Presenting tour report

MISSION: Presenting tour ITS#THREE

OBJECTIVE: to present to the schools and to the international press the ITS#THREE project. To explain the event in detail, to increase the curiosity, the attention and the perception of the event… to get press coverage

STYLE: power point presentation with last edition’s video to the students, customised press conference (still using ppt)…sometimes former finalists came as testimonials to support us

TERRITORY: the world: EVE staff in Europe+USA+Cuba… ITS friends, teachers, ex competitors in Brazil, Colombia, Singapore, Giappone, India, Norvegia.

I wrote a longer report, a diary actually, that the website editors (still us!!) cut cold heartedly … they gave me just 25 lines/half a page + facts&fingures to squeeze in three weeks of adventures. Aaaah and I have already wasted 3 lines …

FACT&FIGURES
Tour Europe: 26 January? 13 February ‘04
Tour USA? 28 February – 4 March ‘04 still to happen
EVE Staff: Barbara (thinks&rules), Lidia (models Teppei Jacket), Sergio (models ITS T-shirt), Maurizio (films&drives)…
Countries: 6
Schools: 17
Press in schools: 4
Press Conference: 3
Friends Met: Many
Ex competitors: 8
Hotel/Bed&Breakfast/living rooms: 7
Flights: 4… of which one really really late
Rental cars: 5… among which a sexy black Mercedes, which, despite my wallet has been Maurizio’s honey bunny… Maurizio beside being a perfect driver, has a passion for cars…
Trains: 2
Taxi: lots
Boats&Ferry: none
Cuisine: Italian, Thai, Indian, French, Indonesian, Arabic, Vlaamse Fritjes+ falafel at any time of the day and night… peanuts and beers… huge breakfasts
Luggage: 14? video projector, 2 laptops, mike, speakers, 50 press kits, 80 kits to apply, 50 ITS t-shirts, press reviews, Ingeo fiber samplebook, cd’s, photos, fabrics, Einav Zucker diesel collection, Teppei Sugaya Diesel collection… our stuff
Over a month to organise the whole shebang
Tour programme consists of 16 pages of… sleeping at… wake up at… don’t forget Sergio’s birthday…
Scouting tour cost: 1% of total ITS#THREE budget… all low cost (Ryanair, EasyJet, Orange… )
Emails written to organise everything 534
Emails received to organise everything 258
Phonecalls: too many
Medical Insurance Extension for foreign countries: done
Company Insurance: done.

That was the third and last presenting tour in numbers, because in 2005, if ITS survives, things will change: we will still go to the schools, but not to present the project, we will go to discover the students work instead, in order to have clearer ideas during the pre-selection… in a larger number of schools to have a better perception of the worldwide schools level… there is a time to inform, and there is a time to search…
It was wonderful this last tour and there’s still NY to face?fear, emotions, surprises, enthusiasm, love, appreciation… And meeting a lot of friends, Franc’ who always supported me, Jerome (we spent a beautiful evening cooking and improvising a home theatre with our video-projector while outside a snowstorm brewed… Paris slept under a soft white blanket) Tony, silent but smart, attentive and more sensitive than a leaf in the wind… ex competitors: Yuliati, Sophie, Joline, Kelly, Jonathan, Cathy, Veronique, Teppei, Takaharu, Lela (we nearly saw her…) Angelique (thank you for that fantastic evening with friends)… and thanks to Victor who organised a special dinner for sergio’s birthday, with a birthday bread (a birthday cake would have been too normal) with 29 candles! we faced presentations with over 120 people and others with just 5 students… we were rather silly in the latter, laughing and joking, even though considering where we were we should have been extremely serious for keeping appearances at least… instead we just HAD LOT OF FUN… I would like to thank you all to have welcomed us, to have listened and to have emanate that kind of light we are looking for… light of beauty… thanks to my fellow explorers for making me laugh and have fun and not take life so seriously…
Everyday I ask myself whether to carry on going with ITS or not… it is complicated it is hard, it drains all your energy, it does not leave time for a private life, it is everything… and then again you realise that there is even more to do… to find job possibilities for those smiles, for those dreams to come true…
Sometimes I think it is all useless… to change things… to try to make the fashion system better… to deal with giants that could destroy one with a finger…
Sometimes I think it is wonderful… I think the event it is the synthesis of my Weltanschaung…
I hug you all, with the hope to meet you again soon, in one way or the other… you are all in my heart, in alphabetical order divided by nation

Barbara (aka Frankie B).