Higher levels of integration, roadmap for future events
The future belongs to hybrid congresses. I was quite sceptical about this, however in reality it worked very well. There may not be a covid in the next few years, but we will be certainly dealing with the carbon footprint. The key is to professionally provide and set up the interactive platform to suit the needs of the event. We were the first hybrid WEEC in history, but probably not the last.
An online platform with recordings of all content is a “game-changer”, extending the congress beyond its runtime. The only question is how much it will be used in the coming months.
It’s important to do congresses of this type in a participatory way, involving people from the wider community. It was challenging sometimes (there were a lot of people to coordinate), but it definitely paid off.
The linking the “big” congress with the youth congress worked very well. In the future, I could imagine a higher level of integration between the two events. The YEEC organizers did a great job!
The linking of the “academic” and “field-based, practice-oriented” parts also worked very well. Again, I could imagine a higher level of integration. Both “theorists” and “practitioners” have their own unique perspectives and it is important that they meet from time to time.
The conditions were not easy… but it was manageable. The support from our partners helped a lot: Charles University, Praha.eu, Ministerstvo životního prostředí, Skupina ČEZ, Kongresové centrum Praha, Embassy of Switzerland in the Czech Republic, British Chamber of Commerce Czech Republic – thank you!
And thanks so much to everyone who was in it with us!
Jan Činčera
