Yes, I’ve just done a Bookstall, but no, not in contravention of covid-19 restrictions! I provided a Virtual Bookstall at a Virtual Event; and I’ve more Virtual Events planned. Are Virtual Events with Virtual Bookstalls going to become the norm? I don’t suppose anyone knows. But they are certainly going to be with us for a while anyway.
I do miss engaging face to face with delegates at conferences and churches. But Virtual has its advantages too. At the recent Fearless Women Ireland conference, the main speaker ‘came’ from Paris, and another from America. But there were no expensive flights to arrange. All that they needed was good broadband. The attendees were from all over Ireland. I know that because of the addresses to which I despatched the books that they ordered. While missing meeting friends, I’m sure none of them missed having to arrange transport, accommodation, or childcare.
A theme at Fearless Women Ireland was to be brave, and do it anyway! If you are thinking of setting up a Virtual Event, it is amazing how well it can work. God isn’t restricted by the fact that we cannot currently meet face to face.
So how does a Virtual Bookstall work? In the case of Fearless, I shared a live presentation on Zoom. I got a bit of a fright when I found that I hadn’t permission to share my screen. So in hindsight it might have been better to have provided a pre-recorded video presentation. But we are all on a steep learning curve, and I am glad that there is grace for improving as we go. Then I set up a special Fearless page which you can look at here, where I featured the titles that I had presented.
My next two Virtual Bookstalls will be completely different again. I will be in a Breakout Room, and I will be hosting it sitting in my Bookshop. How will that work in practice? I really don’t know yet. But I’m glad that God doesn’t expect me to get it perfect first time. I’m also very glad that we are having a practice Event in advance.
If you are organising a Virtual Event, I’d love to add another dimension to your event by providing a Virtual Bookstall. Click here to get in touch. I can fill you in on the various ways of doing this. Maybe more options have yet to appear on how to do this technically. We can also look at provisional dates while you firm up your plans.
The images below give the details of my next two Virtual Bookstalls. Do come along to see how they work. You can do some Christmas shopping at the same time. The first one will be hosted from Bray on Saturday 21 November, and the second from Portlaoise on Saturday 28 November. Attendance is free, but you can log on from anywhere in the world, and it’s really easy to do so. It’ll be a very safe way to do some Christmas shopping, and there will be lots of other stalls too.
