On the 24th to 27th of November 2016, a very particular event happened in Zagreb Croatia. This was a National Boards Meeting. A whole story...
It all began with a very stressful period. Three days before... Having a glance at my emails, I noticed one from Lufthansa. Our flight to Zagreb had been cancelled!! Anni and me rebooked our ticket to another flight on the following day. But the next day, we again got an email, our flight was cancelled again! I was fortunately able to book a ticket for a third time and finally reach Zagreb.
I was very lucky to represent ESN Finland there. Anni wanted to come along too, unfortunately Lufthansa decided otherwise and she was not able to join me. So sad she could not enjoy all the fun! Because the event was a lot of fun. We got to meet a lot of very enthusiastic ESNers from all over Europe, we met as much enthusiastic local ESNers from Zagreb, we got to visit a nice city, enjoy a Eurodinner and several parties. We even visited the Christmas Market on Sunday evening, and Zagreb is proud to be ranked in the top three Christmas destinations. We witnessed and and can certify it is worth it. Another big part of the event (and my favourite one :p ) was the Eurodinner. If you are not yet familiar with the concept, just imagine... All the ESNers brought some delicatesses from their home country and were happy to share it together. It was a real pleasure to make people discover finish specialties : Salmiakki, Fazer blue chocolate and karjalanpiirakka (excuse my finnish :D ). The noticeable tables were Switzerland with some candled-powered Raclette and Portugal with some melted cheese that I could not remember the name :)
ok, That was a lot of fun, but the event had also a very serious part. It included a lot of meet-your-colleagues and many workshops. I, obviously attended the IT meetings. It was a real delight to discuss with people sharing similar experiences, similar goals and different opinions. That was the time I appreciated the most in the meeting. Petr gave us detailed insight of the IT Committee, Thomas some knowledge about accessibility in websites, about the future project, and we had a very interesting dreaming discussion about possible streaming infrastructures with the help of Andreas :) .
I also attended a workshop on the buddy system. The goal was to identified the key steps of a buddy project and what ESN could do to help its sectios in their goals. The discussio, even if absolutely not technical, brought up a lot of content and ideas for the implementation of the project. I also attended a Movin'Europe workshop, that some of you might have attended in NEP. I also finally joined a very deep discussion on the structure of the National Boards, and their goals in the long-term. Many ideas to implement in Finland :D
So, to wrap up, this event was an incredible motivation booster. Meeting and discussing with people with the same goals, the same willingness to do the best for their sections, the same issues too, made me realize that we are indeed a network, and that makes one of our biggest strength! Oh, and btw, Greetings from ESN The Netherlands!