A summarised report on the annual event held by Telecentre Europe presents the highlights of a two-day conference which took place in Belgrade on 24-25th September 2015. The report wraps up the main sessions, an I-LINC panel on youth employability, five workshops in connection with EU project Unite-IT, and e-Participation discussions on the second day. The second Digital e-Inclusion Award ceremony and its winners are also reflected in the report.

The 2-day event was attended by almost 150 participants. Apart from many NGOs and TE members, the conference welcomed ICT sector representatives from Latvia and Belgium, policy makers from Estonia and Serbia, a group of primary and secondary school teachers, civil society organisations from UK and municipal authorities from the city of Venice.

Link to the online report version: http://joom.ag/XTGp

A PDF version of the report can be downloaded HERE.

By Masha Tarle

Telecentre Europe held its 8^th annual conference in Belgrade on 24 and 25^th September, co-organised by our Serbian member International Aid Network. The 2-day event was attended by almost 150 participants and was held in the beautiful hotel Hyatt Regency Belgrade where guests enjoyed 2 days of speeches, workshops and an award ceremony with live music and dancing.

Perfect mix of attendees

This year the participants were, as expected, a majority of telecentre networks and NGOs in digital inclusion field. However, we also welcomed policy makers from Finland and Serbia, a group of primary and secondary school teachers, civil society organisations from UK and municipal authorities from the city of Venice. From the private sector, we had Tieto Latvia’s CEO Elmars Gengers who spoke at length about attracting talent to ICT professions and the ever-growing importance of soft skills such as flexibility, communication and leadership. See his presentation here. From CISCO we had the pleasure to welcome Natacha Comar who spoke about the CISCO Networking Academies making a difference all around the world. She also presented Cisco’s Get Connected course which can be implemented in telecentres and was therefore an interesting opportunity for our members to explore. For her and other speakers’ presentations please see Telecentre Europe’s Slideshare account.

Workshops and discussions

The UNITE-IT workshops were a series of simultaneous discussions on digital inclusion matters, relating to 1.vulnerable groups such as the elderly or disabled (#TEACvulne) 2. The gender gap in ICT (#TEACgender), 3.education and training /EU’s framework for digital competence (#TEACedu) 4. Youth employability (#TEACemploy) and 5. a new workshop on social innovation (#TEACinno). For more information on what was discussed in each of these, check out the associated hashtag on Twitter.

On the first day of TEAC15 we also had our discussion panel that focused fully on youth employability and the new stakeholder platform we are launching together with European Schoolnet and Telefonica. The panel brought together representatives of 5 different fields to discuss this burning issue: researchers, civil society, ICT sector, entrepreneurs and policy makers. The video of this panel will soon be available on the new I-LINC platform.

e-Participation and funding topics

The second day was dedicated to learning about e-Participation: what is it about in theory and in practice. What does it mean for telecentres? And, most importantly, what skills do citizens need to have to be able to be active and participate online? Vladimir Radunovic from the Diplo Foundation made an interesting presentation on this last topic that you can view here.

The e-Participation session was followed by a world café on funding, where Telecentre Europe members and other NGOs talked about concrete topics they can get together for projects and funding applications. More info on this will be available for the participants in the upcoming months.

 Media 

The lively event was filmed and many of the participants were asked for statements about the conference itself, Telecentre Europe network and other topics of interest. Videos will be available soon on our YouTube channel. For the first time we had a fruitful collaboration with a team from Hungary called Media Commando who created this great summary of interviews during the conference. Have a look at it below!

We took many photos throughout the event and you can find them all on our social community site Unite-IT.

For a full and interesting Storify of Tweets see what happened here.

TEAC 2015 is going to offer its participants a range of ways to explore digital empowerment this year. Five simultaneous workshops led by the UNITE-IT project and platform leaders will invite participants to look into a number of topics: education and training of digital skills, digital inclusion of vulnerable groups, digital social innovation, the relation between ICT and youth employability and the importance of gender balance in the ICT and STEM fields. The session is planned for the morning of September 24.

Participants will split into five workshops they have signed up for upon their registration for the conference. Each of the workshops will have a facilitator dedicated to that topic and a couple of invited guest speakers while a social media reporter will publish key takeaways on Twitter throughout the session. Speakers will engage participants in short five minute presentations to share their experience or to reflect on a good practice of their organisation relevant for the topic of the workshop. This will open up further discussions where participants will be welcome to actively contribute.

Workshop discussions at TEAC last year in Zagreb

The workshop format have proved to be successful in last year’s annual conference in Zagreb. Participants are able to contribute with their know-how and shape discussions in the direction they want. This interactive approach will also allow attendees to hear other peers and meet professionals with similar work interests. The purpose of this year’s workshops is to identify concrete EU policy, paper or declaration to which the discussions will contribute and feed into policy papers later written by Telecentre Europe.

In the evening the UNITE-IT project will hold its annual award ceremony in order to award best practices in the area of digital inclusion.

For more details about the full programme of the conference please check PROGRAMME on the menu bar.

ABOUT UNITE-IT

UNITE-IT is a network and community of people interested in digital inclusion and digital empowerment in Europe.UNITE-IT is a project funded by the European Commission’s Life Long Learning Programme. The main objective of the project is to create an online community centered on collecting and sharing practices on how digital competence can assist groups at risk of exclusion to reconnect with learning, as a means to foster employability, social inclusion and social cohesion.

This year Telecentre Europe’s Annual Conference (TEAC) under the tagline of Digitally empowered Europeans will take place in Belgrade on the 24-25th September at the Hyatt Regency Belgrade Hotel. Our Serbian member, the International Aid Network, will host this 8^th edition of our annual conference.

Programme

Day 1 (Thursday 24^th September) will be focused on policy and good practice. After the conference opening with local and international keynote speakers, the UNITE-IT project and platform leaders will moderate a series of simultaneous workshops on the digital inclusion of vulnerable groups, the education and training of digital skills, the relation between ICT and youth employability and the importance of gender balance in the ICT and STEM fields. Outcomes of the workshops will feed into policy papers written by Telecentre Europe.

In the afternoon, a panel will launch the new platform on youth employability “I-LINC” and will establish some main questions tackle this burning issue at both EU and national levels.

In the evening the UNITE-IT project will hold its annual award ceremony and dinner, in order to award best practice in the four areas described above.

Unite-IT Award winners last year in Zagreb

Day 2 (Friday, 25^th September) will provide an in-depth discussion on sustainability and future of telecentre and digital inclusion organisations. It will also provide a forum to discover the topic of e-Participation and active citizenship.

Registration is open and available on the event website: http://teannualconference2015.info/registration/

What is it about?

Participants’ group photo at TEAC 2014 in Zagreb

TEAC is a gathering of all organisations and persons interested in reducing the digital gap. Participants are professionals and policy makers working in the area of digital inclusion, digital skills training, online participation and citizenship. More than 100 representatives of NGOs and non-profits, researchers and academics, training providers, educators and EU/national policy makers from all over Europe will come to Belgrade to discuss challenges and good practices, and to debate and to network with others in the field.

Background

Originally called the TE annual summit, the Telecentre Europe Annual conference (TEAC) has been so far the main and only annual meeting point of leaders of digital inclusion organisations in Europe. Since 2008 Telecentre Europe has organised seven annual gatherings for its member organizations and stakeholders. Last year 120 participants came to Zagreb to talk about e-Skills for jobs topic in the context of telecentres.

Social media

Twitter: @tc_europe
Hashtags: #TEAC15 ; #eParticipation ; #UniteIT15

Blogging space: http://www.unite-it.eu

Event website: http://teannualconference2015.info/

During the three days of TEAC in Zagreb we had many speakers and collaborators who shared their knowledge with us on different topics. Hence, we are happy to be able to share their presentations with our conference participants.

 DAY 1

• Péter Pálvölgyi (Telecentre Europe) Setting the scene: Unite- IT project
• Gabriela Barna (EOS Foundation Romania) Digitally Empowered Europe
• Angela Andersson (DG EAC, European Commission) EPALE
• Renata Danielienė (Young Advisor to Neelie Kroes in Lithuania) Youth employability
• Adriana Gil-Juárez (Universitat Rovira i Virgili) & Joel Feliu (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) Gender Equality: Invisible Routes
• Magdalena Dimkova-Velevska (Open the Windows) Project for e-accessible education

Presentations in the working group sessions:

• Ioana Crihana (ANBPR Romania) Training Impact of ANBPR on Librarians’ ICT Skills
• Pontus Euxinus Library in Navodari (Romania) Handmade and IT for Women
• Henriett Hangodi (Regional Telecottages Public Association of South Hungarian Plain) Telecottage Katedra – Smartphones from the Choice to the Administration
• Karolina Jasvinaite (Langas i Ateiti) eSCOUTS project
• Ian Clifford (Founder of YouRock) YouRock.Jobs

DAY 2

• Mara Jakobsone (Chair of Telecentre Europe) Opening and Welcome Presentation
• Hrvoje Balen (University College Algebra) eSkills for Jobs 2014. Project status in Croatia
• Predrag Pale (University of Zagreb) KEYNOTE SPEECH
• Renata Danielienė, Local Coalition for Digital Jobs Lithuania
• Nenja Wolbers (Stiftung Digitale Chancen) Trans-efacilitator Curriculum
• Raquel Costa (FCT Portugal) Trans-efacilitator Trainer
• Reinis Rukmanis (LIKTA) Trans-efacilitator Piloting Experiences

DAY 3

• Sally Reynolds (ATiT) Collaboration opportunities with the Media and Learning Association
• Philip Penny (Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology) Competence gap in digital media and art – iProfessional project
• Igor Kanižaj (University of Zagreb) New approaches to media and information literacy
• Nela Gudelj (Croatian Radio Television) Media literacy and public service media – Minding the gap
• Mislav Balković (Algebra – University College for Applied Computer Engineering) Employment opportunities in the multimedia sector

Telecentre Multimedia Academy (TMA) presentations:

• Péter Pálvölgyi (Telecentre Europe) About TMA project
• Skaidrite Bukbarde (LIKTA) TMA in Latvia
• Karolina Jasvinaitė, (LIA) TMA in Lithuania
• Cornelia Popescu (EOS Romania) TMA in Romania
• Pedro Aguilera (ESPLAI Foundation) TMA in Spain
• Krisztina Fehér (DemNet) TMA in Hungary
• Ivan Stojilović (IAN Serbia) TMA in Serbia
• Ljiljana Studeni (Association Media Croatia) Practical demonstration of multimedia skills

The final countdown till the 7^th annual Telecentre Europe‘s event has begun. Around 100 participants and speakers from European institutions, foundations and associations, partner organisations, NGOs, universities, and ICT industry will meet in Zagreb, Croatia on 24-26^th September. What can you expect at TEAC 2014?

Four thematic groups will open discussions on the first day. Their speakers will address relevant challenges: Angela Andersson from the European Commission and Ioana Crihana from the National Association of Librarians and Public Libraries in Romania are invited to present their practice in adult education, training and certification. A. Andersson is part of the Adult Learning team in the European Commission and has been in charge of several large-scale European initiatives in the field of digital resources and online collaboration whereas I. Crihana has been involved in a series of partnership brokering activities in order to implement the most important national program of IT competences for public libraries BIBLIONET – The world in my library. Renata Danielienė who works at the Information Technologies Institute and is Young Advisor to Neelie Kroes in Lithuania will pinpoint trends and challenges related to ICT and youth employability. R. Danielienė has experience in children security and safety on Internet, IT training and testing service providing, ECDL courseware development, is a co-author of 3 books in computer literacy and has publications in IT. Magdalena Dimkova-Velevska from Open the Windows organisation in Macedonia will share her professional experience as a special educator in the field of inclusive education, assistive technologies and her work with students with disabilities.

Day 2 will bring professionals from the IT industry, academics, policy makers and other important stakeholders to the same discussion table. Among them Alexander Riedl (DG Connect, European Commission), Gert De Laet (Cisco), Ilona Kish (Reading and Writing Foundation), Meral Akin-Hecke (Austrian Digital Champion), Christoph Kaletka (University of Dortmund), Joaquim Torrents (Spanish Association of Telecentre Networks) and more will exchange their insights on digital skills and digital jobs. Predrag Pale, a researcher and a professor at the University of Zagreb, is invited to give a keynote speech. P. Pale is the Internet pioneer and early Internet adopter in Croatia and so his research involves ICT in education, information security, ICT in governance and how to leverage ICT benefits for all, to name a few.

The last day of TEAC 2014 will be dedicated to media literacy and multimedia skills with speakers from UNESCO, ATiT, Croatian Radio Television, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, University of Zagreb, and University College for Applied Computer Engineering Croatia. Telecentre Multimedia Academy (TMA) project partners will wrap up the outcomes in seven partner countries.

Telecentre Europe invites professionals from the formal and informal education those interested in the topic of digital skills and media literacy skills to a 3-day event to take place in Zagreb on 24-26^th September.

Organised together with European project leaders from Unite IT, Trans e-facilitator andTelecentre Multimedia Academy (TMA) this year’s conference will address the eSkills needed for the 21^st century. The preliminary programme will cover digital inclusion, eSkills and digital jobs and media literacy topics with speakers from European institutions, ICT industry representatives and NGOs working directly in the field. On the first conference day conference participants will be invited to break into four working groups to discuss digital inclusion in terms of (1) Education, training, and certification, (2) Youth employability, (3) Vulnerable groups at risk of exclusion, and (4) Gender equality. In the evening best digital inclusion practice(s) will be awarded as the outcome of the Unite IT project call. To participate in the competition please submit your good practice by reading the following instructions.

eSkills and Jobs for the 21^st century is the main focus of the second day with topic experts and enthusiasts debating challenges in two panels. An informative session on building the capacities of e-facilitators will be run in Pecha Kucha style: presentations with a limited number of slides so that more information is given to the audience. EU funding opportunities will be on the agenda as well. Third and final conference day will be dedicated to media literacy touching upon collaboration opportunities and showcasing the TMA project results with a specific focus on media literacy in Croatia.

European Commission’s ongoing campaign eSkills for Jobs and its sister initiative Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs provide the framework for this year’s conference.

TE conference and its participants last year in Malta

Since 2008, Telecentre Europe has organized 6 annual gatherings for its member organizations and stakeholders that brought together around 500 participants from all corners of Europe and beyond. The name of the annual gathering changed over the time, bringing us to the Telecentre Europe Annual Conference in 2014.

In its 7^th year, the Telecentre Europe Annual Conference will be held in Zagreb, Croatia on 24-26 September 2014. Organized by Telecentre Europe and co-organised by European project leaders (UNITE-IT, Trans e-facilitator and TMA -Telecentre Multimedia Academy), the event will gather telecentre leaders, representatives of digital empowerment organizations and stakeholders from at least 20 countries.

The main theme of this year’s conference is centered on the eSkills required for the 21^st century workplace, in connection to the European Commission’s running campaign eSkills for Jobs.

Linked to the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs, the campaign tackles the current shortfall of eSkills in Europe, by raising awareness on the need for citizens to improve their eSkills. The event will explore opportunities and challenges to enable telecentres, libraries and the e-facilitators to act as multipliers of eSkills in their communities, equipping citizens with the necessary set of eSkills, and actively contributing to the above mentioned EC’s initiatives.

In support to the main theme, Telecentre Europe proposes two other exciting topics for the event:

• Digital Inclusion. Considering that 100 million Europeans are still offline, most of them representing disadvantaged groups, telecentres created and promote the UniteIT network to spread knowledge and share best practices across Europe.
• Digital multimedia skills. People are creating their own content, while changing paradigms of the multimedia. Telecentre Multimedia Academies are created to teach people, especially youngsters, multimedia skills.

The 3-day event is structured to reflect the journey from digital inclusion (Day 1) to the more advanced eSkills for jobs (Day 2), with a focus this year on multimedia skills (Day 3).