We are now into a new round of Present Around The World (PATW) competitions in which groups of our younger members each make short presentation at various centres around the world.


I wonder if there is scope for adopting this format and extending it to the wider membership?


We are fortunate that there are people prepared to give presentations at local centres that last around an hour. Usually they are 'up to the minute', informing us about new advances in technology. That tends to restrict presentations to those 'on the leading edge'. However there must be many interesting aspects of technology that might be routine to the specialist but that are unknown to the wider population. There must also be many people with a good tale to tell but who haven't got the resources to stage an hour long event but who would be quite happy to work within the ten-minute format of PATW, especially if was more a chat or conversation rather than a competition.


What I have in mind then is that local centres should stage an event where several members agree to do a short talk each, so as to make up a session equivalent in time to a normal event. There doesn't need to be a competitive element, the aim is to be encouraging, not intimidating! Not only could such an event be interesting to members but it could 'open the window' to schoolchildren etc. as to the range of activities that make up the various 'worlds' of engineers.


Any thoughts?