Unfortunately I will not be attending Engage next week, even though I promoted my appearance in my last blog posting. It was with a heavy heart I had to send an email to Theo Heselmans today to cancel my appearance.
A close family member of mine just died, and I have to go north to be with my family and to attend the funeral. I bent myself backwards to find a solution, but there was no way I could manage to be with my family, attend the funeral and also present at Engage.
Because I was supposed to be a speaker at the conference, and I hated having to send the email to the leader of Engage, Theo Heselmans, and tell him I had to bail and leave him with an empty slot in his agenda. I arrange conferences like this myself, and I know first hand how much work it is putting them on. But I just had to prioritise my family here. The person who died was very dear to me, and I wouldn’t have been much company at Engage anyway.
Thankfully Theo understood and expressed sincere empathy in his reply. This didn’t surprise me at all since he’s a great guy, but I still felt very bad having to send that email.
I also posted in the Slack community for us HCL Masters that I wouldn’t be at Engage, and why, and the outpouring of support, well wishes and even offers to do my presentation for me was very much appreciated. Some expressed this in private messages, while others did it in the Slack space. This community is just the best.
As for someone else doing my presentation, that won’t be possible, since I haven’t made it yet. I was supposed to do it this weekend, but now other things will be needing my attention instead.
I also had great plans of blogging a lot in the coming week, since I’ve neglected this blog for the past month. That’s because I’ve been out travelling, and I’ve had a lot of my plate. But then this happened. I will still try to get some writing done in between.
The agenda for Engage looks amazing, and I truly hope all of you who go will have a great time. I will try and follow your blogs and check out the presentations as they are published while I’m back up north. I’m especially hopeful about what HCL will present.
Have a drink on me. I’ll be back at Engage next year. Promise!