On Saturday July 23, Flow attended the Ninth Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture. I was part of the team of writers asked to cover this prestigious event.
Before leaving for the Linder Auditorium I packed my bag to include half of Woolworths, extra pens, my trusty notebook and a blanket (I was warned it would be bitterly cold in the behind-the-scenes media room), and then I prettied myself up. According to Mr Colin Ford, our fearless leader, I “clean up good”. I should probably try to clock more beauty sleep during the working week.
I was the first to arrive so I sat in the sun outside and went through our carefully planned schedule. Colin and Kate-the-Great had organised everything down to the last minute so I wanted to make sure my head was in the game and that I knew what was potting before the lecture kicked off.
When Colin arrived I had already broken into my Woolworths stash and think I probably had crumbs in my hair. He still said I “clean up good” though, so I reckon I got away with it.
After standing outside for a bit and spying on the South African legends strolling down the red carpet outside the Auditorium, we got our access tags and headed inside. The media room was fully equipped with laptops and screens so we could monitor the lecture’s progress.
I thought I might feel stressed out and pressed for time, but our schedule was very easy to follow and everyone had an equal amount of work to get through. I was expecting the lecture to be long, overly academic and dense but Prof Serageldin spoke so clearly and in a way that made me want to hear more rather than run away and seek refuge at the bar. Not that I would have done that.
After some frantic typing and a few more dips into my wonderful bag of Woolies snacks, I realised the lecture was drawing to a close almost as quickly as it started. I was really glad I had a hard copy of Prof Serageldin’s speech so I could read through it properly in my own time.
After the lecture came to an official end, we quickly moved to the foyer to interview guests leaving the auditorium. Most of the people I spoke to gave very positive feedback. One person in particular sticks out in my mind, saying he was really looking forward to getting hold of a copy of the speech so he could give it to his kids to read.
After uploading our work back at the office, I went home feeling tired but really glad that I was part of something so important. I was so proud of the Flow team – Kate, Colin, Matt, Bianca, Mildred and Nthabiseng, as well as Keith, Julia, Stuart, Linda and Ingrid who helped cover some of the events leading up to the main event. Covering the Annual Lecture was such an incredible learning experience and I would truly love to attend another one.
Here is some of the coverage we put together:
Ninth Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture: Professor Ismail Serageldin speaks on social justice
Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture dialogue: “The Challenge of Science in Building Democracy”
Prof Ismail Serageldin meets with the press at the Nelson Mandela Foundation