Representatives of the EU CYCLE project have been invited by the Interreg Europe Programme to share their experience on taking activities online.
Restrictions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a hindering factor – or at least an unfavourable condition – for starting the policy learning process. The uncertain circumstance raised a series of questions: after realizing that organizing physical study visits will not be possible, how to transfer the existing knowledge? How to transform a study visit online? How to start the action planning? What about the future?
Ms. Delinke BEJCZY, director of transnational projects and Zsombor ARADSZKI, project manager at Westpannon Team, the lead partners of the EU CYCLE initiative provided a short summary on what has worked and what has not, as well as took part in the discussion and brainstorming on what could be useful also in the future.
As it was pointed out, the situation also provided new opportunities: the lack of geographic fixity allowed presenting a wider range of good practices, as well as provided wider access to the information, as presentations can be easily recorded and disseminated among the stakeholder groups.
It was also highlighted that it was harder to give a presentation with a breakthrough experience. At the same time, it does not depend on fancy videos – of course, they can be important –, but it depends on the presenter's commitment, enthusiasm and dedication regarding the good practice. That makes an online presentation catchy.
As a conclusion, Westpannon Team emphasized that hybrid events can be useful in the future, however they cannot substitute the magic of personal experience.
