I'm not demanding that any future events should be restructured. What I'm saying is that any feedback, positive or negative, should be welcomed. Most organisations do, and some pay large sums of money to gather it.

I'm not criticising the organisers of the Sidmouth event (and incidentally their gender is irrelevant to me). My criticism is aimed at those who seem to think that any feedback which they perceive as negative is an attack on the whole event, on FAF as a movement, and is supporting the BNP.

Let's recap: Steve Harris said the event didn't work for him, and so he left. Perhaps he had different expectations from the event than the organisers. When asked to, he set out succinctly what might have been done to make it work for him - points which any trainer in selling or presentation would recognise.   For that, he has been jumped on in hobnail boots. In my opinion, that is unfair on Steve (who by the way I've never met, so far as I am aware) and is not helpful to FAF because it may discourage people from offering honest feedback.

The important thing is that the organisers now know that they failed to reach at least a section of the audience and more importantly why. That should be useful information. It's up to them to judge whether that is a significant section of the audience who should be targeted next time, or whether Steve really is a minority of one. They may feel that Steve has a valid point, or they may decide that to change the order of the event would lose more people than it would gain. That's entirely up to them. The point is, whatever they decide will be a better-informed decision as a result of his feedback.

Let me say again: all feedback, both positive and negative, is good. It tells you how you are doing, and where there may be room for improvement (and there's always room for that). Eliza C obviously understood that when she asked Steve to explain what would have made it work for him. If Ruth or any of the other organisers feel that their post-event euphoria was deflated by anything I've said, then I apologise. I'm sure that by now they've also had a debrief, decided what went well and what could have gone better, and are taking on board all the feedback they've had from whatever source.