On Monday September, 20th I did my first regional branch training in Southampton! After boarding a southbound-train at London's Waterloo station I sat back in my comfortable 1st-class seat to relax a bit, review my training notes, and have a read through the Southampton chapter in my copy of Lonely Planet England.
Chapter is a generous word as the Lonely Planet dedicates a little under one page to the city, and with what press it does give Southampton, it's not particularly complementary. The first line reads: "Frankly, there isn't much to see or do in Southampton...". Admittedly it did go on to give some interesting details of Southampton's history and it's few claims to fame (most notably that it is where the Queen Mary and the Titanic were built--although I'm not sure you'd brag about your great achievement of building the Titanic, would you?)
Anyway, even with the lackluster picture painted by the Bible I noticed that as the train approached my destination I could hardly contain my excitement. A big part of the reason I was in the UK was to get face time with individuals and speak candidly and informally with them about Planeterra, our Partnership with the not-for-profit, and the new Travelling with Purpose brochure. Although I had already done a hand full of training sessions in London, this was my first time 'going on the road' and I was ready!
Although admittedly small and not terribly exciting, I found Southampton to be most enjoyable (I suppose might have changed my tune if I had more than a couple of hours to kill, but I didn't.) After spending sometime exploring the city I went to the STA store, put in an order for pizza for the staff, and went to pick up beer and wine.
The presentation went great, the staff was awesome, and I think everyone was really excited about Planeterra (Mission Accomplished!)
Immediately after the presentation I had to run to catch the 9 PM train back to London. The sooner I could get back to London the better because the next morning, I had a train to Edinburgh to catch!
Cheers,
Dan
Apologies for the poor footage (cutting my eyes off and instead centering the camera on my teeth and big nose). I'm pretty new at this :)
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