On Thursday 14th September over 30 women gathered at the wonderful Serotonin to share a nourishing meal and discuss how be can both more planned and present in family life. It was such a wonderful evening and I am truly grateful to the smart, warm and welcoming women who came along.
Thanks to the wonderful team at Serotonin, especially Ingrid, who helped make the evening run smoothly and had the space set up so beautifully. The space and the food really helped create such a positive and thoughtful environment for the dinner.
Many came on their own, but it didn’t take long for everyone to introduce themselves and get to know more about each other and their families. The evening was designed to foster new connections and sharing.
There were delicious kombucha cocktails (non alcoholic) on arrival.
Before we started on a lovely stand up entree.
Everyone sat down before our mains arrived and I spoke for about 10 minutes sharing how a few years ago I found myself in a place where I wasn’t living life how I wanted to. I was working too many hours (many unproductive), not getting enough sleep and spending more time doing for my family than being with my family.
Three main meals were served alternately, pizza, soup and an amazing nutrition bowl. And we had time to eat and talk about where we are currently with our life and what we might like to change.
I created a short booklet for the dinner and after mains I discussed the first two sections in the booklet – goal setting and habit formation. I love discussing these topics. Understanding them better has revolutionised my life and there is so much science behind them to talk about and explain why they are so important.
Feedback from the evening from both the post event survey and personal interactions has shown that this discussion was something the women found most helpful and for many has changed the way then think of goals and habits.
Then it was time for my favourite course – dessert! We had platters to share so we could all have a taste of the delicious raw treats (they were gluten free, dairy free and refined sugar free!). I still can’t decide whether the peanut brittle or the mint tart was my favourite!
After dessert I shared some key tips on how to be more productive with our days – and it wasn’t just about doing more. It was about learning to manage our time, energy and attention.
At the end their was a “good night” tea, time for a quick chat before heading home and even time for a turn on the swings!
I so loved the opportunity to meet with women who have been reading the blog for some time and who I have chatted with online via comments, emails, facebook etc. It was so easy to start chatting with everyone and I loved hearing about what challenges they were working on and what recent wins they had achieved.
Thanks so much to everyone who came along to make the evening such a wonderful night and something I will cherish for years to come.
Thanks also to the wonderful Uli who answered my call out to come along to the event and take some photos, which I have shared in this post!
Ulrike Perkins is a freelance photographer and mother of 3 based in Melbourne whose passion is capturing people short and tall in all manners of their lives. You can see more of her unique work at ulrikeperkins.com or connect via Instagram (@ulrikeperkins) and Facebook (@ulrikeperkinsphotography).
What next?
When I put the invitation out for the Planned & Present Dinner, I also put out a short survey to see if there was more interest in events outside of Melbourne. The survey results show solid interest in Perth, Sydney and Brisbane. I am going to look and see how I can work having events in these locations next year, so if you kindly left your email address in the survey you may hear from me!
There was also great feedback on the types of events people would like to see, so combining this with the feedback I have received from the events I have held this year, I hope to host more fun and helpful events in 2018.
In the meantime, if you are wanting to work on being more planned and present, the next round of the Planned & Present e-course will be kicking off in mid October. You can sign up here to be notified for the early bird special I am going to be offering to readers to celebrate Planned & Present turning one!