Flash On The Beach – Reasons To

When I arrived back home from San Francisco, I read that my friend John decided to end his event. I chatted to him followed social media and wanted to write something here, on my blog.

Well, it is like always, finding excuses not to do something, but honestly, only a bit more than two weeks and my own show – where John owns a big part of – takes place. I just feel, I can’t lose more time to write it and I always say how important friendship is and people are. Therefore I just hope I hold all the deadlines and manage to get everything done in time. John, this is for you.

I have been out tonight and on my way back I thought about many ways of starting to write about my friend ending what his passion always was. How to find the right way to express what it means to me. What it might mean to him. Like me, John ran the whole show on his own support by many wonderful people like Andy, Chris, and, of course, his wife Jo.

Those of you, who know me and my event and have attended one, know that I always also thank John at the end of the show. Reason to do so is, that he is my trash can like I am his. We have ideas, we have opinions and we ask each other, what the other one thinks about it. We agree, we disagree and we have saved each other many times from doing the wrong thing.

Over the last two or three years those moments haven’t been as regular as they used to. I have seen my good friend struggling. Trying to read, trying to understand what was happening. Actually ever since he simply renamed his event from Flash On The Beach to Reasons To. I understand why Brendan Dawes writes:

[…] and whilst it was successful I never felt it had the same vibe for me personally […]

For me the key here is personally. So many people I met at Flash On The Beach had a real personal connection to this event. Therefore this event became something were they met, where they knew, that everybody else would be there.

For a certain reason exactly his got lost when John changed the name of the event. Identification. People loved the event, but John gave his very best to reming people that, if they won’t tell anybody about the event if they liked it, no one would. This is what we live of: people doing the marketing we don’t have the money for. Plus many other factors in addition … (John, we had so many nights chatting about exactly this – I enjoyed any minute of it)

Now, I would easily fill your day with great, wonderful, personal stories about John’s event, but I guess you understand how much I loved it anyways. I have been there every damn year. I loved meeting the people I know and meeting people I had never seen before. Broken leg or not. But I also have seen my friend worrying.

As much as I am sad about the end of Reasons To I am looking forward to what John maybe enjoys doing next. I don’t think he is done with events, but he is taking a well deserved break to maybe come back with what he loves: gathering a wonderful and inspiring group of people to inspire and motivate us.

Thanks so much, John, for 12 exceptional years in Brighton, New York and London.