My experience attending my first event working at LMF.

Showing up to your first anything can be filled up with the rush you feel from the nervousness and a certain amount of eagerness of excitement. All those little things raped up into a package which was exactly how I felt coming into the event. I remember walking in with no expectations at all as it was the first-ever event I attended.

I remember I was super nervous, but at the same time, I was really buzzed up to meet new people. Although, just before talking to a few people from the stalls about their business to see if they were interested in working alongside LMF or SB consulting for D&I purposes, my anxiety kicked in, and I felt like I was going to have a minor panic attack from seeing so many people at the event. The reason being why I felt such intensity was because I knew I lacked the ideal charisma in big social gatherings, but I had this want and need to put myself out there, which gave me the inner strength that I needed to carry on and complete my task to get potential contacts for LMF.

So, for all those people out there who go into something new, through a job opportunity like an event for the first time, a great thing to remember is to acknowledge what you are there for? Sometimes it may seem unclear at first due to the pressure of having big groups of people around you, for instance, and creating conversations may be a task at hand that might be a little nerve-racking at first to get into. Still, always a good mental cue is to have a hopeful mind that you can get through this, which indefinite will allow you to have a much more meaningful conversation through interactions with complete strangers that will feel more like an exciting, fulfilling thing rather than it being full of dread.

One of my favourite moments was going upstairs to the second floor to see my boss Sonya Barlow host a panel with other founders and talk about the world of tech in their businesses. I remember learning so much about the power of social media that I did not know of before.

I just knew I had to document all the brilliant, inspiring conversations I heard from the panelists. Still, at the same time, I quickly realised having used my data on google maps to travel quite a bit drained my battery charge, leaving me just enough to take a single video with a good number of pictures.

In between Sonya hosting, I did feel a bit let down because I really did want to take more videos. However, out of feeling unprepared, I had this awesome idea about getting a camera to film on occasions like future events that I remembered having discussed with Sonya before her hosting. Her thought was, “next time,” with a hopeful smile, which just fueled me to hold onto that positive thought to stay motivated.

As someone who is practically in love with Tv, I always wanted to use a camera with my ongoing camera skills to film little movies and document inspirational moments.

Which got me thinking once I get a camera and get quite good at it, I thought I could be like the photographer for Sonya to take photos and videos for any other events or video content for the LMF socials.

Also, in many ways, as an aspiring actor, I tend to look really hard for contacts to help me reach for movies to be a part of like all the other actors beginning their journey to make it into the Tv industry.

Having realised that, coming out of the event, I felt like I was much more aware that social media can be more than just taking selfies, but a wonderful way to start connecting with people who have similar interests to you is through social media platforms such as LinkedIn. Simply a great tool to make almost instant contacts that you may have never thought of finding.

I think it was perfectly normal for me to feel a little anxious going into attending my first event. On the other hand, I came out feeling proud that I pulled through as well as having the need to improve on the mistakes l made as a result of being a little unprepared. For one being, next time to bring a portable charger in case my phone runs out of charge. Also, to go over to talk to more people and to just enjoy myself more next time.

This blog contribution was made by Samsul Alam.

Samsul is a creative who is an aspiring actor, freelance writer, PR content manager.

He is also, interested in film making, photography and intern at LMF since August 2021.