{"id":143,"date":"2016-11-16T17:02:20","date_gmt":"2016-11-16T17:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/asteroid\/?p=143"},"modified":"2016-11-16T17:09:46","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T17:09:46","slug":"work-package-1-celebration-event-from-the-other-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/asteroid\/2016\/11\/16\/work-package-1-celebration-event-from-the-other-side\/","title":{"rendered":"Work Package 1 Celebration event, from the other side"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Back in the days when summer was around the corner, we thought it would be a good idea to host a small \u201cCelebration Event\u201d to congratulate ourselves on the completion of Work Package 1 (or \u201cWP1\u201d for short) of the project. The notion being to rally together the core team who have been involved with WP1. The Ophthalmologist &amp; Orthoptists from Newcastle Eye Clinic, Game developers from Fluid Pixel, Patient Panel members, local Optometrists, along with everyone based at the University, were invited to come together for a brief update on the project\u2019s progress followed by food, drinks, and socialising. Sounds simple enough, surely we can get that arranged in no time \u2013 as long as we can find a date that everyone can attend&#8230; ah, now that\u2019s where things get interesting. Well, perhaps not \u201cinteresting\u201d; more like \u201ctricky\u201d. June, July, and August roll on without a date that could host a worthy attendance. We\u2019ll just have to hold the meeting in September then. No, wait, that\u2019s even worse. Ok, Wednesday 5<sup>th<\/sup> October 3:30pm \u2018til late (late = 5\/6PM). Done. It\u2019s actually happening, FINALLY. There\u2019s a date in the diary and it\u2019s after summer so hopefully people can make it. They can! Well, nearly everyone \u2013 this isn\u2019t a perfect world where I can summon people on request. People have work, lives, and other commitments that our event doesn\u2019t stand a chance in competing against. We have a slight majority of 15-20 attendees, though. That will do nicely.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So, the date is set and the (rough) numbers are in. Grand! Now it\u2019s time to make sure we have enough provisions. A finger buffet feels right. But not with sandwiches. Don\u2019t get me wrong, some of my best friends are sandwiches but they are a bit boring and people get full up on them or just won\u2019t eat them. Why? Because it\u2019s nearly dinner time or because you\u2019re on a diet that only allows you to eat food that\u2019s sexy. So let\u2019s keep it simple, picky, and tasty. A variety of Indian\/Eastern-hemisphere inspired savoury items along with some chocolate dipped strawberries, cake and booze sounds\u2026 mmm\u2026 not bad, not bad at all (don\u2019t you feel silly for not coming along? J). Sorted. That\u2019s the important parts taken care of. All that needs to happen is for everyone to turn up and eat said provisions. Jolly good. The last reminder email is sent out a day or two before the event, and of course, there\u2019s a dropout L but fear not, there\u2019s usually other people who turn up last minute at these sorts of things as soon as they realise there\u2019s free food &amp; booze, right?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s now 3:25PM on Wednesday 5<sup>th<\/sup> October (2016\u2026). Ah, excellent, the foresight of extra drop-ins comes true \u2013 \u201cthe force\u201d is strong with this one. Numbers are bang on somewhere between 15 and 20 people (but if you insist, let\u2019s say \u201c18\u201d if you really must know). Jenny (\u201cProf Read\u201d to you, in that case) opens the event with a few words on the overall progress. Then we have talks delivered by: Graham &amp; Craig from Computing Sciences on the eye tracking and distance monitoring; Stuart from Fluid Pixel on the game development; and Kathleen on how public and patient involvement\/engagement (PPI\/E) has contributed to the project\u2019s direction. Followed by the RAs \u2013 Carla, Jess, and Sheima (Therese couldn\u2019t make it, just saying\u2026 maybe she had better things to do\u2026. but let\u2019s not make a fuss or name and shame anyone, after all, she had a stand in photograph so we could pretend she was there), introducing themselves and informing how WP2 is going so far. Jenny then closed the event with a thank you to everyone for their efforts. This was the cue to get stuck in to the provisions, as a reward for said efforts.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Overall, the event went well. Everyone was happy: the talks were short and sweet; the food was satisfying and plentiful; and it was appreciated to have the chance to get together and celebrate the past 18 months of endeavours. Here\u2019s to the remaining Work Packages of the project \u2013 may they be as successful, and as worthy of celebrating, as the first \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back in the days when summer was around the corner, we thought it would be a good idea to host a small \u201cCelebration Event\u201d to congratulate ourselves on the completion of Work Package 1 (or \u201cWP1\u201d for short) of the project. The notion being to rally together the core team who have been involved with &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/asteroid\/2016\/11\/16\/work-package-1-celebration-event-from-the-other-side\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Work Package 1 Celebration event, from the other side<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5812,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/asteroid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/asteroid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/asteroid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/asteroid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/asteroid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/asteroid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/asteroid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions\/146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/asteroid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/asteroid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/asteroid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}