(Re)location, (re)location, (re)location!

Planning the most important event Green Hub had ever put on was all set to go on Monday November 6^th, after 5 weeks of intense planning.

The on-stage team at Understanding I Am Ruth.
L – R: Angie Hemmings, Teen Counsellor; Flo Headlam, Patron; Tone Tellefsen Hughes: Kate Winslet: Dominic Savage; and Vanessa Lanham-Day

The event was called ‘Understanding I Am Ruth’, and we were lucky enough to have Kate Winslet as our special guest (she starred in the BAFTA award winning drama about a mother supporting her daughter through a mental health crisis), as well as the drama’s director, Dominic Savage. We wanted understand more about how the programme – which was filmed on location in Godalming – was inspired and created, as it was so relevant to the parents and teens that Green Hub supports.

Our goal was to create an evening that would get all the most important youth referrers in Surrey in one room for 2 hours – which was a major campaign in its own right. We also had several parents, as well as Godalming and Waverley royalty – Mayor of Godalming Adam Duke, and his consort Daniel Banks, and Mayor of Waverley Penny Rivers with Cllr Paul Rivers.

Once we’d got the guest list sorted, it was a massive effort to get the seating plan sorted and ready to go. And that doesn’t even begin to touch the sides – think not only A lister celebrities, but also our BBC celebrity Patron, giant raffle with BIG prizes donated by a dozen local businesses; buying the beers and plenty of Prosecco; planning and rehearsing the content; organising front of house; video, sound, lighting. You name it – we’d got it sussed.

Everything was looking good …. until the water in Godalming was switched off!!

We had planned for a lot – but I think it’s fair to say that we definitely hadn’t planned for that!

Our location had been generously donated by Charterhouse School – such a wonderful venue at their Ben Travers Theatre. But Charterhouse was right in the middle of the water crisis and the school had to close. It was midday on Sunday, the day before the event, when we realised that we had a stark option – cancel … or find another venue.

So, in classic Green Hub style we hit social media – the local community boards are brilliant for this sort of thing. We were amazingly offered 5 different venues, but the one we really coveted – Cranleigh Arts Centre – was the last to appear. We were so delighted.

Having chatted to Sophie, the centre manager, on Sunday evening, our Co-Founder – and project management supremo – Vanessa Lanham-Day focused everything on making it happen. The basics were all agreed with the venue and the production team – we just needed to get our guest speaker and audience there!

Operation Move That Audience!!

On the day, an orchestrated comms assault involving a zillion emails, texts and phone calls managed to ensure that all but 3 of our audience of 150 had definitely got the message. We just had to hope those 3 picked up their phone messages.

One of the team spent 5 hours Monday remapping the seating plan to fit Cranleigh. One of our Board members managed to pick up our set from Charterhouse and transport it to Cranleigh – it was on the back of an open lorry, so thank goodness it didn’t rain!

Then there we all were in Cranleigh at 4pm with all the components of an event – but in a venue we didn’t know. In one of the finest examples of teamwork we’ve ever seen; raffles were set up, a box office sorted, the bar appeared, mics were tested, videos cameras and laptops all in place. A veritable feast was set up in a studio and we were all fed and watered in plenty of time.

The audience started to arrive at 6.45 and we were all action stations. It ran like clockwork – we had a few no shows due to the new location, but only a very few. The audience were on our side, and we went up at 7.30 to a big cheer.

And then the PowerPoint failed! We scratched our heads, what could have possible happened? It had been working so well?

The tech team soon sorted the problem – an ‘air gap’ they diagnosed which, in layman’s terms, means that the laptop wasn’t plugged in! It was soon sorted and we were off and flying. It was a fantastic evening and the response we’ve had tremendous. We think we showed something of what the Green Hub is made of – stern stuff we think!

So, to our thankyous…

To Kate Winslet and Dominic Savage for being so gracious in sharing their time with us – it was magical.
To Sophie Woods at Cranleigh Arts Centre for being a lifesaving knight in shining armour (apologies for the mixed metaphor!). Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Sophie Woods, from Cranleigh Arts Centre
To our Patron and guest speaker Flo Headlam who arrived from Kent and gave an inspiring talk about the impact working in nature can have.
To Tim Ostle and the Charterhouse team who were thwarted despite their very best intentions.
To all the team from Godalming Theatre Group who helped us with all the production aspects – Joy, Denise, Keith, Eddie and AJ.
To Jordan Smith who took all the fantastic photos.
To our audience who turned up despite the late change and were simply wonderfully gracious.
But most of all, to our extraordinary volunteers who all pulled together to make this happen.