So... This August, there will be a certain Convention in Birmingham, 'cause there is no town like it. I have got it into my head to do a folk music item there. Either a singaround or a floor-spot oriented thing. I mean, I've seen people do it lots of times, how difficult can it be? (Oi you lot! Stop laughing back there!)

So I have slowly started to acquire Kit. I have a reasonably decent mixer (Behringer MX 2802), three microphones (One Sennheiser, one Monacor and one wireless cheap-ass karaoke type jobbie that I'll probably use only for announcements, and thus Sanity is preserved). I also have an iKey Plus MP3 recorder that luckily also records WAVs straight to a USB stick (or iPod, hence the nAme). I will need a pair of speakers as well, so tiny feeble voices can be made to be heard over a murmuring crowd. And an amp. Maybe I'll beg, borrow or steal speakers and amp. So, he says innocently, with all that, I should have enough kit.

I'm under no illusion as to the quality of the end product: It'll be the audio equivalent of holiday snaps. But still, I wouldn't want to end up with useless stuff. So my questions to you seasoned experts out there are:

• Is there anything I need that I haven't thought of here? (That wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg).
  
• Have you people any tips on how actually to run this event?
  

Any advice will be gratefully received.