Excellent turnout at Kendo demo

The title says it all. In addition to all of my regulars, a few
different disciplines were present (details at
kendo.ipmtt.net/event.html). Everyone present told me it was a great
idea and was very enjoyable. I was concerned there might have been
some hot heads or factions present, but everyone pretty much blended
comfortably. Amazingly, things started on time, all my guys showed up
(the ones I expected anyway), and all the groups went along naturally,
ie everyone graciously took their turn without any bumps. Even better,
nobody monopolized the stage, as everyone kept it under 20-30 minutes.
Also I was expecting to see some odd MA, but everyone looked really
good and solid. Real good feeling...

Had looong conversations with local observers of martial arts, some
active, some not, and all had the same thing to say: the different
groups (they were absent) just can't sit down and talk. An event like
this helps bring everyone closer and encourage the kids to open their
eyes. The old guard is just too stuck in the past to be able to let it
go and get things organized. So maybe it does take a "foreigner" like
me to take a new and refreshing position, and encourage dialogue.

It's clear to me that there's a need to organise this regularly. The
feedback I get is similar, so figured we'll try to put this into place
every 3 months. As I mentioned, it's a good opportunity to
network/break barriers and promote in a public space. You never know,
it might grow into something interesting...