EEEurope Madrid 2008 Conference Evaluation PDF Print E-mail

Evaluation Method

This year we again used the H Form method, which can be downloaded when logged in.
One difference that was introduced was that participants were divided into three groups which reflect the different perspectives of: first-timers; organisers and others.
Feedback has been recorded for each perspective as positives, negatives and recommendations and suggestions for next year.
A total of 20 participants took part which represents 33% of the full conference participation.
In response to the main question: How was the EEE 2008 conference for you? the average score over the 3 completed H Forms was 8 out of 10, which suggests that overall the conference experience was very good.

Collective Recommendations from the three forms organised under themes:

Social space and activity:

  1. Because ‘people meeting’ was most emphasised as most highly valuable, favourable, incredible … ensure that meeting venues within the conference are available, open, accessible and don’t interrupt those who want to sleep.
  2. Provide a social space for during the conference.
  3. Include an Estonian traditional activity.
  4. Have an end of day social meeting all together.

Organisation:

  1. Encourage people to stay until the end.
  2. Have a time to exchange info about workshops that we couldn’t attend.
  3. Time-out time made clearer, open space style, opt in and opt out available.
  4. Hold a briefing during breakfast.
  5. Establish and keep good time keeping procedure.
  6. Have a vegetarian menu option.

Workshops and scheduling:

  1. Possibility to do workshop twice.
  2. Perhaps have 3 workshops a day to allow for more time OR go back to 4 x 1.5 hour slots.
  3. Keep schedule of Networking on the first evening, and programme scheduling on the first morning.
  4. Activate networking activities eg. hold an offers and requests session.
  5. Publish workshops asap.
  6. Make it easier to print information from the website onto a single page; perhaps key pages could be available as pdfs.

New developments:

  1. CO2 compensation.
  2. Activate the network power and let’s use it for more than just an annual conference.
  3. Hold a (separate) workshop day for students.
  4. Develop ideas for funding.
  5. Host coaching necessary.

Keep the spirit

  1. Keep the spirit and keep maximizing potential.

First-timers Feedback

Positives

People
Many newcomers
As a newcomer, I felt totally integrated very quickly, and got a very ‘invited’ feeling
Seasoned veterans welcomed newcomers, their input and ideas
Internationalness
Wonderful people, new friends, connecting with amazing people, great mix, very friendly
Great spirit of motivation in the group, commitment and family feeling.
Workshops
Great and interesting workshops and knowledge sharing atmosphere
Innovative workshops
Tough choices between several good workshop options each session
Inspiration on content and methods
Wide variety of workshops and activities
New ideas and different ways of thinking
Good knowledge, new visions, new skills, passion

Organisation
Roberto and conference hosts were super duper reliable and flexible, great hosting
Good and pleasant environment including food
 

Negatives

Time
No free time for reflection x2
Starting time delay, timetable failure / delays
Maybe there should be a slot for leisure time in between workshops

Venue
Too much meat, more vegetarian food
Acoustics in main room were difficult
Rain made outdoor activities complicated

Space
No ideal natural meeting space
Need an evening meeting area, less restrictions
More social meeting space and time needed
Too little (indoors) space for workshops
Need a networking place for the evening, comfortable room with music separate from the main conference room.

Recommendations and Suggestions for next year

  1. Because ‘people meeting’ was most emphasised as most highly valuable, favourable, incredible … ensure that meeting venues within the conference are available, open, accessible and don’t interrupt those whp want to sleep.
  2. Keep the spirit.
  3. Keep maximizing potential. 

 

Other Participants Feedback

Positives

People and Friendliness
The participants – they are the soul of the conference x3
Friendship: old friends and new friends x4
Inspiring newcomers x2

Workshops
Excellent high quality of workshops x6
Opportunity for sharing – passion, resources and ideas
Knowledge and experience sharing
Genuine giving
New ideas, new perspectives and new learning
Valuable methods and tools
Intense self reflection

Organisation
Good time-table making
Good and soft way of organisation
Very friendly environment, good atmosphere
Caring and sharing
 

Negatives

Time
Lack of time for yourself
Lack of time for networking
Little time to see the area
Shorten the slide show (max 100!)
Need to have control of changing timetable slots

Venue
Very big campsite
Cold and wet x7

Space
Lack of rooms /space for indoor workshops when the weather changed
Lack of good outside space that is wild and natural x2
Lack of space for relaxing as a group

Recommendations and Suggestions for next year

  1. People to stay until the end.
  2. Make it easier to print information from the website onto a single page, perhaps key pages could be available as pdfs.
  3. Have an end of day meeting (social) all together.
  4. Time to exchange info about workshops that we couldn’t attend, especially as there were lots of interesting ones.
  5. Time out time made clearer, open space style, opt in and opt out available.
  6. Possibility to do workshop twice.
  7. Perhaps have 3 workshops a day to allow for more time to think about workshops???

 

 

Conference Organisers Feedback

Positives

People
Good integration of new participants
People – no words to describe!
People, conversations and fun together
Invaluable learning from inspiring and nice people.
Meeting lots of new people with warm hearts and interesting ideas
It’s a family and friends

Workshops
High quality and huge range of workshops
We had a wonderful range of workshops
Good quality and well planned workshops
Experiencing a great variety of workshops

Personal learning
Great personal learning for me
Absolute learning
New role as an organiser was supported by more experienced people.
I feel so thankful for being thanked for what I did
Success and positive feedback of hard work

Organisation
We had everything we needed to enjoy the conference.
Like the way the leadership role was shared between a wider group of people
Smooth process and procedures
Good food and plenty of it
 

Negatives

Time
Too much ‘Spanish’ timing sometimes made energy drop
Time keeping procedures, delays
Lack of time for networking and solo time
Missed not having offers and requests
Full programme – no free time
I think that there could have been better time keeping and clarity on this from the very beginning, and as organisers we should set an example

Venue
 Meaty food – less meat please
Too much food, lot of waste, unnecessary expense.

Space
No EEE social space and party place x4
Not enough indoor workshop space

Organisation
2 hour workshops slots are too long for dynamics – leads to waiting
4 x 2 hour workshops (instead of 1.5 hrs) meant that 2 hours per day was lost from the programme – free time?
No scholarship fund this year (and just after we had revitalised it in Scotland)
I felt that there were some missing details eg. a social place, some focused celebratory activities.

Recommendations and Suggestions for next year

  1. Host coaching necessary.
  2. Publish workshops asap.
  3. Develop ideas for funding.
  4. Activate networking activities eg. hold an offers and requests session.
  5. Keep schedule of Networking on the first evening, and programme scheduling on the first morning.
  6. Hold a briefing during breakfast.
  7. Hold a (separate) workshop day for students.
  8. Establish and keep good time keeping procedure.
  9. Provide a social space for during the conference.
  10. Have a vegetarian menu option.
  11. Include an Estonian traditional activity.
  12. CO2 compensation.
  13. Activate the network power and lets use it for more than just an annual conference.

More feedback... 

We have been developing our practices as a result of your comments. There are some areas that we have worked on based on feedback from previous conferences. For example:

  • We have developed guidance and better posting for workshops over the last two conferences.
  • We changed the programme to do the scheduling on the first morning this year.
  • We held the networking / fun session on the first evening this year.
You may not have contributed to the evaluation comments but it is not too late to have your say.
Having looked at the summary:
  • Are there additional comments that you would like to make?
  • Are there any observations that you think are interesting?
  • Are there some important messages that you think next years organisers need to hear?
» 3 Comments
3"Ideas"
at Thursday, 05 June 2008 10:23by Andi Roberts
I generally agree with the above so here are some ideas for the future: 
* Have people complete their profile before they come and post them all up on one wall. + include contact details if possible. 
* Have a bring a book table: People bring one of their favourite "experiential" books. People may loan it for 24 hours then return it and it does go back with the owner :-) 
* Ideas / projects board: for those that want to develop an activity, project, product to get together in "free time".
2Comment
at Tuesday, 27 May 2008 21:40by Piera Marongiu
I agree on many comments, especially those that allow more free time: on one hand, for "digesting" workshops and learning contents. On the other hand, to leave more room to build informal relationships and discover more in deep the treasure of EEE people. 
I'd propose to have 15' of icebrakers activity all together before starting the day. It can help to energise the day and to see each other as a big group before splitting up for workshops. :)
1"Is 33% response too low?"
at Thursday, 22 May 2008 22:10by Roger Greenaway
The evaluation process was completed by the 33% of people who happened to stay until Monday lunchtime. If you are amongst the 67% who left early it is still not too late to comment thanks to this comment facility called 'comment'! Next year let's do evaluation while everyone is still around. 
 
PS A historical note. I think the tradition of a smaller meeting on the Monday comes from a time when EEE was AEE members and friends. If 'friends' attended the meeting they had no vote. Now we are all one!
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