Richard Mallinson is a Third Year Politics student. He has been involved in organising One World Week for the past two years and this year has the role of Finance Officer. He tells us his thoughts and feelings as he makes sure everything goes to plan during the week. Friday 6:15pm The week has well and truly started, after a week of early starts and late nights getting the final preparations done and starting to spread the word amongst students on campus we are finally in One World Week!
 | | Richard Mallinson |
Last night we had the media launch with speeches and taster performances of the events ahead and tonight we have our free World Music Concert featuring everything from Chinese Opera to contemporary jazz. Amongst the teams the stress levels have been building but everyone is just so keen to see the week succeed that the energy levels are amazing. Whatever happens in the next days everyone can be proud of all the work they’ve done, it’s going to be an amazing week, lets just hope we all survive it! Sunday 10.05am I’m sitting in the office on the third day of One World Week. We’ve had the world music concert which was absolutely beautiful, and three really interesting Forum talks yesterday. My mum came to visit for the concert and the events yesterday, I’m so proud that after 3 years of my involvement in OWW and constantly talking to her about it she has been able to come and see a little bit of what we are all working on.
All around me members of the exec (the key volunteers who hold the week together) are getting radios out, starting to brief for the days events and trying to solve the million and one little problems that arise. This morning we’ve already had to research when Coventry Cathedral holds mass and make last minute arrangements to transport some of our speaker guests over there, had one speaker turn up hours earlier than expected and I’ve tried to sort out getting a ticketing computer working. Today we have rehearsals for the 300 performers for the world party, our final event. Sometimes I get so caught up in one aspect of the planning that I forget how many people are getting ready to put on performances, share their cultures or simply get involved. I’m really hoping to get a chance to watch some of the dances today as I’ll be on duty for much of the show itself. Monday 7.05am I woke up this morning before 7 am, which for a student is practically an hour of the night, and yet this is my long night of sleep as I went to bed over 6 hours earlier. We made it through all the weekend events, and spent last night chilling out and getting a take-away. | "The week has shown me what can be achieved through passion and dedication and has left me with friendships, skills and memories I will treasure" | | Richard Mallinson |
I’ve been amazed by the interest in the Forum this year and so impressed by what the team has managed, I was on that exec last year and it feels as if they have taken the Forum to a level that we could have only dreamed of. The quality of the speakers, the events and the discussion held this weekend has really shown the potential that the Forum has to add so much to One World Week. Today is the first day that we have events from all four pillars of the week – Festival, Arts, Forum and Sports. The union needs to be decorated for Great British day, the weather needs to be kind to the carnival around campus (fingers crossed), there are loads of discussions and interactive events and we have the beginning of our artistic events. Everyone is going to be stressed and I just hope we can all work together and get all the events running well. Monday 3:40pm
I’m sitting sorting out some important emails and having my first food – apart from free candyfloss – for 9 hours. Today has been amazing so far, the whole of the Students’ Union has been redecorated for Great British Day and is absolutely buzzing with activity. I just watched the start of a carnival around campus, which was opened by a performance of the ‘Haka’ by the rugby team and led by a professional marching band. I’ve been selling tickets all day and it’s simply amazing how fast they are going, as fast as we work there always seems to be a queue. More and more of the exec team from last year are coming back to visit for parts of the week, it’s great to think that this is something which will continue to unite us after we leave Warwick. Tuesday 7:55pm Today has been really stressful, getting up at 7 after 4 hours sleep was alright and the first few hours of the day were pretty peaceful. Things really started to get complicated around 11am, tickets for tonight's event have been selling too slowly and the pressure is on to ensure that we don't have a financial problem. Lots of different tactics have been used and now we're just hoping for a last minute rush tonight and lots of people at the doors. I got close to my limits for a few minutes around 3, luckily I had a seminar which meant that I had to get out of the Students' Union for an hour and that gave me the chance to clear my head. Since then things have improved, everyone has pulled together and a lot of problems have been solved. Tonight I'm going to be working the doors of the event which will be cold but will be a good chance to meet everyone coming into the event. Thursday 10:45am Last night was our annual fashion show, this year, for the first time we moved it out of the Students’ Union into the huge Butterworth Hall in the Warwick Arts Centre. This gave us a much bigger stage and allowed everyone to watch the show with a good view from a seat. I only watched a few of the acts as I spent most of my time running the doors and solving problems. One of the features of One World Week is that the more involved you are in it the less you seem able to actually experience any of it. Instead we have a totally different experience of working as part of such an amazing team and really pushing ourselves. Last night seemed to be about as difficult as possible for ticketing. Arriving at the venue an hour before doors after a stressful drive to central London to collect a hair stylist for the show I was suddenly told that the Arts Centre stewards wouldn’t be checking tickets or controlling crowds at the doors and that we would have to do all of this with our volunteers. What really annoyed me was not having any warning that we would be needed, this meant we had no plan; less helpers than we could have arranged for and ended up looking less professional than we needed to. Luckily the show itself was amazing. As if that wasn’t enough I then moved over the Union entrance as a show afterparty was happening there. Some mistake had been made with electronic tickets so that nobody was showing up as having bought their tickets, we ended up using paper lists to check in over 1000 people. It was all stressful but we made it through pretty well and everyone worked well under pressure. Friday 6:55pm I’m getting really tired now, I’ve been getting less than 5 hours sleep a night and working for at least 18 hours a day, and I’m not even the busiest exec member. Being out on the doors each night is passing more quickly than I expected and luckily we have the chance to get inside for a couple of hours of the night. Last nights D’n’B and Dance night was simply amazing, our exec in charge of tech, Marc had decided to get lasers in for the show and they looked brilliant. I spent part of the night standing in as photographer which has always been a passion of mine. Today went pretty well, we have sold loads of tickets for tonight’s event and we have just sold out of tickets for our finale the World Party and World Buffet tomorrow night, which means 2,700 people will be coming. I’ve got the chance to get a bit of food before getting ready for tonight so I’m going to run. Saturday 4:30pm Very stressful last minute preparations for tonight, passes to be printed, guest list needs writing and a thousand other jobs. As so often happens I’ve had to shift gears today from having lunch with Professor Rajan the chief economist at the IMF who is speaking at Forum; to becoming a security guard for his event and then to some tech setup. If nothing else this week teaches you to work under pressure and be versatile. Sunday 11:30pm Well it’s all over…I feel relief that I can get a good nights sleep and try and get my life back in order, I’ve even managed to leave campus and get back to my home in Leamington for the first night in a week. I also feel quite empty, after such an amazing experience it’s hard not to have a come-down and I felt the same way last year. The team has been absolutely amazing and I’ve made a lot of good friends but already people are getting back to their own lives and things will never be quite the same again. Last night didn’t go as well as I had wanted in terms of doors. Problems with the tech for the performances and slow serving in the buffet meant a lot of people were waiting out in the cold for a long time. I was on the receiving end of quite a lot of complaints and I found it really upsetting that something I am so passionate about wasn’t perfect and that I was powerless to change it. Thanks to some brilliant work by the union stewards and the team helpers we did manage to get everyone inside and the show itself was great. We came off duty at midnight and then the party really began for us, having been up on stage in front of everyone and sprayed with champagne the whole exec was buzzing and despite being exhausted we stayed on till 4am. Getting up late today was such a novel experience, as was not feeling pressured to get jobs done. Twelve of us went for lunch (which ended up being at 4pm) and just enjoyed the freedom to relax. After that there was some clearing up to be done, the week of events may have ended but we still have a lot to do and before we know it a new team will have emerged and work on One World Week 2007 will have started. For me this has been my third and final year working with One World Week, it has taught me more about myself and others than my degree or any other thing I have done. The week has shown me what can be achieved through passion and dedication and has left me with friendships, skills and memories I will treasure through life. We run the week to bring excitement, understanding and enjoyment to all the people who attend events, but for me it will always be more about the people who get involved. I will always be grateful to Ingrid the coordinator, her deputy Marc; all the execs and the one hundred and sixty team helpers who made this brilliant project possible. | 
