeting Neera wud be there waiting as she doesn’t work there. Deb & Satabdi joined and we reached there pretty late. Was keen on the blood donation camp at Symbiosis. It had been over a year so – result – yet another black out! :)) Great way to start ur day – quite refreshing actually! 🙂
By lunch hour we had students eager and trying the bikes – half a dozen bikes but only 2-3 bikers. I was pretty impressed by some of them as they freaked out on the bikes. A girl boldly took the strida down a small incline near the mess. Asked her to be careful. Grabbed my camera and I had just begun to take a few shots when a girl was brought with a bruises on her face. She freaked out on the Strida and took it down the incline to the basement when nobody was watching – used the disc brakes and on the ground. A casualty even before the workshop had begun!!! Huh – no more biking for the students after that – spent much of the afternoon working on the presentation as not many bikers had confirmed presence – stretched the presentation a bit.
At 4 in the evening we had all the bikers those who had confirmed and even few who hadn’t – pleasant surprise! 🙂 It wud be nice to have as many bikers share their reason to be on the saddle but the presentation time was cut short as the students had a lecture they cudn’t bunk! 🙂
We had a brief bike trial session and then we went on with the bike ralley. The trikes wud catch the attention and all but it started pouring! 😀 This didn’t dampen the spirit of the bikers and we went to the 1st entrance to Ecity. Bizy junction and we had heads spinning! :))
Despite the many goofups (most of them on my part!) it was a good event more important a good learning. Now we work for the next few bike workshops – colleges and corporates!
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Lessons learnt:
1. Have a compact session targetting either only evening or morning – all day won’t work unless many bikers in the hosting corporate/college. It worked well at Infy. Evening 4-6 i a good time as you can have those interested try the bikes for as long as they won’t after the presentation say around 5:30
2. Ensure at least a dozen bikers for the one on one sessions with as many bikes assuming an audience of 100
3. Ensure a minimum audience else it may not be worth the time and effort of so many bikers
4. Have interesting videos as breathers in the presentation so that the audience don’t switch off.
5. Eye candies like Trykes, Styda, etc work like a charm. Ensure u have all kinds of bikes – road bike, hybrid, MTB, folding bike, etc.
