An Unexpected Saturday
by Scott
One of our local rope gurus, Matt, invited Club X to Graydancer’s Ropetastic Unconference Extravaganza. On Saturday, January 16th, Cobi, our Club X Workshop Coordinator, and I walked into a packed house of 50+ people, some familiar local faces but others from Los Angeles, Kansas City and even one couple from Canada. Graydancer, from Wisconsin, began the day with an explanation of his concept for the conference. This is an excerpt taken from Graydancer’s Blog:
“The concept of the unconference (and what is known as “open space technologies”) came from the tech & business fields, where some people noticed that while events might have one or two presenters who gave interesting topics, most of the really stimulating and constructive conversations were spur-of-the-moment pickup meetings between chance individuals who happened to chat during a coffee or meal break, or hang out in the hotel bar or lobby later. They began to wonder if there could perhaps be a conference that was entirely made up of these kinds of moments.”
Graydancer proceeded to hand out sticky pad sheets of paper where one could put a topic or technique they wanted to present or facilitate. The wall first filled up slowly but gained speed with around 20 topics ranging from suspension bondage and a one handed knot to takedowns, interesting BDSM implements and breath play. These discussions and demonstrations were to be taught by local and non-local kinky people, not necessarily experts but by people with various skills and experience sharing what they had picked up and what worked for them. I was amazed and inspired, and I learned how to properly perform breath play. There were 2-4 demonstrations and seminars happening at the same time that lasted from 15 minutes to around two hours, depending on how long it took to share the technique or idea. The agenda was developed by the skills of the attendees and the length was however long it needed to take.
What started out as apprehension turned into an experience of a lifetime that taught me not only new skills but also that my preconceived notions often are my limitation to my BDSM and life path growth. Thank you, Matt, for the opportunity to be a part of this.
Reprinted with permission from the Editor, Chainlink Newsletter, Club X, San Diego, CA 2/2/2010