Victoria Waller recently spoke at All Wales People First’s AdFest about her experience as social media volunteer for Gig Buddies Cymru. Victoria, who lives in Anglesey, has written this great blog about her trip down to Cardiff Bay and the talk she gave.
It was an early start, 6am! Luckily, I don’t mind early mornings. I caught the train from Bangor by myself, but I was happy to find some people on the train who I knew, so the journey was less boring.
When I arrived in Cardiff I planned to catch the bus to Cardiff Bay, where AdFest was being held. But this was a bit trickier than I realised, so I caught a taxi. When I arrived at the Future Inns hotel, I was greeted by AdFest staff who told me all about the day and took my bags, ready for checking in to the hotel later.
Joe Powell, CEO of All Wales People First, did a very funny welcome speech to everyone who was at the event. We had workshops during the day, which I really enjoyed, especially the workshop that was delivered by Bangor University. There were lots of breaks during the day where people were able to chat with friends and the food and drinks available were delicious!
After the daytime sessions I went to my hotel room to freshen up for what was going to be an amazing evening. There was an awards ceremony that some of my friends won awards at – I was so proud of them.
At 8pm Gerraint’s Nightclub kicked off. I requested ‘Espresso’, which has been the song of the summer for me. The night ended at 11.30pm – it was a long day but I loved every minute of it!
Day 2 started with a hotel breakfast and a walk around Cardiff Bay. It is one of my favourite places to go so I loved this.
My nerves had started to build about doing a presentation about my time at Gig Buddies Cymru, but I had practiced and was prepared. I got to wander around the exhibition stalls and catch up with people before my presentation. A quick costume change into my Gig Buddies Cymru T-Shirt and I was ready to go.
My talk was titled ‘This is me’. I spoke about how volunteering is a huge part of my identity and how much I enjoy working on Gig Buddies Cymru’s social media content. I told people about the things I love in life – like hot chocolate, coffee, Coldplay and travelling to meet up with friends.
I also spoke about being born with a rare brain injury/disability, called Partial Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum, which means I have difficulty with my memory and very slight coordination issues. I’ve only ever met one other person with the same condition. You can find information about Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum at Contact a Family’s website https://contact.org.uk/conditions/agenesis-of-the-corpus-callosum.
It was a great presentation. I have done a few public speaking events now, so I am much less nervous about talking in front of people. People really seemed to enjoy the presentation and asked a lot of questions about Gig Buddies, which was great.
When the day came to an end, I decided to change my travel plans slightly so I could support a friend who was nervous about travelling alone. My friend was grateful, and it made my journey a bit longer but I enjoyed the company. I finally got to my home on Anglesey at about 9pm – I was still buzzing from the last couple of days.
Doing AdFest for the full 2 days was definitely on my bucket list. Next up is the Learning Disability Wales conference in Conwy, north Wales on Wednesday 6 November. I am chairing the conference for the 2nd year!
Watch a video of Victoria’s AdFest talk below.
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