ALL DIGITAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2019: NEW OPPORTUNITIES AND NEW PERSPECTIVES • ALL DIGITAL
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ALL DIGITAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2019: NEW OPPORTUNITIES AND NEW PERSPECTIVES

04 Jun, 2019

On 22-24 May 2019, ALL DIGITAL General Assembly took place in Brussels, Belgium, framed by two project events. The whole event had four main parts: 1) The official General Assembly and 2) the members’ meeting on 23 May; 3) the final conference of the UMI-Sci-Ed project: Exploiting Ubiquitous Computing, Mobile Computing and the Internet of Things to promote STEM Education on 22 May; 4) a workshop “Integration of Migrants through ICT and digital skills” organised by the Digital Welcome project on 24 May.

Over 60 representatives of 43 member organizations from 22 countries gathered to assess and approve the main organisational documents, elect new Board members, as well as discuss the members’ services, opportunities and major events.

 

FORMAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The General assembly was hosted at the Umbria Region’s Representative office in Brussels with a beautiful view of the Schuman area. The aim of the first official part of the meeting was to discuss the membership status, to elect the new Board, as well as to evaluate and approve the main organisational documents.

Chair of the Board Mara Jakobsone welcomed the participants presenting the major accomplishments of the network since the previous General Assembly and introduced the new members that joined the ALL DIGITAL network during the previous year.

  • EPMA from Czechia re-joined the network

and 12 new members joined the network:

 

After the introductions from the new members, CEO Laurentiu Bunescu and COO Peter Palvolgyi presented the official documents and led the discussions; after which the  delegates approved:

  • the Annual Report 2018,
  • Accounts 2018 and the
  • Report from financial controllers;
  • the Operational Plan 2019
  • Budget for 2019

Following the approval of the official documents, the election of the ALL DIGITAL Board for 2019-2021 happened. All candidates had to share their motivation to be part of the Board and then the new Board, new Chair of the Board, Deputy Chair and financial controllers were elected. Learn more about the board election and meet the Board members.

 

MEMBERS’ MEETING

 

The official General Assembly was followed by the members’ meeting, which covered various initiatives and topics that ALL DIGITAL network is working on.

First the delegates reviewed the results of the membership survey and discussed the membership benefits and services, including training opportunities.

Ekaterina Clifford presented some of the most important survey results. The survey conducted during January-March 2019 showed the major trends in the network and let us analise the value of ALL DIGITAL services. As you can find in the charts below, this year ALL DIGITAL network overall trained 1.5 mnl people and reached over 13.5  mln people.

According to members, one of the most useful ALL DIGITAL services is participating in annual meetings and the ALL DIGITAL Summit, and  among other benefits there are proposal development and applying for funding together; collaboration on projects with other members; timely information on EU funding and policy; and information on other members’ activities (through various means) .

Board Member Altheo Valentini presented  Erasmus+ Key Action 1 Learning mobility opportunity key features and the main services provided so far by ALL DIGITAL to support member organisations, including training and webinars to build the capacity of members and support members to develop, test and exchange innovative methods and programmes. As part of the proposed strategy, all members can propose a KA1 course at EU level and get support to apply with a KA1 proposal through dedicated group on Basecamp and pre-filled templates and technical guidance.

The two flagship events of ALL DIGITAL  – the ALL DIGITAL Week and the Summit – are always long awaited and generate most discussions.

Ekaterina Clifford presented the results of the ALL DIGITAL Week, highlighting the main achievements and changes in 2018, with special thanks to the strategic partners and all national partners  many of whom were present at the General Assembly. This year was one of the most successful campaigns with more people involved: 130,000 people from 31 countries were engaged in the campaign thanks to 2500 local partners who organised 3700 events all over Europe. Ekaterina also presented the finalists of the Best Event competition.

ALL DIGITAL Awards 2019 were also launched at the General Assembly. The Awards recognize the best e-facilitators, digital changemakers, cooperation projects and digital resources from wider Europe to celebrate innovation, dedication and the inspiring role they play to enhance digital skills of Europeans. See more about the ALL DIGITAL Awards 2019 here. The Awards ceremony will take place at the ALL DIGITAL Summit in Bologna.

Gabriela Ruseva (ALL DIGITAL) and Stefano Kluzer (ART- ER) presented the ALL DIGITAL SUMMIT 2019. The summit will take place on 10-11 October in Bologna, Italy, co-hosted by our Italian members ART-ER, Open Group, and Lai-Momo. There are two distinct topics this year: Day 1 will be dedicated to STEM and coding, with focus on gender equality, teacher training, the “A” or Arts in STEAM. And on Day 2 the Summit will focus on basic digital skills and digital education for adults, in particular on supporting learners, mobile training, employability and open technology. The projects supporting the Summit are: CODINC, DCDS, la Carovana STEM. Learn more about the Summit.

In the afternoon a consultation about a Digital Skills Manifesto was presented. The Digital Skills Manifesto was developed by Achilles Kameas with the support of the ALL DIGITAL board and staff. The Manifesto contains a series of key principles and recommendations on how to maximise the impact of education and training, as powerful instruments towards a continuous development of digital competences for the European citizens. During the upcoming months, the manifesto will be developed and will have to be approved by the ALL DIGITAL members.

Another topic was the results and further exploitation of the UMI-Sci-Ed project with the proposal of an umbrella organisation. Delegates also took part in an interactive ‘game show’ about UMI and IoT with the winning member, José Antonio González Martínez from Somos Digital of Spain receiving an UDOO kit to take back to his organisation.

And finally at the end of the day,  members had an opportunity to present the projects and initiatives in the lightning talks and elevator pitches session.

Lightning Talks:

Pitches:

  • Jean Guo (Konexio)
  • Be Intenert Citizens Workshop, Antonio Roman (AUPEX)
  • Internet Search Contest, Bela Tumasova (PH International)
  • Summer camp on STEM workshop, Stefano Kluzer (ART-ER)
  • IT Skills for Jobs whorkshop, Filippo Mantione (Lai-Momo)
  • Cisco, Ian Clifford (ALL DIGITAL)
  • CODINC project, Pia Groenewolt (ALL DIGITAL)

 

ALL DIGITAL CEO Laurentiu Bunescu closed the day by summing up the amendments at ALL DIGITAL and extending a word of thanks to everyone who had helped him from his start at ALL DIGITAL back in 2008. This was his last General Assembly as CEO and staff member. He received a very warm farewell from all members.

 

UMI-SCI-ED FINAL EVENT

The first of the two events which framed the ALL DIGITAL General Assembly meeting, was the UMI-Sci-Ed project conference. In this conference a range of different discussions, plenary sessions and practical demonstrations were held, engaging more organizations in this policy area. UMI-Sci-Ed aims to empower young people to think creatively, apply new knowledge in an effective way and become continuously competitive in our highly demanding working environment. Learn more.

DIGITAL WELCOME FINAL EVENT

Finally, on May 24, a workshop on “Integration of Migrants through ICT and digital skills” was organised by the Digital Welcome project. Offering a digital welcome was the essence of the ‘Digital Welcome’ methodology. In five European countries young refugees and migrants learned to facilitate IT workshops on basic programming, digital storytelling, digital journalism and a whole arsenal of soft skills aimed at communication and animating workshops. It was an excellent opportunity to practice the local language, improve digital skills, and get to know new people. Participants were able to test the methodology and IT-workshops for young refugees and newcomers. Want to know more? Click here.