WINOL- November 30th protest preperation

Last week the team spent the week preparing packages, interviews and preparing equipment for the protest day. This WINOL is set to last from 12-6 and therefore a lot of preparation has had to go into making sure that we are ready to report live as event unfold on the day. We were all asked to make a package that could be played throughout the day in between live outside broadcasts on the day. Unfortunately I am not happy with my package; I went to basingstoke a week in advance and was promised that I would be able to interview the leader, however when I arrived the interview was changed to the chief executive and then the human resources manager. As well as this I was told by a press officer from the council that I would not be able to ask 4 of my most important questions and the answers I was given were the same for all the questions. This made my package really hard to create as I had no reaction from Basingstoke's council, meaning that I had to do a longer voice over and pointless GV'S.

I have never experienced this before and didn't know how to deal with it, looking back on the situation I feel that I should have given questions to the press officer before going to Basingstoke so that they could have looked at the questions that I was going to answer. However I still wouldn't have been able to interview the correct person as this was changed at the last moment. I was extremely disappointed because I put a lot of information into finding the information.

I think that so far everyone has worked so hard to make this work; it has caused people a lot of stress as equipment and rooms have changed, guests have been booked and roles have been changed, however I think the effort will pay off on the 30th. A lot will be down to if there actually is any action and if lots of people turn up, but even if they don't we will have a person in location to report on what is or isn't happening at the time. I know a lot of effort has been put into setting up Skype to get live reports, however from Basingstoke I am too far from anywhere with internet connection to do a live report. However I can still do 'as-lives' and upload them to youtube where they can then be taken by the studio and put into the live bulletin.

I am very nervous about reporting live as I will be using new equipment in a location I have never been to. However I am sure it will all become clear and easier once I am in location. This is an ambitious project which if works, I'm sure will look very good, similar to the very successful general election, covered previously.