For the first time in ages I missed my self-imposed deadline to publish week notes on Sunday evening. I had an intensive online workshop to prepare for Monday, and Monday was an intensive day throughout. So, I wrote the week notes this Tuesday and gave it Sunday’s date.

Last week was a regular week in which I

• Had several client conversations about shaping the first of a series of workshops on changing/modernising intergovernmental audit procedures and the use of data in them. I created a workshop flow in a Miro board to guide the participants through the workshop. As it was the first in a series I spent quite a bit of time on designing the workshop set-up.
• Wrote a memo on the expected European data regulation developments for the coming years, as input for a multi-year investment proposal a client is writing.
• Had a pleasant first conversation with someone who has both a track record in start-ups as well as in aiming for societal change. We’re exploring how to collaborate in the NGO I chair.
• Met payroll, it still always feels good to pay out salaries to our team
• Discussed a new project with a client, related to data and ethics.
• Had a face to face meeting, the first since July, with a client team in which we talked about some of the practical results we want to achieve this year
• Had several conversations with representatives of different large government data holders, to talk about their current European level involvements and expectations
• Went for a walk near Utrecht with my business partners and a client’s CEO, talking about trends and key evolutions we see for the coming years.
• Cancelled my Privium subscription, which allows me to jump all luggage and passport control queues at Schiphol airport, as I expect I won’t be flying this year
• Worked through two notebooks exported (and now deleted) from Evernote, to an Obsidian vault by way of Joplin, curating them down from 392 to 105 notes. Those 105 will get processed at some point into regular notes in my PKM, and get connected to existing notes , tying them into my network of concepts and information.
• Enjoyed being able to answer a client question with a substantial answer by pulling out the relevant bits from my PKM and spending a bit of time to contextualise that. Quite a powerful feeling, as it saves a lot of time compared to reconstructing knowledge and lines of argument from memory and previous deliverables, because I had the building blocks right at my finger tips.