Impressions from the EPALE 2019 Stakeholder Conference
Reading time approximately 4 minutes - Read, like, comment!
Original language: German
“Raining cats and dogs”—but still having a great time
At the plenary session, moderator Tamsin Rose welcomed this year’s Stakeholder Conference attendees with the above remark on the less than welcoming Warsaw weather. With her surprisingly informal but always professional approach, she greeted the attendees and brought them on an entertaining journey that ranged from EPALE’s origins to its highly promising and ambitious visions for the future.
In the spirit of the EPALE community
Like a homecoming—that was my initial feeling at the EPALE Stakeholder Conference and it very much reflected the spirit of the community and at the same time offered a wonderful opportunity for the approximately 230 participants to exchange creative ideas and work together.
Rather than putting the entire spotlight on EPALE itself, the conference also gave the platform’s users and stakeholders a powerful voice. After the European Commission and the General Director of the Foundation for the Development of the Education System greeted the plenary session attendees in Poland’s capital, the first of many different case studies on the use of EPALE was presented. The benefit of these brief insights, which were a defining aspect of the conference programme, lay partly in illustrating the impressive diversity and heterogeneity of the community, but also in providing all attendees with inspiration and new ideas for using the platform.
The conference programme, which was packed with workshops, discussions and presentations, included enough breaks for individual networking and personal discussions in the pleasant surroundings.
Visions for the future
One of the major things that struck me during Wilhelm Vukovich’s (European Commission Directorate-General for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport) presentation on the various visions for the platform’s future was that EPALE has now truly reached maturity. It is now possible to leave initial teething troubles behind and focus on what really matters: How can EPALE continue to expand its community and ensure that ever more users become active on the platform?
The aims are clear: to make EPALE faster and more user friendly, and to provide more useful functions for community building without making the platform too complex or sacrificing any of its reliability or stability. The community has plenty to look forward to, because in addition to various technical upgrades, such as faster loading times, new language variations, improved navigation, the expansion of the Partner Search function, and other completely new features including the possibility of face-to-face conversation, the plan is to revamp EPALE with a new look and feel.
Of particular interest to me—and, no doubt, others in the plenary session—was the mention of a very particular vision: the EPALE app. It would provide even greater mobility, easier networking, more discussion and even fewer barriers to the education sector—these are the very reasons for the creation of EPALE and are very much in line with the European Commission’s aim to simplify the design of the Erasmus+ programme and make it more accessible. An EPALE app would, without a doubt, bring us one step closer to this goal. We are excited to see what the future has in store for the EPALE community.
Inspirational mood despite the gloomy weather
I would like to end my reflections on the conference by drawing on the answer Christian Friedrich gave regarding the question of how EPALE and its various content can remain relevant for its users: The most successful communities are shaped by joint challenges that are tackled together. You always need a source of inspiration to drive the community forward. EPALE can be this source.
Log in to join the discussion! |
About the author:
Image rights: Peter Sadowsky Photographer, EPALE Deutschland, Pettycon von Pixabay
Related articles:
Migration in the EU—constant companion and ongoing challenge
Eine neue App und eine starke Community: Ziele für die Zukunft von EPALE (DE)
Valuable experience