#virtual event uk

[startups-bar]

Best Virtual Networking Platforms for Professionals in the Startup Scene

Networking is a critical component of success in the startup world. With the rise of digital technology, virtual networking platforms have become indispensable tools for entrepreneurs looking to build connections, gain insights, and access resources. These platforms provide a space for early-stage startups to interact, share ideas, and collaborate within the broader startup ecosystem. Here, we explore some of the best virtual networking platforms for professionals in the startup scene, focusing on their features and benefits.

The Importance of Virtual Networking in the Startup Community

Virtual networking platforms play a crucial role in the startup community by offering a space for entrepreneurs to connect and collaborate regardless of their geographical location. These platforms are essential for:

Expanding Networks: Connecting with other entrepreneurs, investors, and mentors worldwide.

Startup Growth: Accessing valuable resources, advice, and opportunities for growth.

Fostering Startup Culture: Building a supportive community that encourages innovation and collaboration.

Top Virtual Networking Platforms for Startup Professionals

1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the most widely used professional networking platforms. It offers a robust suite of tools for networking, content sharing, and professional development.

Features:

Professional Profiles: Showcase your experience, skills, and startup projects.

Groups: Join relevant startup communities and engage in discussions.

Content Sharing: Post updates, articles, and resources to share with your network.

Benefits:

Wide Reach: Connect with millions of professionals globally.

Networking Opportunities: Easily find and connect with potential investors, mentors, and partners.

Learning Resources: Access LinkedIn Learning for courses on entrepreneurship and startup management.

2. Slack

Slack is a popular communication tool that has been adopted by many startup communities as a platform for networking and collaboration.

Features:

Channels: Create dedicated channels for different topics and projects.

Direct Messaging: Connect with individuals for private conversations.

Integrations: Integrate with other tools like Google Drive, Trello, and Zoom.

Benefits:

Real-Time Communication: Engage in real-time discussions and collaborations.

Community Building: Join or create startup communities focused on your interests.

Collaboration Tools: Use integrated tools to streamline your startup’s workflow.

3. Hopin

Hopin is a versatile virtual event platform designed for hosting online conferences, networking events, and meetups.

Features:

Event Management: Host virtual events with various interactive elements.

Networking Areas: Dedicated spaces for one-on-one networking and group discussions.

Interactive Sessions: Engage with attendees through Q&A, polls, and breakout rooms.

Benefits:

Comprehensive Event Solution: Manage all aspects of virtual events in one platform.

Networking Opportunities: Facilitate meaningful connections through structured networking sessions.

Global Reach: Host events that attract participants from around the world.

4. Zoom

Zoom is a leading video conferencing tool widely used for virtual meetings, webinars, and workshops.

Features:

Video Conferencing: High-quality video and audio for meetings.

Webinars: Host webinars with up to thousands of attendees.

Breakout Rooms: Create smaller groups within larger meetings for focused discussions.

Benefits:

Ease of Use: User-friendly interface with reliable performance.

Scalability: Suitable for both small meetups and large conferences.

Collaboration Tools: Screen sharing, chat, and recording features enhance collaboration.

5. Mighty Networks

Mighty Networks is a community-building platform that allows you to create a dedicated space for your startup community.

Features:

Community Spaces: Create and customize your community’s layout and features.

Courses and Events: Offer online courses, workshops, and events within your community.

Content Sharing: Share articles, videos, and other resources.

Benefits:

Customizable: Tailor the platform to meet the specific needs of your startup community.

Engagement Tools: Use built-in tools to foster engagement and interaction.

Integrated Learning: Combine community building with educational content.

Case Study: StartupsBar - Best Startup Community in the UK for Entrepreneurs

StartupsBar stands out as one of the best startup communities in the UK for entrepreneurs. It leverages virtual networking platforms to create a dynamic environment for its members.

Key Features of StartupsBar:

Virtual Networking Events: Regularly hosted events to connect members with mentors, investors, and peers.

Resource Sharing: Access to a wealth of resources, including articles, tools, and best practices.

Community Engagement: A supportive culture that encourages knowledge sharing and collaboration.

Impact on the European Startup Ecosystem

StartupsBar has made significant contributions to the European startup ecosystem by fostering a collaborative and innovative environment. Through its use of virtual networking platforms, it has enabled entrepreneurs to connect, grow, and succeed.

Conclusion

Virtual networking platforms are indispensable tools for professionals in the startup scene. Whether you're part of an early-stage startup or a growing business, these platforms provide the means to connect with the right people, access valuable resources, and foster a supportive community. By leveraging platforms like LinkedIn, Slack, Hopin, Zoom, and Mighty Networks, entrepreneurs can navigate the startup ecosystem more effectively and drive their startups toward success. Platforms like StartupsBar exemplify the power of virtual networking in creating thriving startup communities that support innovation and growth.

[tilluvirtualevent]

Virtual events refer to gatherings, conferences, or meetings that take place entirely online, rather than in a physical location. These events leverage various digital tools and platforms to facilitate interactions, networking, and engagement among participants from different geographical locations or if you want to organize these events by yourself then How easy will it be for you. With Tillu's powerful dashboard you can create and host Virtual Events in less than 2 hours! Tillu is the best Virtual Events Platform for you. Virtual events have gained popularity due to their flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and accessibility, especially in situations where physical gatherings may not be possible or practical. Visit our World's most dynamic Do-It-Yourself platform https://tillu.co.uk/.

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Good Omens graphic novel update: June 2024

Welcome to the June update. A lot of behind the scenes work at the moment but we're grabbing the travel sweets, popping in the Bentley and hitting the road. More on that below.

Admin

Ongoing reminder that the project FAQ can be found here. 

I pledged using my Apple ID, or no longer use the address my pledge is attached to, or I cannot work out what email address my pledge is connected to. What should I do? Please contact us via your Kickstarter account where the pledge is connected; we will be able to see on our system which address it is. If it's one you have access to, great! The FAQ has information on how to resend your invite link to access the PledgeManager. If it's one you are not able to access, then you can let us know which email is preferred and we can update this on the system, which will automatically send a new invite.

Events

We've had a lot of queries about when the Good Omens team will be attending events more formally, after some Aziraphale and Crowley spotting at conventions we'd been to previously. Well, we're excited to confirm the first: Good Omens HQ will be at ACME Comic Con in Glasgow, Scotland this September.

We'll be bringing the actual-real-life-home-to-Crowley-and-his-plants Bentley from Season 2 of Good Omens, the first time the car has been made available publicly for fans to come see and get photos with, ahead of its journey back to the set and the start of Season 3 filming.

We also see Quelin Sepulveda, aka Muriel, has been announced for the event for some additional ineffable joy.

You can get your tickets for ACME Comic Con here. We hope to see some of you there.

While we won't be rocking up with the Bentley to this next one, we want to let you know about Ineffable Con which, though sold out in person, is also taking place virtually in July. The fan-run event hosts great panels, auctions and more, with money raised going to Alzheimer’s Research UK, in memory of Sir Terry Pratchett.

Where next? We have - not an exaggeration - a list of about 200 events somewhere from when we asked fans this on Instagram and while we can't promise quite that amount of convention attendance, we're certainly looking to do some more things in future with Good Omens at large. Watch this space.  

Good Omens items...

This month has largely seen prototypes and samples for the wider Good Omens merch store arriving, and while we can't share those yet, we are certainly excited to see more fan product suggestions coming to life. That does, however, leave our public item updates a little slim on the ground.

To make up for that, here's some new panels from Colleen:

Also known as, "What could possibly go wrong?" And:

Also known as, "Well why don't you ▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇ ▇▇!@#▇" or words to that effect, we'd imagine.  

Update from Colleen

Following such a positive response to Colleen's piece last month, bringing you behind the scenes into making the Good Omens graphic novel, we are delighted to say that she has agreed to write something for our updates going forward! For June, she's going more in depth into the process of flatting and the technicalities of colouring on screen vs print. Over to you, Colleen.

---

I mentioned the other month that I use a flatter to help me with technical work on GOOD OMENS, and here is a great example.

This is my original, hand drawn line art.

And this is the flatting file which was created using the MultiFill computer program.

It will put your eyes out.

The raw image above demonstrates how the color art lines up solidly under the line art. If it doesn't do that, you get a weird phenomenon in print called ghosting, a tiny little line of white around each segment of color. I had this issue on one major project and ended up redoing every single color file after I got a look at the first printing. Nearly two weeks of work.

The same image with the line art on top.

The layer order looks like this.

Background copy is the clean, line art layer.

I scan the art at 600 dpi, then make the blacks pure black, the whites pure white. Then I convert back to greyscale, then RGB, then duplicate the layer. Then I delete the white on the upper layer so the line art layer is transparent but the blacks on that layer are not.

If you have blacks on a layer that has been multiplied, you can see slight color through those blacks. You want pure black.

The lower layer is where I use the MultiFill program to create the digital flats. First you use MultiFill to drop in the random colors, then the companion plug-in Flatter Pro to make those colors seal under the black lines.

This probably sounds like a silly thing to worry about, but if the flat colors don’t line up perfectly under the black line art, you get the dreaded ghosting I mentioned. You can see it below in this image. It’s a tiny little white line that will appear around the black lines and color areas.

This drives me nuts and is an absolute nightmare to fix.

It’s a very common problem, especially for people who work for web and don’t anticipate the problems going from web to print.

What looks great on your computer can cause big problems in print.

From here, my flatter Jul Mae Kristoffer, who is way over in the Philippines, does flatting that is more in keeping with the areas of color I want to isolate. As you see on Layer 1.

But again, this is still pretty ugly, and not what I would use for final color. Flatting is a technical issue, not a creative one, though in some cases a flatter will make choices you may use. Most of the time they don't.

Here is my final color page.

Sometimes my MultiFill flats are so wonky I have a hard time getting my brain to snap out of what I see before me. If I get stuck, it's a good idea to just pick at it and come back to it later.

If it really, really bothers me, I’ll take the MultiFill flatter layer and desaturate the color so it doesn’t poke my eyes out.

Here’s an example. The digital flat file.

The desaturated flat file that doesn’t make me want to poke my eyes out.

And the final color.

Sometimes I just put in a solid white layer so I don’t see the flats at all. Flatting is there to allow you to easily pick spots to color in, and doesn’t usually appear in the final work.

Sometimes I want to create my colors using transparent color over a white ground, which is more delicate in the final.

Here’s an example from Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. I also selected all black line art here and converted it to sepia to give it a vintage look. Except for the fairies. They’re green.

A colorist must also consider color settings.

Different clients can have different requirements. I find these color settings, which I got from the Hi-Fi Studio, to be pretty solid. I use them as my default for all my projects unless otherwise requested. If your publisher has other settings, they’ll usually send you a csf file which you can upload to Photoshop. The program will save your files and you can just switch between them as you need them.

This tells the printer things about the paper and the spread of the ink you will use. That’s what dot gain means - it makes printed color look darker than intended, so you set up your files to account for it.

When you hover your pointer over each box, it will tell you what each setting is supposed to accomplish.

Another really important thing to consider when coloring comics is color range.

I’m coloring this book in RGB range, but for print you use CMYK.

I’m about to confuse the heck out of some people with this post, I’m afraid. But here we go.

Here is this shot in RGB color setting.

And here is the same page calibrated for print in CMYK.

The biggest shift is in the reds. Print cannot match those reds.

You may not see much difference here, but it’s the sort of thing that drives artists crazy.

A computer should be perfect for conveying exactly what you want, right? It's all just 0's and 1's, binary information, and that information should be the same from one computer to the next?

Nope. Not even close.

First off, computer monitors must be calibrated. You can use a computer program or a tool that measures the color on your computer screen and then adjusts the color to an industry standard.

Have you ever been in an electronics shop where a bunch of TV shows were on display, all of them playing the same show, and have you noticed how different the color was from one TV to the next?

It's like that.

I freely admit I don't pay a whole lot of attention to calibration, but if I were a professional photographer I would. I'd have a little spectrometer attached to my screen and software would adjust my monitor to the best possible standard range. As it is, I just use the default setting on my computer and hope for the best.

If your monitor is properly calibrated and your art is shown on another monitor that is properly calibrated, the art will look almost identical from one monitor to the next.

YAY!

But from one monitor to the next, that's about where the resemblance ends.

Colors are calibrated to something called RGB, or Red, Green, Blue.

All colors come from a mix of red green and blue. At their greatest intensity, all the colors in the spectrum together become pure white light.

This is why RGB is called ADDITIVE color, because you ADD colors from the spectrum to get ALL colors, and all colors create the entirety of the rainbow, and pure white light.

Your computer monitor, your phone, your television, all images are created via light using RGB, a gamut that covers all possible colors that can be created.

That's a lot.

And that's why some of the colors you see on your TV or phone are so deep and intense.

For the widest possible range of color and intensity, you use RGB.

Unfortunately, there is what you can create with light, and then there is what you can create with pigment or ink. And that is why printing what you see on your computer almost never looks exactly like what you see in a book.

For printing, you must use a color setting known as CMYK. This stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key/Black.

In printing, the pure blue is actually Cyan and the pure red is actually Magenta.

CMYK color range is not created by addition, but by SUBTRACTION. In order to get the color you want, you reduce the percentage of one of the four colors for ink mixing. Mixing all colors, instead of giving you white, gives you black.

The gamut of CMYK is limited to what can be created with ink.

You've probably heard the term four color press? This is what that means. Four colors, with each color of ink run over the paper on rollers which, combined in varying layers of opacity, create all the printing colors you see.

But remember, what you see on your computer monitor and what CMYK gamut can handle are two different things.

Now, I’ve been really careful with the color settings on Good Omens, so there haven’t been any big surprises, but let me show you a snippet of a project I did for the French fashion house Balmain.

The RGB version:

And then this shot after it was converted to a CMYK file for print.

That's a pretty big difference.

Now, you see this shift mostly with vibrant colors, such as that pink there. But other colors hardly changed at all, right?

That's because this issue is about range of color. CMYK and RGB occupy a shared range which you can see demonstrated by this graphic I got from Wikipedia.

The graphic shows the RGB ranges supported by various digital formats. SWOP CMYK is the most common range my publishers use. Note that the bounding box line shared by the RGB and SWOP CMYK formats shares about half the range space. So whatever RGB colors you use that are outside that range will be digitally converted to the smaller SWOP CMYK range.

And you may not like what you end up with.

As you can see, some of the most ethereal and intense colors get lost outside of the SWOP CMYK boundary.

A look at the Dark Horse Comics color settings in Photoshop. Theoretically, this information should prevent your art from looking like mud on publication.

Now, after I just told you the dangers of coloring in RGB then converting to CMYK for print, I tell you I am coloring Good Omens in RGB anyway. There’s a couple of reasons for this.

Remember, RGB give you a greater range of color, so it can be to your advantage to preserve your original files using a format that gives you the greatest range.

Again, here is the unaltered file.

You can see what the CMYK result will be simply by clicking the Proof Colors button here. This will show you how the art will convert.

And the Gamut Warning will show you which colors are out of gamut range for print.

The intensity of that magenta and that purple in the top right are not going to print true.

This is how it will look in final.

So even if you do what you think is perfect color on screen, there is no way it can perfectly convert to print. Almost everything will involve a little bit of compromise.

Even though you have to consider the color shift issues, preserving your files in RGB gives you greater wiggle room, especially if you get lucky someday and get to work with a printer who can print in 6 colors. Or maybe some technology you don’t know about will pop up and make printing super glorious. Who knows.

Regardless, you should keep an eye on that gamut and color for CMYK print, while preserving your master files in RGB.

Until next time.

[theineffablecon]

🚫 No Blue Monday here! 🚫

If you're feeling blue today, we have some ineffable Good Omens announcements for both our virtual and in-person attendees that might cheer you up...

First up, we're delighted to announce two special guests - the wonderful Peter Anderson, who is joining us again for the FOURTH time to talk title sequences, and Colleen Doran, who showed us ALL OF THE ART from the graphic novel at TIC 4! 🥰

📢 For those of you thinking of attending TIC 5 in person, we are down to our last few rooms at the convention venue 📢

We do have overflow accommodation available and you can find out more information here:

If you're thinking of joining us virtually, tickets range from £5 to £15!

If you're in a position to book early, it helps with our forecasting - if you're not, tickets will be available up to (and, tech permitting, including) TIC 5!

Any questions, you know what to do, do it with style!

For our in-person delegates joining us on the Hambleden (aka Tadfield) trip, we have two treats to share...

We'll be travelling by vintage Routemaster bus and we'll be served dinner by Heavenly Crepes!

A TIC thread wouldn't be a TIC thread without a plea for volunteers!

You can find out more about the auction, exhibitors, programme, zine, vid show and volunteering using the menu at the top of this page:

Finally, our 2024 JustGiving page is open!

As always, all TIC events raise money for Alzheimer's Research UK in memory of Sir Terry Pratchett.

The 2023 total is coming soon, but it's over £40,000 - let's get to £50,000 in 2024!

That's all, folks - have an apology dance for such a long thread!

[anxious-witch]

Results and analysis of this survey I did few months ago about the perception of Eurovision among young people. I know some people were interested so here it is. I couldn't post it sooner so it wouldn't look like I plagarised a random tumblr account so! Here we go. These are more or less directly translated from the research part of my thesis.

I apologize for any mistakes made since the whole thing, including graphs and tables were originally in croatian, and given tumblr format, it's bound to be messy.

The age of the participants was 18+ due to ethical rules, but most of the them are young people in the age bracket 18-35, precisely because the opinion of young people who cannot physically be present at the event itself is often ignored. The research question was "How do young people perceive Eurovision?", and the goal of the research was "To see what kind of view young people have of Eurovision, and what they consider its most important aspect, entertainment, politics or something else entirely."

Considering all of the above, the participants, who were 559 in total, were asked 22 questions through an anonymous online survey that was conducted in the period from March 21, 2024 to April 5, 2024.

From this, three hypotheses were distinguished before the actual research;

H1: Young people view Eurovision more politically than the older generation.

H2: Young people focus more on the performance and the message of the song than on the quality of the vocals.

H3: Young people think that Eurovision is a competition for the audience, not for the jury, and that the winner should be decided by the audience.

For the sake of transparency, most of the data is expressed in percentages and due to the amount of data, some of the questions are additionally crossed referenced and compared to see how they interact.

Graph 1 shows the age of the participants, which was important for determining the dominant age group. As can be seen on the graph, the largest number of respondents are aged 18-24, followed by 25-35, which corresponds to the aim of the research, as the focus was on the opinion of young people about Eurovision.

Graph 2 shows the gender of the participants, in which it can be seen that the largest number of them were women, over 65%. The data on the second largest group of respondents was unexpected, as over 20% of them declared themselves non-binary. This percentage was certainly contributed by the fact that the respondents received the survey via social networks, especially Tumblr, and considering that the topic is Eurovision, which is known for its openness towards the LGBT community. Men made up less than 10% of respondents, and the Other category referred to respondents who either did not want to share information about their gender identity, or their gender identity was not part of the first three categories.

Table 2(changed it to graph here because of tumblr) shows the countries from which the participants come from, and this answer to this question was open, that is, the participants had to write it themselves. To make it easier to navigate through so many different answers, they are presented in a table.

Table 2 shows that the majority of respondents are from the UK, Finland, and Germany. USA and Croatia. The number of responses from Finnish respondents is at least partly caused by last year's competition, where their representative was the crowd favorite. As for the large number of respondents from the USA, it can be assumed that with the inclusion of voices from the rest of the world, they became more active in the Eurovision virtual spaces last year.

Graph 3 shows the answers to the question "Are you part of the LGBT community", where participants could answer with "Yes", "No" or "Other" in case they did not want to declare themselves.

As shown in Graph 3, it can be seen that the percentage of respondents who are part of the LGBT community is also influenced by the collection of data from social networks where the LGBT identity is more pronounced, but it does not deviate much from the Eurovision name "Queer Olympics". This is also important information that can be obtained through an anonymous survey, as most of the previous research was conducted on respondents from live events, so this question was often avoided due to doubts about the sincerity of the answers. Thus, over 80% of respondents identify themselves as part of the LGBT community, which confirms previous research on the importance of connecting with other queer people through ESC as an event.

Graph 4 shows the answers to the question "Do you watch Eurovision" where there were three answers; "Yes", "No" and "Ocassionally".

According to Graph 4, it can be seen that the majority of respondents (over 70%) watch Eurovision regularly, while another 23% watch it occasionally, probably depending on external factors. Only 6% of respondents do not watch Eurovision at all, which is logical in the context of solving the questionnaire about Eurovision itself.

Graph 5 shows the three associations the participants had to Eurovision. Sets of three words each were divided into positive, negative and mixed associations, and for the sake of simplicity of presentation, thus entered in the graph. It should be noted here that the majority of respondents still have positive associations related to Eurovision, while slightly less than 17% have negative associations, and only slightly less than 2% have mixed associations. It is also important to note that each association was separated before sorting, so it is possible that someone had both positive and negative associations that were added to one or the other, but if the separate ones were not in a mixed category, then they were not added.

The full question for participants was to choose from 30 songs in the last 10 years (with 3 answers offered for each year) who they thought won that year. The real winners each year are highlighted in yellow in Table 3.

Regarding the recognition of winners in the last ten years, Table 3 shows that the majority of respondents knew the winners. However, it should be taken into account that these are respondents who mostly follow Eurovision regularly, and for this reason every artist who was not the winner that year and has more than 10% of the votes is relevant. This group includes Zlata Ognevich from 2013, Dami Im from 2016, but also Sergey Lazarev from 2016 (most likely because the predictions were in favor of Russia that year, and Austria was the original audience favorite), Kristian Kostov from 2017, and Käärijä from It will be in 2023. Therefore, it is important to look at this table with the predictions of the winners for each year, and to compare it with the difference between the votes of the jury and the audience, but every passing of 10% in this survey is significant.

The full question for the participants was; Did the backstage content (i.e. preparties, interviews, socializing between contestants that is published on social networks) influence their decision on who they voted for. Answers were offered on a scale from "It had a lot of influence" to "It had no influence at all".

Considering the fact that Eurovision organizers invest a lot of money and time in the organization of content even before the competition itself, especially in their famous preparties, it is relevant to see that according to Graph 6, as many as 37% of respondents admit that watching this content directly affects who they vote for, although it is to a lesser extent. Of course, it should be taken into account that 31% of respondents are not influenced by this content at all in their decision to vote, but if we add neutral respondents and respondents who were not influenced by this content, we get about 53%. On the other hand, the total number of respondents on whom the content had an impact in general is about 47%, which means that the content is still quite relevant and good marketing for Eurovision itself, but also for the contestants.

The question for the participants was what they perceive as the main point of Eurovision. Answers to this question were offered, but respondents could also add their own answer. The responses "A mixture of more than the above" and "Political/economic gain" were written by respondents.

According to graph 7, most participants believe that the main point of Eurovision is entertainment (36.31%), and almost the same number think that the main point is for the competing countries to unite around something fun through the competition. While only about 8% of people think that the political and economic part is the main point of the competition. Considering the age of the respondents and the fact that many say that Eurovision is a very political event, it seems that most still focus on the main point as a kind of entertainment and unity between countries.

Graph 8 shows the answers to the question "What should voting look like?".

The answers confirm one of the set hypotheses, which is that young people think that deciding on the Eurovision song should have primarily been the decision of the viewers who vote, and not the jury. It should be noted that the answers offered to this question were "Only viewers should be able to vote", "It should be half-and-half", "There are different winners for the jury and the audience" and "I don't know/Neutral/On my own". In other words, the answer that both of them vote, but that the votes of the audience have more weight, is the answer that 20.57% of respondents wrote under "Other" in different forms.

The question shown in Graph 9 was what participants think the current Eurovision slogan is. There the answer was open and they had to write it themselves. Graph 9 shows that the majority of participants know the Eurovision slogan, which coincides with the number of respondents who regularly watch ESC. It is important to note that for the first time the slogan is the same as last year, which certainly contributed to the respondents' accurate recall of the slogan, which was the goal of the organizers when they decided on this move.

The question presented in Graph 10 logically follows on from the previous one, where participants had to answer which slogan they think best describes the idea/meaning of Eurovision as a brand. In Graph 10, it can be seen that the majority of respondents also agree that the current, permanent slogan of the ESC is the most suitable for representing Eurovision as a brand. Here the answers were already offered, and the slogans offered to the respondents were those that had been used in the last ten years, most of which alluded in some way to community. "United by music", however, incorporates both music and togetherness in one slogan, and it seems that it is precisely because of this that it is memorable and easy to associate with Eurovision.

In Graph 11, participants were supposed to express their general opinion about ESC. Here the answers were also offered on a scale from "Very positive" to "Very negative".

In Graph 11, it can be seen that the opinion of the respondents is mostly positive, over 50%, and even 22% of them are neutral about the view of ESC. Given that these are respondents who mostly watch Eurovision regularly, the assumption would be that their opinions are more polarized, either to one side or to the other. However, through the questionnaire, it can be seen that respondents gravitate more towards "predominantly positive/negative" when the more accurate answer would probably be "strongly positive/negative" when comparing their answers with the other associations and answers provided. When the divisions are narrowed down to positive/negative/neutral, the ratio of positive view of ESC is even more prevalent, and despite a lot of talk about political aspects and contest rigging, less than 1% of respondents have a very negative opinion about Eurovision.

In this question, participants had to answer what they consider the most important part of the contestant's performance, which is shown in Graph 12. This question touches on another hypothesis, and from the answers received, that hypothesis can neither be fully confirmed nor rejected. The answers confirm that the performance is a very important aspect, as predicted in the hypothesis, but the second most important aspect for the respondents is the melody of the song itself, which we assumed would not be so important and that the message of the song would be more important, which is not the case with the respondents . It should also be noted that the answers to this question were again only semi-structured and the respondents could write their answers. "A mixture of all of the above" and "Be a special feeling" are answers that were not offered, but were included by the respondents themselves as their answers.

Graph 13 shows participants' answers to the question of whether they prefer competitors from neighboring countries. Answers were offered on a scale from "Yes, I strongly prefer songs from neighboring countries" to "No, I never have a preference for songs from neighboring countries".

This question was relevant due to the media's frequent reference to the preferential voting of certain countries for their neighbors. The respondents show that this is a rare case, and that only about 11% of them had preferences for neighboring countries. This also coincides with the selection of the song for its performance, as most of the similarities between neighboring countries come through the melody of the song.

This question showed for how many participants the contestant changed their view of the country they represented, which is shown in Graph 14. The offered answers to this question were only "Yes" or "No". There are several studies on Eurovision as a mega-event and an event through which better diplomatic relations can be achieved. (Zahavi, Ariely, 2024) It can be seen that here the distribution of influence is more balanced, but almost 60% of respondents, most of whom regularly watch the ESC claim that their view of at least one of the countries has changed by watching their performance at the ESC. In other words, the large investment of countries in their representatives has its purpose.

This question is a continuation of the previous one, that is, if one of the contestants changed their opinion about a country, was it a positive or negative change of view. Answers are offered on a scale from "Strongly positive" to "Strongly negative".

As can be seen from the presentation on Graph 15, if the 42% of respondents who were not influenced by the competitors are put aside, the positive influence prevails again. However, it is important for which countries there are which impressions, for which reason these data were compared with the following question, which was: "If this influenced your opinion about a certain country, for which country was it?" Then we divided the countries that were repeated the most and compared the positive/negative impressions. For the sake of clarity, strongly positive/negative and mostly positive/negative are added together in the same column and put in percentages.

In Table 5, the data on the positive/negative opinion and on the countries for which the participants changed their opinion are cross-referenced. From Table 5, it can be seen that Slovenia and Finland are the countries most often cited by respondents as those whose opinion has changed to a positive one. Also, a large number of respondents left the country for which they had a positive change of opinion unspecified. It is important to add the popularity of Finnish and Slovenian competitors from last year to the very context of the analysis. As for the negative impression, it is evident that Israel is in the lead, even though 4.29% is still much lower than 11.45%, which is the biggest positive impression, that is still important data. It is an important fact that despite the large investment, Israel has such a negative level of impression, especially as the main sponsors of the ESC. However, this can be added to the hypothesis that young people still see Eurovision through its political aspect, and that the recent conflict between Israel and Palestine has only increased this negative view.

Graph 16 shows the answers to the question of how many respondents discovered a performer through Eurovision, and that they continued to listen to him after Eurovision. From Graph 16, it is clear that this was exactly the case for over 90% of respondents. The answers offered were only "Yes" or "No".

Table 6 shows which performers the participants continued to listen to after Eurovision. The answer to this question was free, and most respondents answered with more than one contractor.

These answers also confirm that positive impressions about the country are closely related to its representatives and fans who follow them even after Eurovision. Here again, you can see the huge influence of the Finnish and Slovenian representatives from last year, who greatly raised positive impressions for those countries. Måneskin also greatly raised the rating of Italy after his victory in 2021, but it should be taken into account that after a few years, fans of a band or an artist have a smaller association of them with that country. It should also be noted that many of the aforementioned artists are not winners, and many of them were not even in the top 3 at Eurovision itself. From this, it can be concluded that there is a difference in what is considered a Eurovision song, and what the interviewees consider in their everyday life to be the songs they want to listen to.

Graph 17 shows the answers to the question about what the participants think about the direct passage of the "Big Five" to the finals. Answers were offered on a scale from "Strongly positive" to "Strongly negative".

From the answers shown in Graph 17, when separating the answers into only positive and negative views about having a direct passage to the final, it is evident that about 55% of respondents have a negative opinion about it, and slightly less than 40% a neutral opinion. This confirms again that the majority of young people do not have a positive opinion about the privileged position of some countries, which is a direct influence of politics.

Graph 18 shows the answers to the question "Do you plan to boycott watching Eurovision this year" with the answers offered "Yes", "No" and "Maybe/I haven't decided yet." Here, of course, it was meant boycotting specifically because of the participation of Israel and the current conflict between them and Palestine.

The question about boycotting Eurovision was deliberately put last, so as not to affect associations and positive and negative impressions. The question could have been more properly asked in the form "Are you planning to watch Eurovision this year" as the word boycotting still came out as suggestive. As can be seen from the responses from Graph 18, more than 50% of the respondents said that they would boycott Eurovision, which does not fit in with the majority's positive impressions about the event itself, which we analyzed in the previous responses. In any case, this supports the hypothesis that young people view the ESC more politically than the older generation, as the majority of younger respondents were more inclined to answer the question about boycotting in the affirmative.

However, it was interesting to compare some of the responses with the respondents' decision to boycott. That is why in Table 5 we have combined the data of the General opinion on Eurovision presented in Graph 11 and the data from Graph 18 on boycotting watching the ESC.

Table 8 shows that almost 30% of participants with a positive opinion of Eurovision planned to boycott watching because of Israel's participation, while only slightly less than 10% of those with a negative opinion planned the same. It can be seen that this trend continues with other answers as well. The fact is that a positive opinion about Eurovision prevails among respondents, but almost 10% more of those with a positive opinion plan to boycott than those who plan to watch. For the same reason, data on respondents' viewing consistency were combined with their response on boycotting in Table 9.

Table 10 compares the age of the participants with their answers about boycotting. The percentages were taken from the number of each of the age groups, and not the total sum, as there were the most respondents in the first two groups, that is, from 18-24 and from 25-35. Nevertheless, this table is important to us because we can see a reconfirmation of our hypothesis that young people look at Eurovision more politically than the older generation.

Now, this is of course, very, very brief look into the whole thesis, without literature citation to back it up and without discussion because it's already way too long. That said, I don't wish to imply that people who said they are boycotting on the survey lied about it, I just thought it was an important look into why someone with generally good opinion on the event would decide to boycott and if age had anything to do with it.

If anyone has any questions, regardless if it has to do with smth being translated confusingly or about the data itself, please let me know! Also consider that this data, while it was overwhelming done via tumblr, also took participants via facebook and instagram and ofc people I know irl and people those people know, so this is not only tumblr mentality reflected either. Hope this satisfied everyone's curiosity!

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Do you all have any proof that Invictus wants nothing to do with Harry or is it just a hunch based on narratives you’ve made up yourselves? Or maybe it is just wishful thinking on your part?

First off, reading and context is fundamental. No one has said Invictus wants nothing to do with Harry. We’re saying that it doesn’t make sense why Invictus keeps Harry around when he doesn’t appear to provide them any value. From a liability and risk management perspective, they have to be doing something to protect themselves from his lack of engagement.

And it is actually data-driven speculation. I don’t make stuff up here; I am always researching, I am always reading, I am always learning, and that is what informs my theories. There is very little I take at face-value.

But since your insult was polite, I’ll let you look at my homework instead of telling you to go figure it out yourself. Just this one time.

So this is the financial report from the UK charity registry:

Expenses (money going out) and income (money coming in, i.e. the donations) are virtually the same. In other words: as of 2022, Invictus is barely breaking even. This is not good; it means, more or less, they're one crisis away from some serious problems.

It also means that their actual Games - which, in 2022 would have been The Hague/Dutch IG - are expensed entirely by the host city. So basically, the charity itself is nothing more than a glorified events planner spending someone else's money. That's...not exactly the mission we're told that Invictus Games is.

Now, that orange line there on the bottom is what the UK calls "governance." (In the US, we call it "administrative.") This is what it means, from IG's 2022 financial report:

Note that this doesn't include salaries for the 12 (as of 12/31/2022) employees at IG. According to Giving is Great, a UK charity watchdog, senior staff costs (i.e. salaries and benefits) is 26%, or approximately £500,000. Add the governance/admin costs, and we're looking at £750,000 a year just to keep the charity's lights on. When your total budget is £2 million, that's a big chunk of change. 40%, in fact.

Second let's look at their income. The UK charity registry breaks the "gross income" down into several subcategories. For Invictus Games:

(The column headers were cut off but from left to right it's 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.)

Meaning that in 2022, their income came from donations, trading, and charitable activities.

(Remember that in 2020, the Royal Foundation made a £1 million donation to Invictus Games, which I believe makes up the majority of that £1.4m donation. If that assumption is correct, then that means in 2020, Harry was only able to fundraise an additional £400,000 in donations. Now, 2020 was a very difficult year for a lot of charities and nonprofits so that steep dropoff isn't unusual to see in the financial reports.)

Now from the 2022 financial report, here's what these categories mean:

So just really quick. Unrestricted means that the recipient chooses where/how to spend the money. Restricted means that the donor directs where/how the charity spends the money. So Invictus could spend £381K of the donations (Category #2) anywhere they wanted to, but for the remaining £700K of donations they received, they had to follow specific directions on how to use it.

What this is saying is that of the total income earned by Invictus Games in 2022, only £1.08 million came from donations.

Now, in my (volunteer) experience working in nonprofit fundraising most lay people (i.e. members of the general public who donate to charities) don't usually direct or designate their donation. So most of the regular donations are going into the unrestricted pot. Corporate donors, sponsors, or partners are more likely to give restricted gifts, where they direct how the money will be spent. So based on my experience, I feel comfortable assuming, or suggesting, that £231,447 received in unrestricted donations is people like, you, me, and Sussex Squad donating to Invictus out of pocket.

That's a pretty poor showing. And in my opinion, it's a direct reflection of Harry's leadership; he isn't inspiring people to donate to Invictus. Instead, the bulk of Invictus's income/donations is coming from corporate sponsorships.

Most charities cannot survive on corporate sponsorships and partnerships. It does not guarantee long-term survival. Long-term survival is predicated on investments, endowments, and contracts...which Invictus doesn't have, which means their patron isn't doing his share.

Third let's look at the actual Games themselves. The Hague/Dutch IG was given a budget of €15 million (~$16 million). According to this leaked letter from the Dusseldorf IG Committee, the Hague IG Games actually ended up costing €25 million (~$27 million). That's a 60% increase, and it's impossible for all of that to be due to COVID-related inflation.

Going backed to the leaked Dusseldorf IG letter, their budget was about €27 million (~$29 million). It's being reported that the Dusseldorf IG actually ended up costing closer to €37 million (~$40 million). This is a 37% increase; they were also very over budget.

And in March 2023, Invictus Games 2025 signed and published, to their website, a Contribution Agreement outlining that Canada's budget for the Vancouver IG is $30 million CAD (~$22 million USD); $15 million CAD (~$11 million USD) from the province of British Columbia and $15 million CAD from the government of Canada.

So if I split the baby for budget overrun [(60% + 37%)/2=48.5%], we're looking at Vancouver IG to probably end up costing around $44.5 million CAD.

In other words...they're in trouble. Meaning that Invictus and its board should be working together with the local corporation(s) to cut costs and increase savings/get new sponsors and partners. Meaning that the patron should be out there campaigning and fundraising for money or figuring out how and where to cut costs...but he isn't.

Or those efforts aren't visible. Not when the competing PR is about Harry's attacks on the BRF, Spare, Meghan's merching, and stories like this one of key leaders being abruptly fired and whistleblowers leaking to the press.

Now why would someone be abruptly fired without notice? It's not for shock and awe. It's either for incredible malfeasance (like fraud and embezzlement) or because someone much higher up wanted it. Since there's no paper trail or proof of wrongdoing - which Vancouver IG would have leaked in some way, shape or form - all the evidence strongly suggests the two men were fired because someone else demanded it. Maybe, say, someone who costs so much more than he's actually worth, who causes more problems than solves, who has alienated a lot of public goodwill. Of course, that's just pure speculation. But it is strange. One person getting fired without notice, sure, not really worth paying attention. But two people? And two people who purportedly know a whole lot about what's happening behind closed doors? That's hinky.

Have I forgotten anything?

Oh, right. This: growing criticism and dissatisfaction from local host-nation communities, Invictus's competitors and their families, and social media over the Sussexes' inability (and disinterest) to promote anyone but themselves whilst attending events.

The last thing any brand wants (or needs) is an ambassador that alienates their core customer base and prospective supporters and dominates the news with controversy. Brands, including nonprofit organizations, rely pretty heavily on:

The goodwill and positive attention their ambassadors generate

The users, fans, supporters, customers, and consumers that follow their ambassadors and

The networks their ambassadors move in.

Harry doesn't do any of that either:

He loses public goodwill every time he opens his mouth and invites only criticism.

The customers (the veterans and their families) aren't happy that their efforts are overshadowed. The consumers (people at home following along) are unhappy and dissatisfied that they can't find information about the competitors or the Games themselves because the only press coverage is about Harry and Meghan.

Harry is completely excluded from the royal, military, international, and aristo networks that propped him up 10 years ago to launch this thing. Invictus can't tap into that anymore, so why should they keep him around?

Let's review.

Invictus's expenses and income barely break even. Further, their reserves allow them to operate for less than one whole year. That's a really uncomfortable place to be in. Where is their patron to help seek out income streams that would build up their reserves?

Based on donation data, they're wheezing along on spit and prayer. They rely almost exclusively on corporate sponsors/partners. There's no investments, no endowments, no contracts. Actual "from the people" donations is just paltry. Where is their patron to lead fundraising campaigns, recruit new sponsors, develop investment opportunities?

The costs to host the Games keeps ballooning. Some cost overrun is normal, expected, and even budgeted for, but not the amounts that Invictus keeps turning out. Where is their patron to help look for new partners or charm everyone over with budget cuts?

There was a personnel shakeup in the Vancouver 2025 leadership that caused a lot of questions and concerns about their readiness to host their events and revealed a lot of morale issues. Where was their patron to calm the chaos?

There's growing criticism over the patron's behavior that is reflecting badly on Invictus Games and their brand. Where is the patron changing his behavior, changing his attitude, changing his priority?

I'll tell you where the patron is. He and his wife are flying around the world to party at Soho Houses, whine about being cut off from his family after he spent 3 years attacking them, spending other people's money in ridiculous ways, and getting wastedly high after his wife and kids go to bed.

The longer Invictus Games is associated with that, the more it reflects on them and their brand. They can't afford that. Not when they're promoting themselves as "family friendly" or "family supporting" (which is how they've justified Meghan's involvement).

It doesn't make any sense for them to keep Harry on. He's not fundraising for them. He's not schmoozing. He costs more money than he brings in. The people they serve don't like him. He isn't bringing big donors in. He isn't speaking to or supporting his family.

And allllllllll this together is why I say "I wouldn't be surprised if Invictus is trying to phase Harry out." It's why I say "depending on how well Germany Invictys 2024 goes, that may be the proof they can survive without him."

It's data-driven speculation. Not something I've made up. The only thing that's made up is the speculation about why two senior leaders were so abruptly fired. But that isn't even part of the analysis or the calculation.

Next time, anon, you're doing your own fucking research.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

hi Elanor! I'm going to be Wales for the first time (and am wildly excited), do you have any recommendations for things that really shouldn't be missed in the Cardiff area? (please feel free to disregard if you don't feel like being a virtual tour guide, I've just been seeing your abundant enthusiasm for Wales on my dash for years and can't wait to visit myself)

:D :D :D

I'm doing so much for the Welsh Tourist Board today! They should pay me.

Okay, let's think... A lot of it will depend what you're into. Do you like history and heritage stuff? Wales is extremely rich in castles, so there's a whole load around there - Cardiff Castle, obviously, but also Caerphilly Castle is the second largest in Europe and has a fun leaning tower, while Castell Coch is just west of Cardiff and was built by a lunatic who wanted his castle to Look Right, and so features the sorts of parapets, towers and moats that a cursed Disney princess would be happy with. Said lunatic also built the Animal Wall around Bute Park, which is a lovely park just left of Cardiff Castle in the city centre.

Also St Ffagans Museum, that's in west Cardiff - that's one of those living heritage museums, so they've taken historic buildings from around Wales and very carefully, brick by brick, moved them into St Ffagans to preserve them. They've made it into a little village though, it's so cool (honestly I could write an entire post about St Ffagans alone). Aim to get there for mid-morning so you can buy fresh bread from the popty in the village square, they've usually run out by about 1.30. The sweet shop does GREAT lemon sherbets. There's a lot to see (including a couple of Eisteddfod Chairs :D), so wear comfortable shoes for walking. They also have a high ropes course, and various specific events.

And, Caerleon Roman Museum, north Newport. The Romans built a lot of forts in the UK which became towns, but only three fortresses, and only where vitally needed because of Extremely Restive Locals. Caerleon is the biggest of the three, and in the Mabinogion, that's where King Arthur's fortress is - Caerllion. Whole sections of it are remarkably well preserved, including the little amphitheatre, but they built an actual museum over the top of a chunk of it; it's pretty cool.

OH ALSO do you want to go down a coal mine? Big Pit in Blaenavon will take you down an actual literal coal mine. You do not know darkness until you have been down a coal mine. There's also the Rhondda Heritage Centre, which doesn't take you down but has built a coal mine set above ground and last time I went featured one of those rollercoaster simulators.

Leisure stuff: four different escape rooms, if that takes your fancy; technically six but avoid City Mazes and Play At Pins. Cardiff Bay is swanky as fuck (albeit the most expensive part of Wales, which is... still less expensive than London) and includes things like the Millennium Centre, which will have various shows on. Also the Millennium Centre's cabaret area is currently liberally coated with photos of my husband. Oddly oppressive presence. Unsettling.

Cardiff International White Water does white water rafting/tubing, kayaking, that sort of thing - super fun if you aren't terrified of water. Cardiff International Pool and Gym has some fun slides. Techniquest is a big science centre.

Oh, and as ever, if you want to do one of those guided tours there are a billion to choose from in Cardiff. Including a Doctor Who one, if that floats your boat.

Anyway I hope there is something useful in there!

[saintmeghanmarkle]

Prince Harry poised to cancel UK return for Invictus Games Service over security fears - ground hog day was 2/2 Harry. by u/Harry-Ripey

Prince Harry poised to cancel UK return for Invictus Games Service over security fears - ground hog day was 2/2 Harry. Despite the setback, (securitayyyyy) the source states that Prince Harry remains committed to the Invictus Games and its participants. The upcoming 10th anniversary service marks a decade since the launch of his initiative. As he finalises plans to attend, Harry may need to settle for a virtual appearance if his plans don't align with what security arrangements are on offer during the event.Why is this ’event’ even happening? Just another jolly for halfwit? Why not hold it in California, Texas, Jamaica, Canada, Florida, Africa, Germany…places where he isn’t frightened to go without met security?https://ift.tt/WRnAqNo this ridiculous cry baby EVER stop whining? post link: https://ift.tt/RUmlGPM author: Harry-Ripey submitted: April 24, 2024 at 12:24PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[lnmeetuphub]

Hi! Hayley here.

Welcome to the official tumblr account for the LockNation Meetup Hub!

Here you'll find all information regarding future meet up events - starting with the 2nd UK meetup taking place on the 27th & 28th of July 2024 in London, England.

Updates will come once things have begun to be set in place. We thank you for your incredible patience as we try to plan the best weekend for everyone.

We hope everyone is excited to come along, whether virtually or in person ⚔️

Our official twitter page is linked below for anyone who wishes to join us over there. Moderator Lily is currently posting clips from our first event that took place on the 27th of January 2024!

If anyone has any questions or queries, the DMs are open - please be aware that we all work/go to school full time so replies may not be instant as the team only consists of Lily, Hayley and Emily, but we will get back to you ASAP.

See you all soon!

- the LockNation MeetUp team.

[louisupdates]

[Translated from Spanish]

Louis Tomlinson raises funds to support children in Gaza

The British singer begins his tour of Mexico and has decided to collaborate with the organization War Child UK to benefit the human rights of affected children.

Andrea Elizondo / Diario de Querétaro

On the most important night of his career as a soloist, Louis Tomlinson decides to raise funds with the War Child UK organization to benefit Palestinian children who have been affected by the genocide in Gaza.

This weekend the visit of the British singer to the stages of our country begins. His presentation at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City is the largest of his tour with a capacity of up to 80 thousand people, becoming the first male act to perform a show on his own tour in said place.

Taking advantage of how significant this night is for his musical career, the British singer decided to organize a livestream to involve the rest of his fandom in the event.

Through the Veeps.com platform you can view the concert that will be held tonight in Mexico City in real time. The livestream will be directed by Sam Wrench, acclaimed director who has been responsible for the music documentaries “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Film” and “Billie Eilish: Live at the O2.”

Access to the broadcast of the event, which will start at 8:00 p.m. today, costs 288.66 pesos and can be repeated as many times as desired up to 72 hours after the end of the event. Although today the concert will be seen in real time, tomorrow, June 2, the 'encore' premiere will take place with exclusive behind-the-scenes material in addition to the concert video.

The virtual event is held in collaboration with the British organization, War Child UK, focused on the protection and attention to the needs of children whose human rights are violated in war zones. A portion of each ticket sold, as well as additional donations made during the event (options range from 16 pesos) will be donated directly to the organization.

This Tuesday, Tomlinson will be at the Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez Auditorium on his penultimate night of his “Faith in the Future World Tour.” Tickets to the event are completely sold out. The event with the public is at 9:00 p.m. and will feature the Australian group, DMA'S, as the opening act.

[tilluvirtualevent]

Benefits of hosting a virtual exhibition

Cost-effectiveness: Virtual exhibitions are much more cost-effective than traditional in-person exhibitions. There are no costs associated with renting a venue, catering, or staffing.

Global reach: Virtual exhibitions can reach a global audience, regardless of their location. This can be a great way to connect with potential customers and partners from all over the world.

Flexibility: Virtual exhibitions are more flexible than traditional in-person exhibitions. Attendees can participate from anywhere, at any time, using any device with an internet connection. This makes it easier for people to attend, even if they have busy schedules or are located in different time zones.

Engagement: Virtual exhibitions can be more engaging than traditional in-person exhibitions. There are a variety of ways to interact with attendees, such as live chat, video conferencing, and webinars. This can help to create a more personal and interactive experience for attendees.

Measurability: Virtual exhibitions are more measurable than traditional in-person exhibitions. You can track the number of attendees, the time they spend on your platform, and the pages they visit. This information can be used to improve your future events.

Sustainability: Virtual exhibitions are more sustainable than traditional in-person exhibitions. There is no need to travel or transport materials, which reduces the environmental impact of your event.

If you are considering hosting an exhibition, a virtual exhibition is a great option to consider. It is a cost-effective, flexible, and engaging way to reach a global audience.

[a-magpie-in-gravesfield]

The other day at the restaurant my friend joked the Coven Day Parade tickets could be for a real event, and I've been like - COULD I tho ??? I'm from the UK so I know my location isn't ideal, and I have zero knowledge on how to organize something like that, but now I'm kinda wondering if I could organize some kind of virtual event. Maybe something like creating a Discord server for just one day and some artists from the fandom could each show their artwork and talk about their art process etc in some kind of online panel ? There could be a watch party to re watch certain episodes, maybe I could see if there would be a way to invite people from the real crew for online panels or something. What do you guys think ? This is only an idea at the moment, but if you have more ideas and suggestions feel free to reblog and add your ideas so it all stays in one post :)

[theineffablecon]

#GO33 BIRTHDAY PARTY: WITH ADDED ROB WILKINS!

😇 Happy #GoodOmens Month! 😈

We are delighted to share that Rob Wilkins will join us for #GO33 on Saturday 27th May at 16:00 BST, for a virtual chat about all things “A Life With Footnotes”, the official biography of Sir Terry, written by the brilliant Rob.

Whilst Rob will not be able to answer questions on Good Omens 2 (we know, we know, “wait and see”…!), and we won’t be asking any, we hope you’ll pose your questions about the wonderful Sir Terry and more here.

Tickets for #GO33 are free. Should you wish to make a contribution, as always, we are raising money for Alzheimer's Research UK in memory of Sir Terry. If you would like to donate at another time, or give the fundraising page a share, please visit our JustGiving page.

Ella (@AppleSeedsGO on Twitter) will also be hosting the most fiendish Good Omens quiz yet-score yourself, the madness is just for fun, as it’s likely to be our FINAL QUIZ BEFORE GOOD OMENS 2!!! You can also host a chat, activity or game by filling out this form.

As always, we will have text only rooms, and there is no requirement at any of our events to come onto voice or video.

If you have any questions, please get in touch either by DM or via the website and to register for free, or for a donation to Alzheimer's Research UK, please visit: https://www.theineffablecon.org.uk/event-directory/

[mariacallous]

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a new initiative to expand Holocaust education across British schools, and said the government would build a long-promised Holocaust memorial next to Parliament.

Starmer made the pledges Monday at an event with 500 guests, including British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, hosted by the United Kingdom’s Holocaust Educational Trust. Starmer cited declining participation in Holocaust Memorial Day events as well as a rise in antisemitism following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war last year.

According to the Community Security Trust, which monitors antisemitism, antisemitic incidents in the country more than doubled in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2023.

“You know, every year we say never again,” said Starmer. “Yet on Oct. 7, over a thousand people were massacred by Hamas for the very same reason: because they were Jewish. We say never again, and yet in the last year we’ve seen record levels of antisemitism right here in Britain. Hatred marching on our streets, the pulse of fear beating in this community.”

Starmer became prime minister in July, winning a landslide victory for his Labour Party after 14 years of Conservative rule. He took over Labour from former party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who faced repeated accusations of antisemitism. Starmer, whose wife Victoria Alexander is Jewish, worked to rid the party of antisemitism when he took its helm.

“We will fight this with everything that we have got,” he said. “Just as I fought to bring my party back from the abyss of antisemitism, I promise you I will do the same in leading the country.”

Efforts to establish a British national Holocaust memorial have been underway for a decade. But the plans have been met with objections ranging from concerns about landscaping issues to concerns about overplaying Britain’s role in the rescue of Europe’s Jews during the Holocaust.

“We will build that national Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre and build it next to Parliament, boldly, proudly, unapologetically,” Starmer said. “Not as a Jewish community initiative, but as a national initiative — a national statement of the truth of the Holocaust and its place in our national consciousness, and a permanent reminder of where hatred and prejudice can lead.”

Starmer said that Holocaust education would stay in Britain’s national curriculum, and that the government would mandate it across schools.

“First, the Holocaust will remain on the curriculum come what may,” Starmer said. “And second, even schools who do not currently have to follow the national curriculum will have to teach the Holocaust when the new curriculum comes in. For the first time, studying the Holocaust will become a critical, vital part of every single student’s identity. And not just studying it — learning from it too.”

As part of the new initiative, students “should have the opportunity to hear a recorded survivor testimony,” Starmer said in his remarks Monday.

In addition to pledging to build the Holocaust memorial, Starmer said his government would continue funding the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz program, which sends students to Poland to visit the concentration camp, to the tune of nearly $3 million next year.

He also pledged to encourage students to meet with survivors or interact with them using virtual reality, and said he would travel to Auschwitz personally.

“I know there is nothing quite as powerful as seeing it for yourself,” he said.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

“This time he’s threatening to cancel his appearance if he doesn’t get full security protection.”

Thank you for posting the link.

Having read the article carefully I cannot decide if HE has announced to Invictus Games that he will be video streaming, as he did for the Diana Awards or if THEY have told him they prefer a video stream - in advance to the UK franchising the Games between 2025-7 (as Germany has just done) or if it’s a blackmail attempt for RAVEC.

My gut feeling is that Harry demanded to do a virtual appearance if they don't give him the full RPO detail he's requiring. He wants to be seen as important as William, and William has done the video appearances when he can't be there.

Another thing that William does, which I can see Harry trying to do as well, is deputize one of the cousins or a fellow government official to attend events in his place. Some recent instances - when William deputized Lady Gabriella to attend King Constantine's funeral on his behalf and when he asked Jacinda Ardern to speak at the UN for Earthshot immediately after The Queen died.

I can see Harry wanting to deputize Eugenie for this, or maybe he'll try to get back on the Beckhams' good side by asking them to do this.

I'm also fairly certain this isn't an ultimatum for RAVEC. This is a threat to St. Paul's Cathedral and Invictus Games, where he's telling them "YOU leaked this information, YOU need to fix this so I can attend. You can reschedule it, let me Skype in, or pay me my security."

RAVEC doesn't give a hoot about what Harry wants or what he's trying to extort out of them. Their stance, backed by the courts, is very clear: Harry doesn't get Category 1 protection like heads of state and their immediate families. He gets Category 2 protection like deputy assistant secretaries. They're not budging. Harry knows they're not budging. He's going after Invictus Games and St. Paul's with this because they can change the circumstances that could force RAVEC to re-evaluate. (I hope that makes sense - what this story reads like to me is Harry complaining to Dad that Mom said 'no' and hoping Dad does X so Mom has to say 'yes'.)

[hexpositive]

Hex Positive, Ep. 036 - Margaret Effing Murray with Trae Dorn

Margaret Murray was a celebrated author, historian, folklorist, Egyptologist, archaeologist, anthropologist, first-wave feminist, and the first woman to be appointed to the position of lecturer in archaeology in the UK. So why so we get so annoyed whenever her name is mentioned in conversations about witchcraft? Well, it all has to do with a book Margaret wrote back in 1921…which just so happened to go on to have a profound influence on the roots of the .modern witchcraft movement.

Nerd & Tie senpai and host of BS-Free Witchcraft Trae Dorn joins me in the virtual studio to discuss the thoroughly-discredited witch-cult hypothesis, Murray’s various writings and accomplishments, and why modern paganism might not have caught on so strongly without her.

Hex Positive is now on YouTube⁠!

Check my ⁠Wordpress⁠ for full show notes, as well as show notes for past episodes and information on upcoming events. You can find me as @BreeNicGarran on TikTok, Instagram, and WordPress, or as @breelandwalker on tumblr. For more information on how to support the show and get access to early releases and extra content, visit my ⁠Patreon⁠.

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