"Such fun!"

Thanks to everyone who attended the third Forest webinar last night.

Almost 80 people registered but only 43 joined us which was a bit of a mystery because last time 40 people registered and all but four came to the party.

It’s not uncommon though. Moderator Rob Lyons told me he chaired another online event recently for which 270 people registered but ‘only’ 140 logged on.

I guess it’s ‘free ticket’ syndrome. It’s a rule of thumb that physical events that offer free admission can ‘lose’ up to a third of those who have reserved places.

Also, on this occasion, we used Eventbrite which gave the ticketing a more professional feel but possibly made it less personal.

As it happens, 30-40 attendees works quite well for us because everyone who wants to say something has the opportunity to speak and actively participate.

In contrast I’ve taken part in webinars where the overwhelming majority are no more than passive spectators.

Most of them focus on the guest speaker (or a panel of speakers) and the audience (who we never see) is reduced to submitting written questions via the Q&A button that may, or may not, be selected by the moderator.

The format I like best is where you can see everyone, speakers and audience alike. Not only is it more egalitarian, part of the appeal for me is seeing everyone in person.

It also gives you something to do when things get a bit boring because you can flick from page to page, looking at all the participants.

Last night - after a few gremlins with my laptop - I logged in using my iPad which only shows nine people on screen at any one time (see above).

The larger the screen the more people you can see at once so it’s like looking at a bank of video screens, each one occupied by a living, breathing person.

Sometimes I’m reminded of James Stewart in Rear Window, staring into people’s lives and apartments. In this instance however you have to remember they can see you too!

Anyway, back to last night. The title of the meeting was ‘The Pleasure of Smoking, Vaping and Snus’.

It was inspired by two balloon debates we organised in London (2017) and Birmingham (2018).

Our seven speakers were given three minutes each to explain their preference for one of the following: manufactured cigarette, hand-rolled cigarette, pipe, cigar, e-cigarette, heated tobacco and snus.

I introduced them as follows:

Gawain Towler (cigarette)
Gawain has been described as "the man who made Nigel Farage famous" but we won't hold that against him. He spent 13 years as Ukip's communications director before standing down in 2008. He then returned for highly successful fling as director of communications for the Brexit Party. He now describes himself as a 'private communications' specialist' and is responsible for at least one person refusing to take part in this evening's event.

Dan Donovan (rollies)
Dan is a musician, photographer and graphic designer. He has worked with Forest since 2007, designing our logo and most of our campaign tools. He has also attended most of our events, amassing a huge gallery of photos. In recent years however he has noticed that fewer smokers want to be photographed smoking, which is a sad reflection on today's intolerant society.

Brian Monteith (pipe)
Brian is not just an old friend of Forest. In the Nineties he was Forest’s spokesman in Scotland. He later became an MSP and after standing down in 2006 he became a weekly columnist for the Scotsman. Last year his career took yet another turn when he was elected to represent the Brexit party in the European parliament where he took full advantage of the parliament’s smoking booths.

Ranald Macdonald (cigar)
Ranald is managing director of Boisdale Restaurants in London. For the past decade or more Boisdale has hosted a series of Forest events, culiminnating in our 40th anniversary dinner at Boisdale of Canary Wharf last year. The first Forest event he took part in was at the Conservative conference in Bournemouth in 2006 when he was arrested by actors dressed as policemen and was charged with “inciting people to enjoy themselves”.

Judy Gibson (e-cigarette)
Judy has joined us direct from the Global Forum on Nicotine which usually takes place in Warsaw but this year went online. She is a global vaping megastar who scared the shit out of our audience at a Forest balloon debate a few years when she started exhaling huge clouds of vapour at the front row.

Chris Mounsey (heated tobacco)
Chris is the original swearblogger whose blog Devil’s Kitchen was essential reading. These days he is a respectable software designer and director of a small business. Chris has been a smoker for over 26 years but decided to try IQOS, Philip Morris’s heated tobacco device, about three weeks ago, and has quickly become a devotee.

Mark Oates (snus)
Until recently Mark was a senior parliamentary researcher. He is a keen supporter of vaping and the legalisation of snus. He advocates evidence-based harm reduction from tobacco to drug policy and is the founder of the UK Snus Users Association. He also worked on the successful campaign to legalise medicinal cannabis in the UK.

In hindsight three minutes per speaker probably wasn’t enough. It worked well in the more competitive balloon debate format, but last night several speakers ran out of time just as they were getting into their stride.

As a result we may never hear the full story of Dan Donovan’s first experiences as a smoker, but as he said later, “Maybe arriving in Holland was all you needed to know, the rest is history.”

It meant though there was plenty of audience participation. Technical gremlins prevented us hearing from blogger Frank Davis (next time, Frank!), and temporarily scuppered our connection with musician Juliette Tworsey in California, but overall the technology worked pretty well, again.

In fact, if numbers don’t drop off too much I’d be tempted to organise more online events long after lockdown is over.

Webinars are a good way to communicate with people from all the world. I don’t think they will completely replace physical meetings but the cost is minimal in comparison and for many people, including speakers, it’s far easier - an hour of your time rather than several hours travelling to and from the venue.

What’s missing, of course, is the social interaction before and after and the chance to speak to people in person, preferably over a drink in the pub after.

Meanwhile, if there’s any way we can recreate ‘Smoke on the Water’, our summer boat party, online I’d love to hear it!

PS. I have just been asked if we recorded last night’s meeting. The answer, I’m afraid, is ‘No’.

It’s largely because our events are less formal or structured than other webinars I’ve seen and I’m not sure how they would come across, taken out of their ‘live’ context.

Also, the ambience we’re going for is ‘pub chat’. Last night was the closest we’ve come to achieving that ideal, but how many people want to watch even the edited highlights of a bar room debate?

And in these feral times do participants want to be outed as confirmed smokers?

Anyway, I’m pleased people seemed to enjoy yesterday’s meeting. Here is some feedback:

“Such fun!”

“Enjoyed it enormously.”

“Great fun.”

“In these interesting times it is nice to listen to people being positive about something.”

And from Ranald Macdonald (below):

“It was a distinct pleasure and an excellent excuse to smoke a magnificent cigar and drink a bottle of Burgundy before supper.”

😂😂😂