16 Oct Celebrating 10 years of ALL DIGITAL
16 Oct, 2017
10 years, 10 summits, 8 Get Online Weeks, quite a few projects, 80+ members altogether…
Do you remember how the ALL DIGITAL (originally called Telecentre-Europe) network was formed and how it was launched? Who was the very first staff member? How was the Get Online Week created and what were the very first projects of ALL DIGITAL?
On 4th of October, 2017, as part of the ALL DIGITAL Summit in Barcelona, we have invited our long-standing members to participate in the Ultimate ALL DIGITAL Quiz to remember the most important, exciting, and funny moments of the 10 years of our network and share those best memories with other participants.
- 1st Chair of Telecentre-Europe Steering Committee Krasimir Simonski, Bulgaria
- Co-chair of Telecentre Europe Steering Committee and the 1st Chair of Board Gabriela Barna, Romania
- Co-chair of Telecentre Europe Steering Committee and the Board Ian Clifford, UK
- Chair of the Board of Telecentre-Europe/ALL DIGITAL Mara Jakobsone, Latvia
- Member of ALL the steering committees and most Boards Pedro Aguilera, Spain
- First managing director Gabriel Rissola, Spain
- First staff member and current CEO of ALL DIGITAL Laurentiu Bunescu, Romania
The quiz was conducted by the very first employee and current COO Peter Palvolgyi, Hungary, and the member of the first Steering Committee and current Communication manager Ekaterina Clifford, Russia.
We went down the memory lane and talked about the very first meeting in Barcelona in June 2007 and the first year with Pedro Aguilera and Krasimir Simonski, how we came up with the idea of the network and that we couldn’t have thought at that time how far it would go.
Mara Jakobsone highlighted the important role of Microsoft in the creation of the network and valuable support of Akhtar Badshah, Sylvie Laffarge, Melissa Pailthorp, Una O’Sullivan and their colleagues. Unfortunately, they couldn’t be with us for the celebration, but we were touched to see Una’s video message. Speaking of our supporters, we couldn’t help mentioning also the big role and contribution of Telecentre.org during several years. Thank you!
Gabi Barna and Ian Clifford shared their memories about launching the network at the Vienna Ministerial Conference in December 2008, where we had a big jigsaw puzzle with the map of Europe, and each attendee took a piece of that puzzle with the Telecentre-Europe logo with them – it was a fridge magnet!
We also recalled the preparation for the very first Get Online Day, with Mara, Gabriela, Laurentiu, Ekaterina during the rare snowy days in Timisoara, Romania in December 2009.
Gabriel Rissola reminded us of the very first projects that Telecentre-Europe had – Carenet and Carer+ and confessed that his favourite project was Unite-IT (as you know, the Unite-IT network is still working and growing).
There was a special mention of Loreta Krizinauskiene, who has been an active member since the very first meeting in Barcelona in 2007.
And those official stories were peppered with memories of karaoke singing, flamenco dancing, boat trips, and of course friendships developed. When asked about the most memorable parts of the 10 years of ALL DIGITAL, all unanimously announced that it was about people.
See more photos of the Awards and Celebration Ceremony
Here is to another exciting and memorable 10 years!
HAPPY 10 years, ALL DIGITAL!
