In the spotlight
Key2Europe 2019-2020
EPM Barcelona 2020: a New Start for an Unstoppable Growth! Written by Asier Rodríguez Member of the EPM Barcelona 2020 Core Team The EPM Barcelona 2020: “No One Left Behind” took place from 5th to 9th February 2020 at the campus of the Autonomous University of Barcelona in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. The topic of the conference was social inclusion, including one and a half days of debates and meetings about the topic. After that, the drafting of the Strategic Plan was carried out for the four new Focus Areas selected on previous Autumn Agora Salerno 2019. There were more than 160 participants coming from all over Europe hosted in the facilities of the university and an organising team composed of approximately 25 AEGEEans willing to give their best to make it the best event ever. The idea for this event came long before the starting date and even the desire for a statutory event of such a traditional antenna had been flying around for a couple of years in the minds of the board members. At the end, the beloved main organiser, Nestor Saura, made the most of himself so as to develop a fully guaranteed and economically profitable event for the local. When it was finally chosen at Spring Agora Bucuresti 2019, everybody in AEGEE-Barcelona started to shout out of joy and happiness, despite knowing that the hard work started that very moment. The Opven Call for the
74
organising team was made, the corresponding people showed up and everything started to roll with the typical problems of statutory event preparation. Nevertheless, the biggest challenge was not just working among the local team, but working along with the Content Team, the Strategic Committee and the Comité Directeur altogether, knowing little by little which functions corresponded to each of the teams. During the preparation of the project, some duties such as fundraising were essential so as to procure the best development possible for the upcoming event. Conversations were established with institutions from all over the province who were seeking support for the conference. Always relating to the main topic of social inclusion, focussing as much as possible on the Focus Areas which exist within the Strategic Plan 2020-2023. At the same time, communications were being developed with bigger and smaller companies and corporations, looking for branding and sponsorship which could raise awareness on a local and regional level. Meanwhile, the whole Content Team had to start working hard in their duties, searching for speakers and proponents for the various topics.
