The UK’s First University Jedi Course
Last Saturday (15th November) I delivered my long-anticipated university workshop on Star Wars called Feel the Force: How to Train in the Jedi Way. There was an excellent turn-out (over 30 apprentices from all ages, genders and species) with fabulous feedback. We had a great time together; lots of humour, lots of discussion, plenty of new ideas to ponder, students left hungry for more. All a training session should be.
Five interesting things came out of it:
(1) People from different employment sectors enquired if I could provide business training for them based on the workshop. Some wanted the Star Wars link, other were keen on the fact that I made standard training topics – Assertiveness, Emotional Intelligence, Ethics – interesting. I didn’t foresee this (so maybe I’m not much of a Jedi), but it’s an exciting development. I’m due to give a couple of Jedi-themed corporate talks in December for the Institute of Internal Auditors (in Belfast and Dublin). May the Force be with them!
(2) There was a contingent of journalists there, so the story still has resonance with the public-at-large. May the force be with them too!
(3) No-one turned up in Star Wars costumes, so it wasn’t just a geek-fest (although a few of the guys did know a scary amount about Star Wars). One guy wore a tee-shirt of Yoda as a police mug-shot, but that was cool, not nerdy.
(3) The whole thing was recorded for a Star Wars docu-film that’s coming out soon – learn about it here.
(5) Such was the response that I’ve decided to propose another workshop in Queen’s for the Spring Term. There were so many topics I could have included but didn’t due to lack of time. So get ready for round two. I’ll tell you more about it soon.
It’s been a great adventure, designing and delivering this workshop. Join in it with me. Let me know your thoughts.
