At Europeana 2020, we want to explore with you how we can support a sustainable, responsible and inspiring cultural heritage sector for today and tomorrow.

On this page you can find all the information you need to submit proposal for an interactive and engaging talk, event, workshop, session or intervention to be held during Europeana 2020. Proposals can be for sessions ranging anything from 5 minutes to an hour.

Unfortunately the Call for Proposals for Europeana 2020 has closed. We’re always looking for interesting topics for our events. Do you have a suggestion for an event? Then contact our event manager Gina van der Linden.

We are looking for your proposals for an event, interactive and engaging session or intervention to be held during Europeana 2020. Through our work on building digital capacity we’re listening to voices in the sector to understand the topics that matter the most to you, and we want to invite the best ideas to take the stage, and open up our platforms to new voices and subjects. 

Building digital skills 

For the sector to create lasting change, professionals need future-proof skills, literacies and experience. Europeana 2020 is about mutual investment - supporting one another to help us all engage better with the people we serve. Perhaps you have an interesting idea, project or expertise which could help others build capacity on a personal level by improving their knowledge, skills, attitudes or behaviours? Maybe you can help other professionals and users alike to update their skills to fully participate in creating meaningful and lasting change? Or perhaps you are a GLAM professional with a hands on perspective or case study on digital transformation you are burning to share? If you have an idea to help individual growth and learning, we want to know about it. 

Innovation and experimentation

Our annual conference has always aimed to be at the forefront of innovation and we want to hear about the projects and activities that are leading the way for tomorrow’s world. These could be about new technologies, engaging with audiences, experimentation, agile iteration and risk-taking. And of course innovation doesn’t necessarily mean new, nor does it only relate to technology - we’re looking for innovation that applies to people, processes and skills.

Digital cultural heritage and social change

2020 has provided us with a unique challenge and opportunity to reimagine so many aspects of our lives. We want to give the stage to proposals that will help others create meaningful and lasting social change. This could include helping professionals consider their own privilege, gathering diverse opinions, and developing guides on supporting social justice or greening-up their daily activities. It could be training to help colleagues become better agents of change, or advocates for the sector at all levels. Or perhaps it could be ways to increase understanding, representation and engagement of the people we work with and for.

Bridging digital divides

The early months of the pandemic saw a rapid acceleration in digital activities. Combined with the renewed focus on social and racial justice, many are asking how we can use digital to engage more meaningfully with all audiences and communities across society. We’re interested in hearing about innovative and interesting ways to bridge the social and technological divides between people who can access, are represented by, and feel welcomed by digital cultural heritage and those who don’t. We’d love to hear about other ways digital divides can be bridged, be they between GLAMs that have digital capacity and those that don’t, and between colleagues who are digitally literate and those who are not. If you can help others find, learn or be those bridges, send us your proposal.

In addition to the application form, we encourage everyone to prepare a short video of 45 to 90 seconds to pitch their proposal. We are not asking for anything highly polished - even a video shot on your phone will do. See our colleague Sebastiaan's example video he shot in his garden.

Deadline

The Call for proposals for the Europeana 2020 conference is open from 2 to 30 September 17:00 CET. Proposals can only be submitted through the proposal form above.

The selection process will begin when the call for proposals opens . We will review proposals in order of submission.

First notice 

You will receive a first notice before 9 October 2020 17:00 CET if your proposal meets the conditions to be taken into account for final selection. 

Changing, merging and combining proposals

The selection committee might contact you, before or after the first notice, with a request to: 

1. Merge or combine your proposal with another proposal. This will only be done if there is overlap between the proposals. 

2. Change your proposal to better align with the event and/or reduce overlap with another proposal. 

3. Use your proposal for future events, including as part ofEuropeana’s digital programme 2021-  a curated set of community-led digital events run throughout the year. 

Final notice

You will get a final notice if your proposal has been selected before 23 October 2020 17:00 CET. We will provide brief feedback on proposals which are not selected.

Support needed

Did you indicate that you need support? If so, we’ll be in touch during the notice process.

Training and checks

Organisers of selected proposals will receive a short voluntary training session and will be asked to participate in a mandatory technical check in the first week of November 2020. 

Withdrawing a proposal

If you want to withdraw your proposal, for whatever reason, please contact our events team.

There are numerous ways to facilitate interaction in an online event. . The examples below are not a list of options that you have to choose from, but are intended to help you think of ways to maximise the impact of your contribution to Europeana 2020.

The main criteria for choosing a format is the impact you want to make with your contribution. Do you want participants to learn something from you? Do you want to learn from them? Do you want to raise the profile of a certain topic by encouraging discussions? Do you want participants to experience a thought process? Etc.

Workshops

Workshops can be held in: 

1. Large groups, where participants are asked to do assignments individually, or 

2. Smaller groups, where participants are asked to do assignments together. The best way to support smaller groups is to have a facilitator for each group to guide them through the exercise(s).

Discussions

The main questions for discussions are how many people will be talking (or might want to talk) and how big the audience is. A moderated panel discussion is best suited for situations where only a small number of people will be talking most of the time and a large audience is listening. The audience can raise their hand to ask a question live or questions can be asked through Q&A and/or chat functionality. The moderator is then also responsible for bringing these questions to the table. 

Roundtable discussions are better suited if you want to give everyone the option to speak up. These can take place by dividing the participants into smaller groups. A moderator for each group is advisable during online events, as just putting people into a breakout room will not necessarily spark a conversation. Ensure that participants know what they should discuss, for example by sending them a link to a slidedeck, document, or survey. Make sure that you’ve thought about the way the results of the discussions are captured before you ask people to go into break out rooms. Presenting outcomes of each group might sound like a good idea, but online events allow for much better, faster and more insightful ways of giving feedback. For example: a survey within each group and/or a survey when everyone is back from their discussion.

Roundtables can have many variations. ‘Magic roundtables’ are where people determine the topics first and divide how much time they’ll spend on each topic before actually starting the discussion. This variation needs a (self appointed) time keeper. 

Presentations

Presentations might not sound like a very interactive format, but when done in a different way, they can encourage participation.. We have had good experiences based on “flipping the classroom”, where a presentation is pre-recorded and the time (that would normally be used for the presentation) is used for interaction. Other options are to stream your recording and interact live with your audience through a chat functionality. The chat can also be used for the audience to interact with each other.

Tools for interaction

Below is a list of tools that can be used for interaction with participants. Do you have your own favorite tool? Let us know. We love to get to know new tools. We will also need to evaluate whether it will be practical and possible to use the tool for Europeana2020.

Polling and quizzes: Mentimeter and Kahoot

Polling and quizzes are ideal ways of interacting with larger audiences. The questions can quickly be answered and answers can be shared instantly. Examples of polling and quiz tools that we have good experiences with are Mentimeter and Kahoot.

Collaborative note taking (Google Docs/EtherPad)

Google Docs and EtherPads are ideal for collaboratively note taking during sessions. You can prepare the documents/pads for the session by adding headers and/or essential questions that need to be discussed and/or answered during the session. Make sure to prepare a separate document for each group/break out room. This way participants do not need to scroll through several pages or run the risk to be working in the wrong location. The documents can be left open to the public after the event, though we suggest restricting editing rights to “make suggestions” of “commenting” to preserve the information that has been collected. 

Surveys (Google Forms)

Surveys can offer a structured way of gathering input from your participants. Each participant can use a survey individually or, in smaller groups, a notetaker is appointed. The notetaker can be a facilitator or one of the participants.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming with a group can easily be done online. Tools like Jamboard and Trello make it possible to quickly get people to add their thoughts on a canvas. Want a more structured approach? Then look into online mindmapping tools, like Miro and MindMeister.

Our selection committee is representative of the Europeana initative. The committee consists of members of Europeana Foundation, Europeana Members Council, Europeana Aggregators’ Forum, members of our six communities and from our New Professionals Task Force.

This committee have defined selection criteria to enable a broad and diverse selection, considering actions we support such as No Women No Panel. The criteria are:

First round:

1. To what extent does the proposal make it clear what outcomes the participants should be able to get out of the session? 

2. To what extent does the proposal speak to, involve, or collaborate with one or more of the conference target audiences? 

3. To what extent does the proposal offer something interesting, useful, innovative, or important to the event? 

Second round:

4. To what extent does the program scenario, the matters being discussed, and/or the presenters represent diversity in the themes? 

5. Diversity in presenters?

6. Does the presentation come over well in the video?

The Selection Committee meets after each round to discuss the outcomes of each round. Members are allowed to change their rating during this discussion. 

You can see members of the Selection Committee below.

For all other questions, please contact the events team.