How can I capture that 24 hours of inspiration that we shared last week? I don’t want to forget anything, or anyone, who made it what it was. I don’t want the sense of possibilities, of beginnings, of connections to be dulled by the everyday concerns that have had to now re-enter our lives. I don’t want the elation to ebb away, because what happened really, profoundly, matters. It has to be the start of something, and I believe it can be.
What follows is not a coherent account of the event – I’m not sure that I could provide that – but various sources that, taken together, I believe give a sense of what it was about, in all its rich variety. I’ve drawn this from my own opening and closing words at the event, from emails, tweets, other bloggers. There will be lots more to come, and whilst we want to continue celebrating and enjoying the event itself, we want to start asking where we go from here. What’s next?
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These are edited versions of my opening and closing words at the 24 Hour Inspire.
17.00 Thursday 28 February
Good evening everyone, and welcome to the 24 Hour Inspire, 24 hours of lectures presented by the charity Inspiration for Life, of which I am the Chair. This event has been made possible by the generosity and enthusiasm of colleagues in all parts of the University, not just our speakers but also the buskers who’ll be entertaining you in the foyer, the wonderful people who’ve baked cakes for us to sell, the University services which have been made available to us without cost, and all the volunteers who will be here throughout the event to make sure it all runs smoothly.
Inspiration for Life was set up by Dr Tim Richardson, when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer last June, to promote lifelong learning and the public understanding of science, and to raise funds for cancer charities. This is our first major event – when we started planning it we hoped that Tim would still be with us, but sadly he died on 5 February. His family, friends and colleagues want this event to be a tribute to him, and a celebration of his life.
You may recall that back in November 2011, Tim did 24 hours of lectures solo, to raise funds for Children in Need. Tim’s heroic achievement is the inspiration for tonight’s event. Tonight we have 42 speakers, from across and beyond the University presenting a wonderfully diverse range of talks, going through the night and up to 5 pm tomorrow. We’re raising funds for two charities in particular, Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity and Rotherham Hospice:
https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/inspirationforlife
http://www.justgiving.com/forTimRichardson
17.00 Friday 1 March
It’s been an amazing 24 hours. We’ve raised funds for our charities, and we’ll be announcing the totals early next week. The 24HrInspire hashtag has been all over the twittersphere, and the buzz has reached far further afield than we could ever have imagined – an email from Iran reached me last night, from someone who was a PhD in Sheffield, and who read about the event on the University website. He translated this into Persian and has been circulating and web-blogging it amongst his colleagues and friends. I won’t read his email in full, as I don’t think I could do so without losing it [see below for the full text] – but just one short quote: ‘When I imagine that in the middle of the night people have been gathered in the Hicks Building and sharing their ideas about various subjects, I believe that Dr Richardson’s dream to inspire people has come true’.
How wonderful that someone who wasn’t even here could sum up what’s happened so perfectly. We’ve been entertained, informed and moved, we’ve eaten a lot of cake, and we’ve seen some eminent physicists in their pyjamas. What more could you ask? I think I can speak for everyone and say that we’ve been inspired.
As I said at the beginning – 24 hours ago, when I was a lot more coherent than I’m able to be now, as well as more fragrant, probably – this has all been for Tim. Inspiration for Life is his vision, and we will do everything we can to make it a reality. He would have loved it all – the talks and the music, and above all the sense of the University not just as an institution or an organisation, but as a community coming together to do something wonderful. This is just the start, and we will go on to do all sorts of things in the future, and in everything we do, we’ll be raising a glass to Tim, to say thanks, to say cheers, to say hello.
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Blog by Chris Sexton, Director of Corporate Information & Computing Services, who gave the event tremendous support throughout
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Storify Twitter feed from the #24HrInspire hashtag (thanks to Chris Sexton)
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Email from Iran, 28 February 2013
Dear Catherine,
I have been PhD Student at the University of Sheffield from 2003 to 2006. I saw the news about 24 hours of nonstop lectures on the University Website, which I believe is being held right now. I wish I was there to attend this inspiring event. However, my thought is with you all in Hicks Building, one of the first buildings that I visited at the university during my study time and I have a very clear picture of it in my mind.
Although I am not there at this moment, I have done a very small contribution to this event by translating the news of this remarkable event into Persian and sending it to a number of mailing lists in Iran and uploading it on a weblog to share this story with my colleagues and friends here.I believe what Dr. Richardson has done is a wonderful and profoundly inspirational initiative, which I am sure will be a source of hope and courage for many people for a very long time. When I imagine that in the middle of the night people have been gathered in the Hicks Building and sharing their ideas about various subjects, I believe that Dr. Richardson’s dream to inspire people has come true.
Yazdan Mansourian, PhD, Associate Professor
Related articles
- Inspiration for Life (cathannabel.wordpress.com)
- The 24 Hour Inspire! (cathannabel.wordpress.com)
Passing Time 