First wider deployment of "Who et mon droit?" ("Focus group")

Today marks the day I was put to the test: can I keep a group of people, some of whom close to the demographic I want to target, interested for long enough to talk about obscure political issues, such as electoral reform?

I tried to do that with a talk called Who et mon droit?

The talk kind of flows like this:

• I explain what the pun means. It's essentially "Who and by whose right?" I try to make some heraldry-based jokes.
• I try to ask that question and get a discussion going. Why is it that certain people get to take decisions?
• Once someone inevitably says something along the lines of "They are elected." I ask: "Well, who do we elect?"
• I try to give topical examples as to why this matters, referencing the European Union.

So, how'd it go? Feedback was encouraging. I'd sum it up as "On the right lines but could do better." 

Successes: people talked about constitutional issues, electoral system and considered the importance of knowing who it is you elect and what they use your vote to justify.

Taking questions and comments was fine. Audience participation was fine.

Failures: The talk was a tad too long, perhaps pushing a limit. Good point were there, they just needed to be honed up and made a little bit more clearly. Transport issues perhaps made the delivery less relaxed and confident as it could have been.

A very early version of this talk was perhaps a little more persuasive if a little less focussed. Perhaps some content from there will be useful for the future.

Overall: I'm optimistic. People stayed, people seemed a little bit more interested than they were. Perhaps substantially. Certainly those toward the target demographic seemed to think it was helpful and useful. Being in the right direction and my own personal hunch I'm not a million miles off the mark is very, very useful.