Tell us what is a good place in your country/city/town around which you can convene people to share their stories a place around which many people pass or spend time in. It could be a neighborhood, a pub, a church, a hospital, an open ‘office’ in the field. That could be the starting point for collecting deep stories, ‘portraits’ of people who you would then engage repeatedly to understand their own story better, to help them create accounts on the platform, to have them join the event and meet one another.
Please respond to this in a comment below within the next 2-3 days so that we can move on to the next steps together!
Read it.
Well I am not a local connector, not there on the ground anyways, so I can’t really follow the same logic of meeting people like that.
I do fly there in 10 days though and what I can and want to do is organise 2 meetups, one in Belgrade and 1 in Becej or Novi Sad (both in Vojvodina, northern Serbia). As we discussed during the 2nd meeting we will get very different feedback from a town like Becej, Belgrade is very different from 90% of Serbia .
One thing I don’t know how to do is engage people in a very personal 1 on 1 way and document it during such a meetup though. It will have to be a different format, like the one you described in the above document. Groups of 3 etc.
I like walks by the river and 3 cities I would focus on have plenty of river, so I would engage people there. Nice weather, pleasant environment etc make me happy. I think I would be meeting relaxed, pleasant people willing to have a chat like that.
One idea also is to focus on high school, 17 or 18 year olds. Do an event in partnership with a school and totally different demographic group involved. Could focus on an issue they deal with and see if we can get them to act as a community. I bet they would be more willing/active participants.
I could start by telling them about Edgeryders, then about my experience (work, life abroad, entrepreneurship) and then ask meaningful questions to get them going. Ask for few volunteers and ask about their plans after high school, what would they love to change in their community/education. What would make them happy/improve their life etc.
Also, going to many expos as exhibitor I learned people often will not follow up. I found 3 ways to get them to follow up:
tell an amazing story so they will actually ask you on the spot for your instagram/facebook etc
have a flyer so they can easily find you once they get home
have an incentive to get them to sign up on the spot (like make sure to tell them what the best aspect of wellbeing in europe is and what are the opportunities)
As exhibitor I would host a competition with rewards or similar
About ways to support:
maybe create graphic for a flyer?
help me efficiently move around in Serbia
This trip was already planned beforehand since I have some work in Belgrade already so I don’t need anything on that side but if I am to reach as many people as I can and do 2 meetups in 2 cities it would be nice if you could chip in for a car rental.
Staying only 4 days, out of which 2 are already taken with activities planned some time ago, so it would be of great help to have a car and it wouldn’t be expensive. Is there a budget for that?
The best way to do this is to make a copy of this template event budget for your event, share it with nadiaen@edgeryders.eu and add the numbers into it so that we have an overview of what is happening where:
This is convenient, no free agent course for outsiders needed - this spreadsheet will then be also used by all of the local event organisers? Have you trained the local connectors in using it during the weekend meeting? Just making sure who knows what
This is the document we use to plan for the costs, so it needs to be filled in before the festival takes place so that we can also check that everything is in order and aligned with our grant agreement and EU rules for administration. Then people will have to upload everything into Freeagent afterwards (receipts for all expenses, invoices from suppliers as well as their own requests). No I have not trained anyone.
it is important to ensure that everyone is aligned and no misunderstandings happen due to language differences or different standards/routines for how people are used to doing things.
Really looking forward to the results of your experiment, please keep a diary. not sure how much did you get to exchange with the Polish connector during the training last weekend, but that is a big struggle for us in here - its a combination of little time, difficult and foreign language interface, and investment in something that doesnt have a clear return for most of the people. even if we already built a huge base of amazing users and stories and we get a decent picture of what people struggle with, this is not enough for almost anyone to stay. We thought people would want to talk because there are other people with similar struggles and they are honest, and yet… We keep on trying, so keep us posted about this small experiment and welcome on board
Ok,we will probably have to establish a thread with this document where everyone can ask questions, and maybe compile a small FAQ for them not to get lost but also to have a clear idea of what expenses and confirmations need to be uploaded there.
I think the best way for me to record information is audio, least invasive and inexpensive. Will check how viable is the smart phone for that, worst case scenario is getting one of those devices journalists use ;).
Also, shouldn’t we translate this part in Serbian:
"European elections.
We are on a journey to help one another to find the right ways to navigate the changes that are happening in Europe. How are we building good lives against a backdrop of massive social, economic, political challenges. How are we creating opportunities for ourselves and where can we support one another better? In work, health, family, community life.
Join a weekly Virtual Cafe! an online video gathering to meet other community members! This will enable our community hosts to welcome you in person and connect you to people based on your common interests. Calls are hosted in Czech, Polish, Serbian/Croatian, or English language.
Share your story in +New Topic: how you are accessing work and prosperity, get health and social care, practice spirituality, or others! Pick one you are passionate about, and go ahead and write what is important to you. Offer support to others by leaving comments to their stories.
I have read the document. My idea was to complement two tactics: I will now participate in events of The Climate Week in Brno. These events will be a good place to start conversations and these contacts should be easy to maintain. Then, in Brno, I will follow to gather stories in the inglorious pub of Posledni Lec where diversity of people and availability of alcohol could make it easier to make contact with people of different socio-economic backgrounds.
Next to this, I will visit the village of Lomnice where I will work on creating there a stable group of storytellers and this group could eventually get bigger and bigger.
po 9. 9. 2019 v 13:43 odesílatel Nadia E.N. via Edgeryders contact@edgeryders.eu napsal:
It departs from an overlap between technology, populism and environmentalism.
The Tactical Tech collective has called for organisations to partner with them/their work in exploring and spreading awareness about how digital technologies and personal data are used to influence our thoughts and behaviours. With special focus on how this influences/is used in politics. I think it could be a good opportunity for our project to to engage with environmentalists and technologists if there is a concrete, action oriented outcome from the event/engaging in dialogue. They are especially interested in partners operating in Eastern Europe.
And we are well suited to do it. As you may or may not know one of the tracks at the festival is deep green - looking at the role of technologies/technologist (especially digital) and the transition to a zero-carbon or even carbon-negative future. There is even a rough outline for what a workshop around the topic could look like. And we could then reach out in a focused way to environmentalists and technologists with a clear value proposition. In Czechia, there is a potentially strong ally in the Pirates - they are also in the European Parliament. Curious to hear what everyone thinks!
I read whole manual and I have to thanks a lot for putting plenty of effective tips!
My plan to find people with their stories is to have series of discussing sessions in „farm market“ located in my neighbourhood. It is quite new place opened just by the subway station – it is not typical commercial farm market , but more likely open and vibrant chill-out zone and natural meeting point for locals. Besides there are local producers of variety of bio/street food, there is also playground for children, bar with stage (organizing various cultural events) and cozy café with terrace, where I am very often and also I have been working here for months.
Although majority of time I am sitting there alone (f.e. working), always it ends up with chat with some „strangers“. This is the place (unfortunately only one in our district), where people naturally come together to share their stories – typically about topics connected to wellbeing in our district. From my point of view this whole place connecting unknown neighbours together, because it is open for everybody - literally people of all ages, economic backgrounds and different statuses are meeting and chatting here with open minds in positive atmosphere.
My idea is to start there discussion corners on regular basis – firstly with couple of my friends, who are engaged in topics of our neighbourhood and invite other people to join our discussion – how I said, normally when we are chatting there (no matter about what topic), other „locals“ are use to join us, so based on this experience, I would like to gather stories and enthusiasts for ER platform. All the square is wi-fi ready so there is advantage in showing to new potential member how the virtual community looks like and works.
Last but not lease I am trying to figure out if there will be possibility to have ER festival also there, because it could naturally attract more people „from the streets“ to participate for further steps of this project. Hand in hand with in that it could be value for our district that the festivals open for everybody share part of knowledge of people participating in this project, which could bring inspiring topic for new discussions of local people living here.
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