AGM 2016 - Thank you!

Winter wonderland was waiting for more than 200 members of the Europeana Network Association when we gathered in Riga, Latvia, for the 2016 ‘Show us what you’ve got’ AGM (8-9 November). It was a fabulous opportunity to welcome you all at the National Library of Latvia (LNB).

I would like to ask those who attended to share their opinion, before 15 December, with us.

National Library of Latvia, Riga, Europeana, CC BY

What was this two-day meeting like? The Members Council — elected representatives of the Association who oversee the AGM organisation — met on 7 November for their third meeting in 2016. With a line-up of ten amazing speakers, 21 Ignite talks, exciting topics at nine Chef’s tables and a visit to the fantastic Latvian National Museum of Art, it’s hard to know where to begin. Let’s just start by extending a huge thank you to everyone who came and turned it into an entertaining and positive two-day event. It was great to see how engaged and involved all of you were.

Speakers: Shawn Averkamp, Markus Krötzsch, Effie Kapsalis, Lora Aroyo, Federico Milani, Mia Ridge, Dan Cohen, and Joan Cobb. Europeana, CC BY

It was in the early morning when the Chair of the Europeana Network Association, Max Kaiser, kicked off the day with a warm welcome and an introduction to the full programme.

If you’re looking for any of the presentations that were held during these two days, you can find them on Slideshare; and there are some striking photographs on Europeana's Flickr too. Additionally, I recommend the movie “Workers Underground”: A visual impact assessment journey of Europeana 1914-1918 - for both its testimonies and quantitative information.

‘Show us what you’ve got’ was the catchphrase of the event, and via five tracks this was picked up on by presenters and speakers in various ways.

We started with the General Assembly — read more about this in our published minutes — during which Rolf Kallman asked all the Europeana Network Association members to vote for 28 new Councillors.

The introductory launch of the newly developed online Europeana 1914-1918 transcription tool was a great success, and the Transcribathon was joined by several AGM attendees. Prizes were awarded on 9 November to winning teams from France: Elisabeth Freyre, BnF & Marie-Véronique Leroi, French Ministry of Culture, and History Students of the University of Latvia.

At the end of day one Jill Cousins handed over the EMA award to the new winner, the Polin Museum, after which we all took off for the amazing Latvian National Museum of Art.

Europeana Network Association ‘AGMers’ in the Latvian National Museum of Art, Europeana, CC BY

The second day revealed what exciting things are happening during Track four, Disruptive Innovation in Aggregation, such as Operation Direct. In the final track, Europeana Tech & R&D, a panel looked back in time and discussed what they would have done if they had the chance to do it all over again.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your participation, enthusiasm and efforts in promoting the event. #AGM2016, #AllezCulture and #EuropeanaElects hashtag have been used well. In short: 89 accounts produced 211 tweets that reached 128,266 people. You can reread the tweets #AGM2016, #AllezCulture and #EuropeanaElects.

We very much look forward to seeing you next year at the Europeana Plenary to be held somewhere in the Netherlands, with most likely the General Assembly taking place alongside. We will keep you updated of course on the date and place of next year’s Plenary and General Assembly.

You'll also hear from our colleague Rolf Kallman on 21 November who will present the results of this year's elections. Thanks to all the fantastic candidates, and, of course, the hundreds of voters too.

Last, but not least, please fill out our survey, before 15 December, to help us improve next year’s event. We appreciate any feedback you can offer.