Your forumfest
Jan 09 ForumFest article.jpg
The big plan
Take 60 lively women, add a steady flow of wine, some laughter and a few classic disco hits. Mix together in a smart Yorkshire hotel, and what do you have? A recipe for a good time, if the first woman&home Forumfest is anything to go by.
Women from all over the country converged at The Royal York Hotel one weekend in October. Their ages ranged from 30-something to over 70. Married, single, with kids, with careers – their lives couldn’t have been more different. But they all had one thing in common: they’d found friendship on the woman&home Forum. They’d shared laughter, tears and some of their deepest emotional dilemmas with their friends online, and now, for the first time, they were about to meet face to face.
The key players
The get together was the brainchild of Lisa Martin, Veronica Cutchey, Sally Derbyshire and Jill Johnson, four friends who met on the Forum back in February. “My daughter had just gone off to university and I was feeling very down,” recalls Lisa (aka LisaFizzy). “So I posted a message on the Forum asking if anyone else out there was going through the same thing. The outpouring of warmth and sympathy I got in response was amazing.”
It was Jill who suggested they have a mass meet up with other Forum members. “The Forum picked up on it and we started throwing ideas around,” says Veronica, 47. “It turned out we were all thinking the same way, so we decided to give it a go.”
The Forumfest
The excitement was already building on the Friday night, as the first of the Forum members began to arrive. They came from as far away as Scotland and the south coast. One, Chatty Cathy, even flew in from Northern Ireland for the occasion.
By Saturday lunchtime, when the Forum members met for afternoon tea in the beautiful panelled Oak Room, the place was full of laughter and chat, as strangers greeted each other like long-lost friends, and women who had shared their innermost feelings with each other came face to face for the first time.
Big night in
There was time for members to do some sightseeing or shopping in York (or catch up on some sleep, in the case of those who’d been partying the night before). Then it was on with the glad rags for the evening meal.
This was the chance for Forum members to dress up and let their hair down. And they really put on a show, as Lisa explains: “We were late down to dinner, and by the time we arrived everyone was gathered around the staircase having their picture taken. They all looked so beautiful – everyone had made a real effort.”
What next?
“Everyone kept asking us when the next Forumfest was going to be,” says Lisa. “We all need a break before we think about organising another one, but after all the fun we had, we’d definitely do it again.”
Inspired to join our forums?
It couldn’t be easier! Just follow these five steps and get chatting:
- Go to the Forum and click on “new user registration”.
- Fill in the simple form to create a user ID and profile.
- Choose a login name and password you can remember. Once you’ve chosen your login name, you can’t change it, so be sure to choose carefully!
- Choose a display name. This will be the name shown on the Forum. It can be the same as your login name or something different.
- Once you have signed up and logged in, you can join in discussions.
