In less than four and a half months, I went from learning about an idea that Innovate Kingston had for The Breakout Project to being one of the people that helped pull it off. I can’t believe that the first event is now behind me.

I am happy to say that from a technology standpoint, things went very well. The marketing site and the platform stayed running through the event, and the Internet and WiFi were also amazing. We didn’t even need to use the backup Internet connection, nor the extra web servers that were all set-up, preparing for the worst.

One of the volunteer roles I had in place was platform monitor, but the online community was so awesome that it was a responsibility that was nearly unneeded.

Annie came to help out as much as she could, and I think in total, she spent nearly twenty hours by my side over the course of the three days. I didn’t end up getting much sleep during The Breakout Project, but I wasn’t expecting to. I’m still recovering from the excitement and lack of sleep.

In the end, I had prepared certain pieces so well and had support from such great vendors, that I was almost unneeded during the event.

This upcoming week, we will all take the time to perform a retrospective and analyze the things that worked as well as things that didn’t. We will also try to capitalize on the excitement so that the projects we highlighted achieve their maximum success. There is so much I want to say about my experiences and so many photos that I still need to process, but I wanted to quickly put out a post.

A huge thank you from me to all of the volunteers, companies we worked with, sponsors and partners, the Innovate Kingston board, the St. Lawrence Parks Commission staff at Fort Henry, and all those that I didn’t get to interact with but helped make this first Breakout Project a success! Your efforts and support epitomized the phrase, “many hands make light work.”