Final Report - pt4 The Assembly

easa010 Final Report

Section Three: easa010

Section Three: easa010

Introduction This Section investigates the organisational side of easa010, it covers the two weeks of the assembly as well as the time immediately before and after that were taken up with logistics.

The feel of the Section is not a simple photograph review of the assembly but hopefully gives an insight into the everyday operation and decision making that goes on to make EASA happen. Throughout there are anecdotes from the team as well as a liberal sprinkling of reviews of everything that made easa010. [cma]

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Chapter 1 - Experience and advice The main piece of advice I can give is to get mentally and physically prepared for the assembly. This is the most obvious advice in the world, but I would ask you to think back to your last hand in deadline, once you handed the work in how did you feel? Refreshed? Full of life? Always bare in mind that your team will be against the clock to get everything in place for the assembly, but that is a false deadline - even the end of the assembly is not the end of the work.

Make sure that you have a plan of action for the days following the assembly too, once the participants leave there is some cleaning up to do. We had thought we’d planned this really well, we had participants from the most recent events and next events staying to help clean up. We had left the plan for this quite loose, thinking that by this point people wouldn’t need pushing around to do things. Most people did help out, but there were quite a few who didn’t get out of bed. At the end of two long weeks this kind of thing tests the nerves of even the most saintly.

Once the assembly starts problems can stack up much faster than they can be resolved, even a really small issue will escalate when you are dealing with 400 people - particularly around meal times. So make sure all everything that was supposed to be dealt with before the assembly starts is dealt with, or it may never get done.

Likewise, it is important that everyone knows what their role is and who to talk to about specific issues, it is no good for all the problems to be sent to one person. This counts double or triple for the info point. They don’t need to know the answer to every question, but they do need to know who to ask, and importantly how to get hold of them.

Be ready for change, it is coming whether you like it or not. All EASAs are

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defined in short hand terms by two things, 1. Some aspect of the location 2. The most notable event. Examples: Budapest - Boat / Thunder Storm, Italy: Mountain lake / Sunshine, Switzerland: Split accommodation / Cold weather, Ireland: Tents / Rain (for me great organisation too, but most people don’t notice), even The Train: Train / Too commercial (based on the reports from people at the following INCM The Train may have been iconic to us later generations, but it was controversial at the time - take heed from this if nothing else!). You will go crazy if you try to control how the assembly is received by participants, so go with it - the assembly will benefit from adaptable organisers.

In the allocation of roles try and keep the most experienced people more free of daily tasks. Unfortunately for us Paul, Alex and I were the only people capable of driving the vans, others were either too young or not licensed to drive - idiots. So the three of us were overburdened with duties. I managed due to the fantastic abilities of Matt L and Marten to step up and take over my third of the workshops at late notice. From the first Friday and all through the second week I was in a floating role dealing with the problems that arose as the assembly ploughed ever onwards.

Going back to being mentally prepared, you have to reconcile yourself to the fact that people have expectations of the roles of organisers, I don’t mean they expect you to do everything for them (though some inevitably do, there is always one, as they say) but there is an expectation that you organised it so you can fix all problems - in Ireland people would go to the info point to complain about the rain! - but you may feel you are learning as you go. It is a shame, but you wont experience this EASA in the same way as you have others, not everyone in our team was expecting that, and it seemed some even resented it once we got going.

Rest often. They tell new mothers to sleep when the baby sleeps, well I suggest you sleep when your tasks sleep. It is easy to get stuck out in the middle of

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it all helping out, but you need to rest to make good decisions, the half dead EASA life style is not good for organisers.

Try and smile.

I say try, because sometimes it really is hard, but it is

important. Participants, NCs, Volunteers all look to organisers for goodness.

They don’t know what is going on behind the scenes, perhaps you are not smiling because you missed lunch, or perhaps the budget has been spent and EASA is bankrupt! When you smile people will be more comfortable and the atmosphere will improve. That said, look out for people who aren’t smiling, your a team and a team of friends, avoid putting pressure on people to get jobs done, and try to keep people’s spirits up, a lot of emotional energy goes into the fortnight.

The very last thing to say relates to team spirit. There are going to be problems and people are going to make mistakes, some will be fairly huge, the key is to remember that the most important thing is the participants being safe, then the workshops happening, everything else is in flux. It is not an easy skill, but when a problem comes along you have to accept the situation as being the new reality, forget the ‘why’ it happened and focus on the ‘what’ to do now.

There is nothing to be earned in blame, if a person makes a mistake they will either fell terrible and try to improve or they wont, blame or retribution will not change that in a two week event, it can only make people resentful and waste time and energy. Like I said a lot during easa010 - I’m not interested in problems, only solutions. [cma]

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Chapter 2 - Accommodation Due to the unusual events of the middle weekend easa010 had two accommodation locations, for clarity we will talk about the move itself later and in this chapter will stick to each accommodation provision in turn.

Downtex <<<<<< Info Point <<<<<< Registration This is worked out as a conveyor belt of checking and signing. Documents kept changing right up until the final days so make sure the list of participants and all their details is up dated constantly and then it is just a matter of getting people to check that their dietary requirements and emergency contacts are still the same. We had a team of six people each on a separate post to speed things up. They were as follows: post 1: detail check

For the events that lead to the move of accommodation see review chapter of this Section.

Make sure, firstly they have applied and are allowed in and secondly that all their information is correct post 2: payment check Although we tried to deter people from paying as they arrive, sometimes this happens. Make sure those participants pay and money is not lost here. post 3: signing contracts This was an issue with insurance basically stating that people undertake activates at their own risk and we are not responsible for anything. post 4: wrist bands So that EASA people are easily identifiable and security knew who was allowed and who was not, wrist bands were used. Make sure these are fool proof and stay on since we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have any more.... post 5: welcome pack

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One of the most useful things we made is the small leaflet containing: a map / addresses / contact phone numbers / time table / taxi numbers / medical centres / and all the crucial information that was needed for two weeks at EASA. It was one double sided piece of paper and anyone on info point will be endlessly thankful from it.

Other than that the welcome pack included magazines and leaflets for useful shops and sponsors. post 6: Sleeping Allocation We decided not to restrict people in where they wanted to sleep, people could sleep where they liked as long as it was contained by a parking space. This worked well, encouraging integration, although many countries often choose to all stay together anyway. However it became a massive issue to find anyone, we have no idea where the NCs for each country were staying, which in case of an emergency was a ridiculous idea. You need to know where people are staying even if they choose it themselves for the simple fact that you have to wake people up when they have forgotten their cleaning duties or pass on messages of when people’s lost luggage has arrived. Logistically the ‘free for all system’ didn’t quite work. [jsh]

Initial Organisation: It was decided beforehand that Bhav, Jo and I were to be the “Info Point Girls”.

It was important that there was someone on Info Point at all times who knew what they were doing, how to deal with any unexpected situations, and who was up to date with all the news. Between us we had all been in contact with every single participant and volunteer, so we had a good idea of the numbers to expect and who we were going to be in communication with! A tough rota of 8 hour shifts each, everyday, was drawn up. In all honesty, this was unrealistic as the cross over time between shifts swapping was long- exchanging updates

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etc. (Generally shifts were around 10 hours) Additionally, we required more than a single organizer on Info Point at busy times (even though only one of us was rota’d in), to relay news and answer questions that maybe a volunteer was unable to do. We were doing far longer than 8 hours a day!

Communication: Efficient and accurate internal communication within the team, particularly to Info Point so that the correct information can be relayed to participants is vital. Unfortunately this can be quite hard to put into practice, as we found out. Google Documents was heavily used in the run up to easa010, every organizer could access the relevant documents, and update. For example all expectant visitors, deliveries, day workshops tours and cash flow charts could be accessed together, on the internet and updated in real-time. This worked very well in the office, however when we moved to info point there was a major problem: no working internet. We had to go back to basics, and fast. Log Books attempted to keep track of token sales, locker room incomings and out goings, visitors, security, the list goes on. This worked, to an extent, however clearly it was not as effective as previously envisaged. The point I am trying to make is to not rely upon technology, unless you are able to ensure you have it (and it works!). Obviously without the internet we could not send e-mails (and there were many complaints from participants who were unable to access their e-mails).

Internal communication within the team was very difficult. There were so many people in so many different locations that we were unable to congregate as a whole team for meetings, and each space was rather insular, with little contact to the groups in other locations. This reflected onto the participants, if we didn’t know exactly what was happening, the participants obviously wouldn’t either. This creates hearsay and gossip which are hard to avoid, but can create huge problems for the organisers. We did not appreciate how important it was to have regular, compulsory meetings, every day or two, where a representative from each “area” (bar, info point, workshops etc.) could give updates, which

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could then be transmitted to the rest of the team.

Communication from workshop tutors to participants is usually in the form of posters. I would highly recommend having this close to info point, but not necessarily right next to it. Our Info Point was over-crowded regularly as participants read the posters that resided on the wall right next to info point.

It is important to ensure that this wall is not cluttered with expired posters, otherwise confusion can occur.

Day-by-Day Tasks (A Typical Day on Info Point, easa010 Style) 7am: Time to start attempting to wake participants up. At Downtex there were requests from participants to open shutters to allow light and fresh air into the room. It is always wise to listen to participants and their requirements.

Happy participants + less stressed organisers = a successful EASA. 7:30am: Participants arrive at Info Point for morning duties. It is always wise to have the appropriate cleaning equipment (and quantities) at Info Point so they can start going straight away. Bear in mind, these people have just woken up (more than likely hung over) and have to clean toilets. They wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be happy people. So the easier you can make it for them (and the less stressful) the easier it is for you! Ensure that all team members on the Info Point know exactly what the morning and evening duties involve, so that each country does their fair share (we experienced some confusion at Info Point with duties, so many countries were left waiting around, and became disgruntled as we rushed around trying to organize this everyday task).

8am: Lights On, and the wake up call begins! Breakfast starts being served by those who are on breakfast duty. Again, by having everything organized beforehand, this can be a very easy task for both organisers and participants.

9.15am: The first bus to Hope Mill leaves Downtex. This bus ensured participants got up on time (not many wanted to complete the lengthy walk

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to the workshops everyday), and instilled a sense of rota in for those working at Hope Mill. The bus made 3 shuttles back and forth from Downtex to Hope Mill to ensure all participants (who got up in time) made it to their workshops.

10am: Workshops begin. Info Point at Downtex answers questions from workshop tutors, and provides materials and stationary. General everyday tasks include: making posters for the evening events, regular questions or just general information, updating cash flows & rotas, ensuring that preparations for the next dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s guests are considered, updating stationary and many more small tasks that will appear along the day.

5pm: Participants start returning from workshops. This is the â&#x20AC;&#x153;peak timeâ&#x20AC;? for questions, so be prepared! Evening Lecturers arrive at this time, so be prepared, and ensure that an organiser is present to show them around and keep them engaged and happy before their presentation.

6pm: Dinner. Ensure that those on Dinner Duty turn up and know what they are doing (how big portion sizes are, etc). After dinner you will find that tokens will be in high demand. Be ready with change in the pot and the Log Book, and you will find this easy.

7pm: Evening Participant Duties, again know exactly what their tasks are, and have the appropriate equipment ready.

8pm: Evening events start. More token sales. More questions by increasingly drunk participants. Generally minor first aid casualties arise in the evening, when people are drunk and less self aware, keep this in mind, and the first aid box well stocked. For us, NC Duties started at 8pm. It is important to know what each of their tasks are, and to have the appropriate equipment ready for them, (for us it was fetching high vis jackets).

3am: By about 3am the evening events calm down and everyone heads to bed.

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This is the perfect time to catch up with any outstanding business or paper work, to sort out lost & found, and to generally tidy up Info Point, restock printers etc. (You’ll be surprised as to how messy a single desk can get in 24 hours!)

7am: And the whole routine starts again!

Info Point may be the centre of an EASA, however it is naïve to think that this means Info Point is the centre of the party. I think as a team, we expected Info Point to be a social place, where participants come for a chat, or a catch up, a nice, easy (?!), social job that would allow us to enjoy being in the heart of the assembly, but alas, this is not the case. To put it quite bluntly, Info Point is the place where the majority of people come, just to complain. It is those participants who have a bone to pick with you that generally approach info point, so be prepared to paint those smiles on your face and grit your teeth!

This is not the case in all instances, however, and we had a lot of support from some great participants during the upheaval >>>>>> Rota & Volunteers The rota was introduced to the 60 strong workforce around a week before the assembly. To all those based in Manchester, we held an informal meeting, where everyone got the chance to meet each other, and I was able to explain how easa010 was to function. Fire strategies, health and safety, what to expect and what roles we expected of them were covered. The rota was explained, (how to read it, how to use it, and the possibility of exchanging shifts with other members). A huge amount of importance was placed upon the issues that we may face if people didn’t turn up for the shifts (for example, if we did not have the appropriate people on fire doors and exits, we could have got shut down…) and of communication. It is important to remember that most volunteers come to EASA having not attended one, and with very little knowledge of what EASA actually is (despite my very best efforts to explain the easa “spirit” you really have to experience it!). Therefore, volunteers may find it hard to settle into the chaotic routines and intensity of such an event.

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By keeping in good contact with all volunteers, you are able to answer any questions efficiently, and ensure that they are doing the correct, and relevant tasks. It is important to highlight that easa is a very dynamic event (particularly in the event, as ours did, of a relocation…), things change a lot, which may mean alterations in tasks or in the rota. Ensure that all volunteers “check in” at info point everyday so they can keep up to date with all the relevant news.

We certainly could have improved with communication throughout the whole team. The scale of such an event can only truly be realized when everyone is present, it is quite overwhelming when suddenly all this fiction figures become tangible. The various locations meant internal communication was further strained- there was not one point, in the organization of, and the running of easa010, that the entire team were present in the same room. Needless to say, the abundance of Blackberry’s and iPhones helped us out a lot. Sending out regular e-mails was a solution but not completely effective, as planned internet connectivity was unavailable at info point during the first week. Word of mouth kept us going, but this was by no means a solution, a large game of Chinese whispers results in large levels of confusion and misunderstanding.

As the implications of relocation surfaced, the rota had to transform, and fast. For the first night in Sugden, Organisers took over the main roles, and delegated to as many volunteers as possible. By now volunteers were settled, and used their initiative in roles that they were not originally assigned to.

Many were absolutely fabulous, they took the bull by the horns and were a real help. However, there will always be some that may not be as dependable. It is so important to use your judge of character, place volunteers in roles that they will enjoy (if they are out-going they should participate in HR related tasks, if they have developed a good understanding of info point, ask them to man that for a few hours etc.)

The insecurities about what each new day would bring to easa010 in the second week resulted in a lot of flexibility within the rota. I would take time

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out in our small, make-shift office (invaluable if you want to get any work down without being pestered on info point, or if you need that vital nap), and plan the rota for the next day. By now I knew which roles suited who, who liked working together, and what new roles has been created, what were no longer required. Obviously this was less than ideal, if we were able to keep to the original rota the organization of the volunteers would have been a dream!

Be flexible and be prepared to make vital changes, they may be a pain at the time, but will ultimately result in a more efficient, organized EASA. A few tips about Rotas: - Be flexible!

- Expect for people to want to change shifts. (Generally if they can find the cover, there are no problems) - Have at least 1”roamer”- this person is not rota’d, but is there to fill the gaps- if someone does not turn up or you need more people on a specific task. [eun] >>>>>> The building Once the assembly began, we mostly had to take the state of the building as it was. Major changes were impossible. Although it is traditional to expect a certain degree of discomfort in accommodation at EASA, there were certain predictable issues that required attention.

Roof leaks The months leading up to the assembly had been unusually dry for Manchester, but now it was raining and the leaks in the roof became obvious. There were two which affected people: one above the Hungarians, which I was told about before it became too severe and could be temporarily fixed, and another above the Iranians. They had reported the problem to the info point but the volunteers on the info point did not seem to be aware who to contact with the

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problem, and did not find out. The Iranians became wet and bought a tent to solve the problem, which became a significant issue with the fire service later.

A hole in the floor Late on the second night, a foot-sized hole appeared in the second floor above the Turkish team, causing no injury but understandable shock and some loss of confidence in the structural stability of the whole building. This floor was part of the narrow corridor from the stairs to the door and was therefore unusually heavily used during the assembly. It was covered with a lath and plaster ceiling below and (unusually in a building where most of the floor boards were visible) above with a thick screed. These coverings had prevented us from seeing the extent to which the floor was weakened by dry-rot.

We moved the team well away from the affected area which was then cordoned off, and screwed a board to the floor above, covering the hole and distributing the load more widely.

Other small jobs continued throughout the assembly, including the installation of dim lighting to sleeping areas, the upgrading of the small waste pipe from the pot wash which was too small and kept getting blocked by food waste causing the sink to overflow dangerously close to the main fuses below, and fixing more leaky plumbing.

There were, however, also certain more serious issues that we had not originally anticipated. The most serious of these was the density of the sleeping areas, particularly in the Tin Room where the scaffolding decks created a two-tier sleeping space. . There are two main reasons for this.

1.

The unexpected increase in the number of participants that occurred

during the second round, which is discussed elsewhere. When looking for accommodation, we had worked to a formula of area for 300 people. We ended up having to sleep 450 in Downtex and elsewhere.

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2.

Fire regulations. After renting the building, we were told that we could

not use the mezzanine level in the Tin Rooms, halving the available floor area in that space. We had anticipated this. However, a more serious issue was revealed at the inspection one week before the assembly started, when a different inspector prohibited the use of the top floor for sleeping unless we provided smoke lobbies to all floors in the mill. At this stage we did not have the time, skills or funds available to provide these lobbies.

While it would however be inaccurate to assert as the fire service did on the first Friday of the assembly that the spaces were over their agreed fire capacity, the sleeping spaces were undeniably dense and this almost certainly played a large part in the decision to prohibit sleeping in the building. [tbe] >>>>>> Waste The Skips When the skips were delivered in the week before the assembly, we had a bit of a panic as we had not planned where they were to go in the car park.

Along with the skips we had to fit in 8 showers and 5 portable toilets, which were being delivered the next day. Along with simply ensuring it all fitted in we realised that the skips had to be accessible so that they could be replaced if need be. As a result there was a long debate between the team and the drivers as the best locations, and eventually we worked out a good solution, however this stress could have been removed with a bit of planning on our part; we did not have an accurate plan of the car park, we hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t thought about the problems of turning circles of delivery vehicles and so on. We were lucky that everything fitted in, so a note for future organisers is to ensure you have enough space for everything to fit in and also enough space to for it to be delivered.

Our main concern with the skips was that if the ones for recycling got

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contaminated with the wrong material then we would have to pay double the price for them. Despite our hopes that people would follow the system, it did reach a point in the first week where 3 of the Finnish team were bribed with tokens to sort out the skips, which they did topless much to the delight of those waiting for showers.

The Wheelie Bins The wheelie bins proved to be the main stumbling block of the smooth operation of the waste management system. We had enough sets of bins located in all the different areas, but we could have done more to aid peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s understanding of how to use them (although it was explained in the welcome pack!). So the lesson that we learned about the bins was: LABEL THEM! Even though they had diagrams, we had to make additional labels for the bins, which were still ignored half the time. Essentially people were quite bad at sticking to the system, so those people who were emptying them into the skips had to go through them and sort them out to stop any contamination.

However even this could have been done more thoroughly as it transpired that not even all the organisers/volunteers knew exactly what had to be done each morning with regards to the bins, so we should have made sure that absolutely everyone on the UK team was better informed. The organic waste was a good illustration of this; it is too boring to explain what the system was but essentially a lot of the organic waste ended up in the skip because people were not clear on what to do with it. It should have been stored separately to be collected by our caterers, but often it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t and sometimes it was too contaminated with rubbish for them to take it anyway.

Thankfully we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t attract any rats, but the skip did start to smell quite bad in the second week, but as we were not using Downtex as accommodation by that point it was not such an issue.

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Can Only Bins We had additional wheelie bins in the bar area that were just for cans in the hope that we could sell for scrap after the assembly as we ended up with a vast amount of beer cans. However it was not properly worked out before hand and the confusion of the fire department at the end of the first week meant that the empties stored in the basement ended up being thrown into the skip anyway.

Sanitary Bins The sanitary bins we almost completely forgotten about, so I am mentioning them here to help out future organisers who may have forgotten about them.

We did have a bit of an issue with people using them for soiled toilet paper, as in some countries you can’t put paper into the sewage system, hence people’s confusion. A way to counter this was to write above the toilet what could and couldn’t be put in it, which again people still ignored. We were not quite sure what to do with the sanitary waste, so it just got thrown into the general skip and it didn’t seem to do any harm to anyone.

We learnt that no one cares as much about the bins being used properly as the organisers, so we were reduced to having an organiser follow the country that was doing the bin duty watching exactly what they were doing because no matter how well you may explain what has to be done there will always be misunderstandings and things forgotten. It was unfortunate for those people who had to sort through other people’s rubbish before putting in the skip, but for the system to work it had to be used properly by everyone. However it seemed impossible to get people to stick to the rules which makes me a bit concerned for the future of the planet: we as architecture students like to think quite highly of ourselves, but if 450 of us cannot recycle properly for only 2 weeks then it seems unlikely that the global population will be doing it for the rest of their lives.

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THINGS WE COULD HAVE DONE BETTER AT DOWNTEX! •

Planned the arrangement of the skips prior to their delivery.

•

Ensured every member of the UK team knew exactly how the refuse

system worked.

•

Having a UK team member follow the country emptying bins to make

sure it was all done correctly.

•

Labelled all the bins from the beginning, or provided examples above

the bins as to what could be put in them eg: an empty bottle hanging above the bin for bottles. (Possibly not for sanitary bins) •

Marked on the floor/wall the exact location of the bins as they were

often not replaced correctly after being emptied.

•

Kept the wheelie bin bags (used for the organic waste bins) under lock

and key as they are expensive and kept evaporating into thin air.

•

Worked out a proper system for storing and selling beer cans for scrap.

[jfr] Sugden Centre <<<<<< Info Point <<<<<< Info Point found itself taking two guises after the relocation of the accommodation to Sugden Sports Centre. This impromptu division of the “hub” of easa010 required quick wit and ingenuity in order to instill a sense of calm, and maintain an organised atmosphere into a difficult situation.

After the original two months that we had to organise info point (buy the stationary, print the necessary documents, have the appropriate levels of communication, the umpteen logbooks…). We had half and hour, if that, to set up an info point in an already strained atmosphere. Not ideal. With a huge lack of stationary, no paperwork, and no computers, it was back to basics.

Plans of the space, indicating where each country’s bags were (roughly) located after they had been transported from Downtex, were drawn up and explained at Info Point (a couple of desks in the Entrance Lobby). The central location helped a lot, along with now recognisable faces, who participants knew,

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were there to help. Again, it is hard to emphasise enough how important the attitude of the organisers and volunteers is in these difficult situations. We were all exhausted after turmoil of the day’s events, however by maintaining smiles, and being as helpful and as patient as possible had its advantages.

Participants appreciated our help, and instead of becoming frustrated with the organisers, became accepting of the situation and helped us out too!

Info Point at the Sugden Centre received a plethora of new tasks and duties as a result of the change of location. The Sports Centre was a public building, still open for business while we resided in there. It was therefore extremely important that the building was treated with respect, and ready for opening at 10am every morning. The hall space had to be free at 10am for members of the public to use. Free of hung-over, tired, asleep bodies that scattered the hall in all sorts of crevices… No sleeping equipment was allowed to stay in that hall. This meant, at 7am each morning, an Info Point member (along with the kind help of a few volunteers would start the wake up call:“Good morning guys, wake up, wake up guys, it’s morning…” this routine would last every bit of an hour, every day. It’s as bad as it sounds.

The change of venue for the participants’ accommodation had a dominoes effect on other day-by-day occurrences. The bus that transported participants to Hope Mill was relocated to Sugden, as was breakfast. Bringing food into the building is messy business. It was Info Point’s duty to ensure that all mess was cleared to a satisfactory standard. Additionally, the upheaval that Sugden experienced during the time we were there was immense, communication was key to ensure that the building’s Manager stayed happy and accommodating.

Evening events were created that took place at Sugden (making use of the sports facilities!) including a country Football League, which certainly kept some of the boys happy!

A few things were easily transferred to the Sugden Info Point. Token Sales continued (Tokens were pre-stamped and then transported over), Stationary

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equipment transported, and the lost and found boxes continued to grow more and moreâ&#x20AC;Ś [eun]

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Chapter 3 - Hope Mill General Set Up Luckily the interior space of Hope Mill already had a bar installed so we did not have to build one as in Downtex, and from here we sold all the food and drinks, stored valuables, cups, cleaning supplies and stationary. There were approximately 3 members of the team behind the bar, 2 in charge of the tool box, and 2 people at all times acting as security for the workshop space. There was a bit off ebb and flow with the numbers of the UK team over the 2 weeks and generally we were a very well staffed Millfo Point. In terms of sorting out Millfo point we simply added a fridge, a toastie maker and a small set of drawers to keep valuables in.

Keeping in contact Our original plan was for each different location to have a pay-as-you-go mobile phone to make sure that even if you were not sure which organiser was at which location you could in theory get in contact with whoever was there.

In reality people would just ring the mobiles of whoever was at the Millfo Point if some information needed to be communicated, such as the delivery time of the sandwiches.

Lunch The Millfo Point was where the lunches were delivered and then dispensed to the participants. The system was that tutors were responsible for collecting the lunches and then distributing them to the participants. This meant that there was not a mad rush to the Millfo Point by all participants and it allowed us to ensure everyone got a lunch as people could not just take more than their fair share. Any leftovers were then sold for a token. People complained at first that it was not enough for lunch and they should be given the leftovers, but once we explained about budget and pointed out that a sandwich for the equivalent of 50p was a very good deal most people stopped complaining.

However you will always get people complaining about being hungry I think.

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Tokens Our original plan was to not sell tokens at the Millfo Point, but it quickly became obvious that we would have to as participants would often just get up and jump on the bus from Downtex/Sugden without thinking to stock up on tokens. This meant we had to have a second cash box and log book of the number of tokens sold. As far as I know this did not present any problems with the book keeping, however it did mean we had to be extra careful with the cash and make sure it got taken back to Downtex everyday.

Cups As with the tokens we had hoped that participants would bring their own cups for teas and coffees, but we did keep a small stock behind the bar, which we handed out to people on the condition that they would bring them back clean. The system worked out very well in the end as those in need of a drink collected those mugs that didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make it back.

Food and Drinks The food and drinks were initially identical to those served at the bar in Downtex; a range of soft drinks, tea and coffee, crisps and chocolate bars.

I cannot stress how important it is to have coffee at the workshop locations, it was literally the fuel that kept the participants going through the tiredness and hangovers. Through Illy Coffee we hired 2 filter coffee machines and during the mornings they were going at maximum capacity, mainly because participants would have to get up for the bus so would arrive a little spaced out and in need of a pick me up. Tea was also very popular.

With regards to food our initial stock did not sell so well, partly because people didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know what we had until we made a display, and also because it was fairly limited. However the Millfo Point team took it upon themselves by the end of the first week to utilise their entrepreneurial spirit for the benefit of EASA. We decided that breakfast bacon or cheese sandwiches would sell very well in the mornings to people fresh off the bus, so we decided to go out an

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buy the ingredients and set up a sub cafĂŠ in the back yard (to minimise smell).

It was agreed that one member of the team would make the initial investment and then once they had recouped their money the rest would go to EASA. Obviously this method of money managing cant work on a large scale, but it worked very well for the Millfo Point as people who wanted to experiment were taking the risk on themselves. There is obviously not too much risk in investing in some food, but if we had misjudged a product bought with EASA money we would have had some explaining to do to Thomas Bennell. The sandwiches were a rousing success and from there we expanded to a range of cakes and waffles over the rest of the assembly. This flexibility of what we sold meant we could adapt to what participants wanted and therefore make more profit for the assembly.

Re-stocking At the end of each day someone on the team would asses what we needed to be replenished form the stocks at Downtex, be it cans of coke or bin bags. Then someone would take responsibility for bringing the stock over on the bus the following morning. This system fell down slightly when the accommodation moved to Sugden and we had to use the already very busy Van Morrison or Van Damm, but we survived. If there was something desperately needed we obviously simply went out and bought it and claimed the money back from EASA at a later date.

Security The rota for Hope Mill included 2 people for security to ensure that noneasians couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t come in off the streets, especially as we had a large number of power tools in the building. As we did not have proper security guards we would be relying on the authority of hi-vis jackets and large numbers of tooled-up participants in the building in the event of any actual security issues. However any fears we organisers had of interference proved to be unfounded as there were absolutely no problems with security. As a result we got slightly lazy in keeping someone on the door at all times which was a bit

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unprofessional, but in the end nothing was stolen and everyone was safe. [jrf] >>>>>> Waste The Skip Once again we had a problem with positioning the skip or rather we did not supervise the delivery of it properly. The space at the back of Hope Mill had to accommodate the skip, a shipping container and 2 portable toilets. The skip arrived a lot earlier than we did and we just told him to put it round the back as we were sorting out other things inside the mill. When we went to check we saw that the skip was just dumped in the middle of the space, making it impossible to fit the shipping container in where we wanted it. We were a bit stuck as to solve this problem until the shipping container arrived and we managed to bribe the driver to move the skip for us and then place the container where we wanted it. He said he would do it for a bacon sandwich but we decided on just giving him £10. Once the skip was in position it worked perfectly.

The Wheelie Bins / Emerge Recycling As with Downtex, the wheelie bins had to be labelled, but despite this the recycling was still mixed up, however at the end of each day the workshop whose duty it was sorted through the recycling (card, paper, bottles, plastic) before putting it into the Emerge bags for collection outside. As it was such a small scale compared to Downtex there were no major issues with this, apart from Emerge not picking up the bags on some days which was annoying. The organic waste was taken most days to Downtex, but even with daily emptying these bins attracted flies, so we had to invest in some fly strips to keep them under control.

THINGS WE COULD HAVE DONE BETTER AT HOPE MILL! •

Supervised the skip delivery

•

Made sure each member of the UK team knew the refuse management

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system â&#x20AC;˘

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Kept the wheelie bin bags under lock and key.

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Chapter 5 - Workshops Media Workshops <<<<<< We were relatively lucky and also connected enough in respect of Manchester to get a lot of help and being able to secure space and equipment for use during the assembly.

There is often a preconception of media based workshops being easy to run and also easy to maintain and look after, a misguided and stupid opinion made by morons. In this section I will be going through the running of the media workshops from the space, to the system we used, to then cover thoughts, issues and considerations on what could be improved and why.

Space The media workshops were based in the Manchester Digital Laboratory or Mad Lab in the bohemian Northern Quarter. Mad Lab is a community space “for people who want to do and make interesting stuff”, it is a self-funded venture, acting as a release valve for ‘Manchester’s Creative Communities from geeks, artists, designers and illustrators to tinkerers and innovators; an autonomous R&D laboratory’ that shares a lot of common ground with EASA. Equipment We were extraordinarily fortunate in securing a loan of computers and AV equipment for the event which added up in total to be worth approx £65000.

On loan from apple: 8 x 27” Imac Computers 3 x 15” Macbook Pros 2 x 17” Macbook Pros 3 x 13” Macbook Pros On Loan from MMU

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8 x Panasonic HDC-SD10 Camcorders 8 x Nikon D60 DSLR cameras 8 x Hama Tripods Purchased 2 1TB Hard drives Computer Programmes: Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master trial version [30 days free] Microsoft 30 day trial Conversion software for video cameras [Footage was incompatible - this was an unknown problem until the workshops started processing their footage] VLC Mad Lab We were able to secure the use of the building for the two weeks for a nominal fee/donation through the connections of the some of the organising team. This was a somewhat informal agreement, which was both a beneficial agreement in certain aspects and also negative in other aspects.

We were let the use of the top floor permanently throughout the event with the ground floor being available for the second week only. This included the use of the internet that Mad Lab provided for its users. We were allowed to make use of a cupboard to secure all the equipment that was portable or could easily go missing, such as: Laptops Cameras Wireless keyboards Wireless Mouses Tripods External Harddrives

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Access to the building at the beginning of the week was restricted to when the owners of the building were there in the morning – about 930; at the beginning of the event which wasn’t clear before the start of the event, we realised that whilst we were being allowed use of the space in Mad Lab we were not going to be the sole users of the space for the two weeks, so many of the times of when we were actually required out of the building were known on a day to day basis, but generally our use of the space extended to 1800.

This smoothed out towards the end of the second week and also after the first few days we generally opened the space at 930 and towards the end of the second week even up to 7, 8, 9 and 2am.

Normal day schedule: 930 space open

Full workshop reviews can be found in Section Four: Output.

1030 – 11 workshops show up 1 lunch 5 – stop lending of cameras and equipment 530 – 6 equipment return time 6 – 7 general space close, clean up and pack away Use of the computers: All workshops were assigned computers and cameras that they had free use of. There were also two Imac computers that were left to be used by other workshops not based at with the media workshops.

The only requirement for the other workshops to use the computers was that the tutors signed up for the time, this was in an effort to cut down on the people just wanting to check e-mails and facebook. This was only really taken advantage of by a handful of workshops.

It is necessary for this facility but as much as you wish may really wish to cut down on the amount of people using the computers for just personal use, you

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will get a lot of people asking for change tickets, email their bosses at work etc…

We didn’t have a free print facility available for the participants which got a few complaints, however the amount we were asked to print A4’s was so few that it didn’t really effect us. Again though it would probably be advisable if you want to no deal with that many complaints and also you never know just what requirements the workshops need.

General Loan System: The general loan system which was enforced at the beginning and for the majority of the assembly was that all portable items were stored in the cupboard in not use and none of the computers where allowed out of the building, only the cameras. This was because none of the equipment was insured and would have been very costly to us if they were damaged, lost or stolen. Internet was provided in Mad Lab and also there was enough space for the use of the computers in the building so there was generally no reason to leave.

The workshop Datascapes were the only workshop allowed to use the computers assigned to them outside the building as they were supposed to be capturing data from social media interaction around Manchester, but this was only with their tutor present.

As was said, the workshops were allowed free access to the portable items that were assigned to them. All items were stored in the cupboard until required and any of the cameras or tripods that need to be used were logged out with Marten or Matthew on a spreadsheet to be returned later the SAME DAY, this was again to keep control over the equipment and ingrain it into the participants heads that we cared a great deal about the equipment. Some leniency was given to the Docu+mation workshop as they were also recording the evening lecture series.

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Two workshops were loaned the use of cameras over night in the middle of the second week as a build up of trust had been established however they were still required to leave something of value as a deposit for the equipment.

A few complained about this arrangement however it was necessary to stress how much care was needed for what they were taking responsibility for.

MISTAKES The cupboard storing all the items for the very beginning of the assembly was left closed, but unlocked. This was a moment of mislaid trust, as the participants then for about an hour and half were helping themselves to the equipment although it was said that they had to ask and sign them out, resulting in an inventory count of the equipment having to be done and finding where and who had what.

WAYS IT COULD BE DONE BETTER: Have a clear and ready to go system of loans.

A formal induction to the space and the systems in place. (This may seem over the top but it will stop a lot of headaches and arguing later on in the assembly) Do not trust anyone as much as you would like to.

BEFORE EASA: The nature of the set up between easa010 and Mad Lab was a rather casual agreement, and as it was stated previously it had both beneficial and negative results. Positively it meant that we were able to be fluid in our use of the building however this also meant having to negotiate on a day-to-day basis and quite a few misunderstandings and misinterpretations.

Our initial understanding was that we had been loaned the use of the building for the two weeks; this meant the use of the ground and the top floor as the middle floor had permanent residents. After the event had started we were told that we were only allowed the use of the top floor for the first week and the ground would only become available for us in the second week.

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The computers were scheduled to arrive on the first day [Saturday 31st July] of the assembly, these were unpacked and then tentatively arranged until a plan had been organised. This was not an issue as they would have to be used until the following Tuesday as a programme of events had been planned for the participants until then.

Sunday 1st June the building was then closed, a fault on our part in terms of communicating and agreeing times and levels of access, this highlighted the fact that the owners did not expect to hand us a set of keys for the building which proved for the two weeks to makes things a bit more logistically difficult.

When setting up the space and computers two issues arose which were to continue throughout the assembly. Firstly the set up was hindered by the fact that the space had been let out to a community group for the evening. Our understanding of the arrangement, which was a clear misunderstanding, was that we would have exclusive use of the space due to the nature of equipment we had and the lack of storage space - There was no space to pack away the desktop computers without losing hours daily in their unpacking and packing up at the end of the day. Also the computers came with wireless keyboards and mice, calibrating these which involved a lot of movement between computers, along with the moving of tables and arranging of computers proved to be too much of a nuisance to the group using the space, so we had to stop. This meant the dedicated time for set up, which was agreed with the owners of Mad Lab, had to be put back.

The other issue that arose that evening was the strength and quality of the internet for the building and our use, which was so poor that it was pretty much none existent. Again due to the inform nature of the agreement nothing much could be done to correct this, apart from considerately mentioning it daily that it was good enough, although it became clear that there was no intention to correct this. What we then tried to enforce was as much of a ban

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on personal use of the computers as possible to free up bandwidth for the workshops – this didn’t prove too successful.

A few consequences, nothing considerable, came of this; one was that making sure the computers had the necessary programmes was put back until the workshops had already started causing a few delays. It also provoked constant and extensive complaints for the two weeks from the participants.

DURING EASA One more issue that arose form the informal arrangement, as aforementioned, was that we had the understanding that we would have 2 floors for our use, which happened no to be available until the second week and also that we would have exclusive use of our dedicated spaces. Over the course of the week it turned out the owners of Mad Lab had still loaned their spaces for evening activities for many evenings during the two weeks. A few times a negotiation could happen to keep the workshops running, especially in the beginning of the second week, however disruption was caused by the fact that many times we would have to pack up early to clear the space, make sure all the portable equipment was stored away and the space was tidied for the group to use it. This was a disruption however the participants were very accommodating which didn’t make it substantial issue, and really seemed to make an effort out of the time that they had.

Mad Lab was situated across the road from a bar named Common. This was seen by the organisers as a plus point to being based at Mad Lab, as it was rather trendy and fits with the bohemian qualities of northern quarter. We saw it as a very easy chance for the participants to get to connect to Manchester and its creativity, with many different creative types using the space for meetings, or to work during the day.

It acted sometimes as an overflow space for the workshops to go if they wished to discuss things as a good in a relaxed environment, and it also

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allowed those with laptop computers to go and use a much quicker and more reliable internet. This ran relatively smoothly with the owners of Common, with us receiving a few complaints about the participants, however this was just limited to small concerns so as eating the lunch provided for them on the outdoor seating that they provided for their customers.

As was said earlier print facilities were not provided for the assembly, this also meant that we didn’t provide for the daily printing of Umbrella copies but outsourced them to local printer on the same street. An agreement was made for there to 300 copies made, with the tutors of Umbrella deciding to then have 4 pages per copy so reducing the output to 150 copies. The arrangement was that to guarantee prints before the printers closed at 5 the pdfs had to be supplied by 4 o’clock the latest. This arrangement seemed to work without any problems. This worked for this EASA as from experience in Italy having to deal with the print demands of Umbrella especially can be tedious and quite stressful, by outsourcing it gets rid of that task.

Lunch Lunch was generally delivered around 1 o’clock. The system was that they would be delivered by someone in a van, with the correct number of food, the workshop tutors would then collect the sandwiches and fruit for their participants. This took a few days for both the tutors and the participants to grasp, but once they did it was generally fine.

A few issues arose, that weren’t disruptive but could have done with a bit of forethought and a bit more coordination between those making and organising the food and those based at Mad Lab. These consisted of there being a lot of excess sandwiches once they had all been distributed. This was desirable for the participants and many had extra however combined with the issue that the collection of the crates didn’t happen on a daily rotational basis, this meant those that weren’t were left to collect in the grates for a few days.

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Hive Don’t know how we went about getting the hive The HIVE was an unused ground floor space, in a building complex which also housed an office for the British Arts Council. We were very fortunate again in obtaining this space as we got it without having to pay rent for the 2 weeks and it was definitely needed to house workshops, this space was also used as a n exhibition space for easaDAY on the 14th August.

The space was practically unfinished and hadn’t been fitted out with water or electricity except for one mains board with several plug sockets, however apart needing an abundance of extension cables the rawness of the space suited EASA quite well. It allowed for use without a major worry of wear and tear and gave a few workshops a large space that they definitely needed.

Although mainly based in Mad Lab the running of the Hive was also the responsibility of those running Mad Lab which meant in the first few days regularly checking that everything was running smoothly, however towards the end of 2 weeks trust had developed with those using the space and communication was made mainly by phone and checks probably were down to twice a day.

System of Hive The Hive ran relatively for the same hours of Mad Lab. It would open a little after Mad Lab daily, and in the first week it would close after Mad Lab. The tutors were told to be ready to leave at 6 and be ready to leave once the space was ready to be shut but also meant sometimes not until 7 o’clock.

In the second week the tutors of the space asked if it could be open later or earlier. This was able to happen due to the space having 24 hour security as part of the complex it was within. After speaking with the security guards on the morning and evening desk, an informal arrangement was made that if the tutors turned up earlier the guard would open the space and also if they left

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earlier or after I had returned the keys to the security desk then the guard would lock the space also.

Issues Issues were relatively small within the Hive. The main issue was that many workshops thought of the space as an overflow space, when it was actually dedicated for just a few workshops. This was mainly a misunderstanding by the workshops from Hope Mill that werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t provided with a space to use for discussions so many of the issue came from having to mediate differences between several of the workshops.

One thing that we probably could have considered are the acoustics of the space, as due to the hard surfaces the sound was carrying around space and when there were a lot of people in there the space got pretty loud.

Things we could have done better and learnt Generally as I said, the 2 weeks went with minor incident and it was hard work but enjoyable. The workshops and tutors were all good to work with and even those using the space were courteous and good to get on with. There were instances when being were rude and arrogant which did make it a bit difficult at times, with many forgetting that all the equipment was provided for them for free with a lot of effort in the months. That was an aspect that made if particularly frustrating at times and would be best to remember that all the participants and students are coming fro different colleges and universities with different facilities and funding, and that no matter what you do you will get expectations that are out of your remit.

Also many people think that looking after the media workshops and equipment is a relatively easy job, this is not so. Remember that you are running a space just like all the other spaces, you are responsible for the space, the equipment and the people in it and you are working just as hard as everywhere else just with different tools. It would be best not to underestimate the work that you

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need to put in to make it run smoothly.

Probably the most importantly piece of advice is not to trust participants and tutors as much as you want to, this is just because they are not part of the organising team and obviously their intentions and their commitments aren’t the same. [mla] Built workshops <<<<<< For the easa010 toolbox all tools and equipment be as visible as possible, with clear and easy to read name tags in English above the tools, to help bridge any language barriers, consequently speeding up the process of renting out tools and reducing “queuing” times in the process.

The process of renting tools and equipment was made simple and easy to understand at the induction. Only tutors could rent tools and equipment out due to the quantities that we as organisers had supplied, in relation to the combined number of tutors and participants in Hope Mill (80-100ish) on a regular basis, as well as making sure that tools and equipment were distributed evenly and fairly throughout, with no favoritism. It was made clear that participants could rent out tools, but only if they had their tutors ID badge with them. The idea behind this was so that participants weren’t firstly taking out tools that their workshop already had and secondly so that the tutors had an idea what their participants were doing.

Fixings and drill bits did not require a tutor, or their ID badge, as this seemed a bit excessive and a waste of a tutor’s time.

The idea was that toolbox, material store and the cutting bench would all be located within close proximity to each other. Reasons were so organisers could firstly maintain acceptable levels of health and safety by constantly having the cutting bench, where the 2 Makita mitre saws were situated, in view.

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Secondly, so off-cuts, waste and recycling could be managed and enforced appropriately. Finally, so organisers could keep a watchful eye over the material store ensuring only tutors gained access, once they’d approved this with an organiser. (Usually Christoph, Paul, myself and occasionally Andrew) The organisers decided that the idea behind the location of individual workshops would be based upon participant numbers and needs of the individual workshop, I.e. requirement of power sockets for projectors, or spot/flood lights, dark surroundings for such items, space for structures and interventions etc.

In regards to the physical plan of the Mill itself it was firstly very hard for organisers to keep tabs on all workshops the majority of the time without temporarily abandoning their responsibilities, due to the positioning of the ToolBox and cutting bench to maintain the objectives described above.

Secondly, quite frankly there simply wasn’t enough space for all the workshops and their tutors and participants to work in the second week (this wasn’t helped by the weather eliminating the possible use of outside where the skips were). This also consequently created a very negative and problematic situation with regards to keeping a record of tools and equipment for both tutors and organisers, as participants would “borrow” tools from other workshops without asking anyone in the particular workshop they were “borrowing” the item in question from.

This resulted in the toolbox having to take a more lenient approach with tutors, but made the collection and taking stock of tools at the end of each day difficult to say the least, as it became almost impossible to now therefore hold individual workshops or tutors accountable for tools and equipment.

Staffing: Staffing of the Hope Mill workshop, toolbox and material store was quite simple: - Paul and Christoph roaming, Andrew and myself in the thick of it

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setting up, packing away, monitoring 80-100 people making sure they don’t cut anything off they might want to take back home with them, as well as renting them tools with fuck all help from anyone else…especially James!

Compared to the 5-6 people sat around or messing around in the café with no interest (except Shin and occasionally Joe who was busy enough as it was), despite frequent requests from Andrew and myself to help out during the busier hours, or setting up and/or packing away.

The interesting part – Evaluation: What went well: •

The system of renting out tools and equipment was (eventually) well

received and even praised, particularly by tutors, who liked knowing what their participants were up to, especially in week 2, as well knowing that this system ensured a fair distribution of tools and equipment and ensured no tools were hidden away, or kept to the side by certain workshops.

At first there was friction as it was contrary culturally to many who weren’t so used to rules and procedures been firmly, but fairly enforced •

The quantity and quality of power tools, I believe was judged very well.

•

Makita inductions. Everyone responded positively to this.

•

The understanding and working relationship between Andrew and

myself. Quite honestly, because it was literally just the 2 of us, this had to work otherwise we’d been fucked! From the very first day a clear understanding of each other’s responsibilities and objectives was achieved, allowing us importantly to get on with the tasks in hand, without any confusion, or overlapping of each other. Andrew’s contribution to monitoring safety of the participants and tutors, as well as invaluable advice allowed me to remain on toolbox for the majority to ensure tools and equipment were handed out and recorded effectively and efficiently, as well as offer advice on such topics and issues, and managing the material store and cutting bench/es.

•

Without been cocky I’d like to think that Andrew and I made a

contribution of some kind to ensuring a really good output from the majority of the workshops at Hope Mill.

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What didn’t go well: •

Communication between organisers, helpers/volunteers/lead-helpers/

Andrew/etc. This unfortunately meant that equipment that was required for workshops, amongst other things, didn’t arrive from Paul and Christoph as no system was implemented like I requested at the beginning of EASA, causing frustration for tutors, but particularly Andrew and I who received the brunt of the disgruntledness. As well as running Paul into the ground.

•

Hope Mill organisers, helpers/volunteers/lead-helpers/Andrew/etc

meetings would have been useful too if the café staff (except Joe and Shin) weren’t so keen to disappear at 5pm every day.

•

Ventilation. None-existent most of the time due to Christoph’s paranoia

with not letting anyone know we were there. This obviously isn’t good when 80-100 people are cutting and drilling timber.

•

The competition’s assumption that they were more important than other

workshops, and could consequently have whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it was frustrating and lead to unease and resentment amongst the “smaller” workshops. This unfortunately wasn’t helped by Christoph who openly stated that the competition should receive priority on numerous occasions. I personally saw this as a mistake in judgement, which I told Christoph, as the “smaller” workshops are the bread and butter of EASA and supply it, in my opinion, with a solid, guaranteed output each year.

[mdu] >>>>>> Theory Workshops Once we had a better idea of the space we had in the mill, or rather lack of it, once we had calculated the space requirements for all the participants, we were looking a little short of space for the theory based workshops.

Part of the FutureEverything exhibition, which easaUK was to be part of was held in a new undeveloped space in the centre of town. Called the Hive it is a space that welcomes interesting and creative enterprises on a short term

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basis, to increase the exposure of its developer owners. Naturally, after I approached and met with them, they were very keen for us to use it as much as possible during the assembly, to increase its visibility. It was ideal for us, in the centre of town, a short walk away from MadLab and with plenty of space.

These advantages were quite attractive to the workshops, and we had a few workshops spill over into the space due to overcrowding in Hope Mill and MadLab. After a few teething problems, everything settled down well and the mix of workshops created a lively and inspirational atmosphere.

The Hive was used as one of the main spaces on easaDAY, accommodating the majority of workshops from MadLab as well as the workshops based in the Hive during the two weeks. The fact that it was an established space and its prime location in the arts quarter of Manchester helped in getting lot of traffic through the door during the exhibition.

The variety and scope of workshops that were accepted for easa010 made it hard to use the traditional categories, and the ‘theory’ workshops could well have been called ‘technical’ or ‘experimental’ as such preparing for them was a larger task than expected - the traditional description of ‘needing no more than pens and paper’ applying to none of the workshops except Joe Bloggs. The materials and equipment needed was as varied as the workshops and requests during the assembly itself ranging from the overlooked to the fanciful. We fell into some luck with some of the more outlandish needs: a loan of robotics equipment from a helpful guy at a MadLab event; a cheap sewing machine from Tesco online paid for by foreign university donations; a local art shop having a laser cutter.

Thankfully some tutors made considerable compromises when they understood our strained budgets, laser cutter sessions turned into extra scalpel blades; a request for computers turned into a mornings video tutorial using a bars free WiFi; industrial quantities of material turned into quite a few balls of

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wool. These things happen once workshops finally get off the page and into practice. The original plan deviates a bit, is pulled, pushed and bloated by the participants who want to do something slightly differently, or are interested in taking the concept in a way that wasn’t imagined by the tutors.

Despite these small inconveniences, and delays in getting some materials and equipment, there were no real problems with the ‘theory’ workshops.

And I would like to thank the tutors and participants for their patience and understanding. Even when the fire department closed the mezzanine floor of the tin shed, a wet darkroom was completely dismantled and then rebuilt in another room within a day, just phenomenal effort.

Advice I think there should be a person on the organising team solely dedicated to workshops.

Act early on ambitious requests. Unless there are schemes in place, sourcing 20 bikes for a workshop becomes very expensive or nigh on impossible. We made do with donations and found bikes, and the workshop also went for walks and used public transport, which was a change of plan for them.

Communicate early with workshops once they are accepted. If it’s not possible for you as an organisation to meet the requirement lists, better that you let them know early so they can adapt and tweak their workshop plan to what you both can manage. Fiscal responsibility is not high on the lists of tutor when proposing workshops! [ama]

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Chapter 5 - Talent Symposium Event One of the jewels in the easa010 crown, the Symposium will bring together some of the most relevant thinkers in the architecture and design world today.

Speakers will discuss the theme ‘Identity’ in a mixture of lectures and debates in a stellar Manchester venue.

Phil Griffin Symposium An interesting and personal take on ‘Identity’, lots of references back to Manchester/North West. ‘Attack’ on regeneration as a destroyer of Identity [lbu]

Isabelle Doucet Symposium Explanation of research based on Brussels and how cities are claimed/used/ appropriated [lbu]

Daisy Froud Symposium Some similarities to Isabelle but expanded to show built examples and how the process of “participation” informs the practice’s projects. [lbu]

John Robb Symposium Great stage presence, shame we couldn’t give him longer, spoke about the similarities between music and architecture. Quite funny at times but may have been lost on the audience. [lbu]

Gavin Elliott Symposium

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Provided good contrast with the morning presentations attempting to explain what influences the Manchester studio and how most of its buildings aren’t ‘Manchester’ buildings [lbu]

Peter Saville Symposium A great end to the day, great to listen to, again though shame we couldn’t have him for longer, had a lot of extra questions/material to get through. [lbu]

Walking tours Event Following the official opening selected architects, artists and urbanists will lead groups of approximately 20 around the city centre, each giving their own interpretation of architectural and cultural Manchester Walking tours were generously lead by: Eddie Rhead, Urun Kilic, John Sutcliffe, Richard Hatton, Warren Marshall, Richard Brook, Ian Palmer, Steve Millington, David Nugent, Mark Rainey, Chris Maloney’s Dad, Toms Bennell’s Dad, Tom Bennell, David French

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Joe Gallen Performing artist Joe was a great help to easa010, providing support and the loan of the speaker system for easaBAR I.

Joe was also a past exhibitor at easaHQ, so when

the chance came for him to be part of the assembly it seemed the perfect collaboration. Joe played his new album at the start of the night in Sankeys - an unusual setting for his music, but one that was appreciated by all that attended.

We Are Nice People DJ Manchester School of Architecture graduate Andrzej Gierak pulled off a whistle stop trip back North to play out the night in Sankeys. Andrzej itinerary was to leave work in London on Monday, get straight on the train, pop into Downtex for dinner and head over to Sankeys. After the set it was back to Downtex for a sit down then on the 6am train to get back to London to do a day’s work.

It’s nice to think that for that day there was one corner of an office a couple of hundred miles away that was EASA. Paul Iddon Lecture / Day workshop A well as lecturing at easa010, Architect and Urban Branding consultant Paul Iddon and his partner Barbara Taylor ran exercises and held debates to show you why you think the way you do, and how perception can be manipulated in small ways. Paul practiced as an architect for 11 years and has been running a successful Branding company for the last 12 giving him a unique level of experience in both fields. Kicking off the evening lecture series his talk was fantastic in grounding the theme of Identity and it’s relevance to the social and built environment.

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interesting lecture on the manufacture and use of bricks as well as the key relationship between Manchester and brick building. The passion shown to the subject and rapport with the audience made the lecture one of the most invigorating and fun in the series. Mr Driver also hung out in the cafe and was very chatty and approachable to all participants.

George Epillito and Alessandra Como Lecture / Exhibitors The tutors from Manchester School of Architecture and Naples respectively, delivered a talk Illustrating the work carried out by multinational workshop with students from Manchester, Naples and Washington State, looking at sites in each city.

As coincidence would have it, students from the workshop were also participants at easa010 and they brought along work to form an exhibition in the lecture space / dinning hall.

Claire Jameson Day workshop - with - Who is Joe Bloggs?

Building Futures presents a workshop that explores a narrative approach to identity formation. We will ask ourselves how much the buildings around us shape our personalities and the identity of our communities. We will overlay the real histories, stories and identity of the place with visionary futures. We will use our designs to tell fictional stories about the city around us, taking Manchester as our source of inspiration we will develop speculative futures for specific sites within the city.

SCHOSA Day workshop The Standing Conference of Heads of Schools in Architecture is an network of Heads from around the UK. Organised by Colin Pugh of the Manchester School of Architecture, SCHOSA met at the offices of Manchester Architects BDP on the first Friday of EASA. It was our intention for one NC from each

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nation to sign up to be part of a discussion with SCHOSA about the possible future of a student network to work with existing educational networks to discuss students opinions to future changes in education. Unfortunately due to the disturbance on Friday the plan changed slightly and the places were filled by those available meaning a few countries were not represented.

Greg Keefe Lecture Mancunian and Leeds Uni Professor in Sustainable Architecture was set to discuss the climatic future of the planet in his lecture Synergetic Urbanism and the concept and impact of closed cycle cities.

Unfortunately the lecture was due to take place on the first Friday of the assembly. With all the work that was going on a participant from Leeds University informed me at the info point that he had rung Greg to cancel the lecture, so I need not worry - this was the first of just two occasions I swore in response to the input of a participant: “who the .... are you? Nothing is canceled, ring him back!” Though I’m not proud of the reaction, in my defense I would like to stress that at no point had anyone in the team discussed any cancellations, having resolved to “Go down like the band on the Titanic” I think is how we put it. I was slightly proud of my restraint though as Greg was my tutor for MA and I was looking forward to seeing him lecture at EASA. Unfortunately once it was brought to our attention it was too late to reschedule.

Veterans Lecture On the middle Saturday we had invited former EASA participants from far and wide to come and join the 2010 edition. Geoff Haslam and Richard Murphy were both in attendance and gave a talk about the start of EASA then hung out at the bar and chatted to who ever wanted to ask questions.

The timing of their arrival in Manchester could not have been better for the sake of the event and the nerves of the organisers. The veterans arrived on

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the day we were explaining to National Contacts that we would no longer be staying in Downtex as accommodation.

Having had many conversations with former EASA participants and organisers from throughout the 1980s and 1990s and heard rather alarming stories of hundreds of people being left in a field in Poland overnight in the rain with no shelter, it was good to be given some outside support for how we were dealing with the situation.

Richard Brook DJ Mancunian Richard Brook showed on the middle Saturday that the Manchester music scene is about more than ubiquitous indie discos and Rock and Roll.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fair to say Richardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s music selection is less accessible than the usual Euro Disco of EASA, but by the end of the night everyone seemed to be enjoying the change.

Professor Steve Curwell and Dr Ricardo Balbo Day workshop Acting as a major sponsor of easa010, the University of Salford also hosted a two day design charette to challenge a team of 30 easa participants to work alongside the local community to develop design concepts for the sustainable regeneration for a section of the Irwell River Park, in the Greengate area of Salford.

The workshop participants were initially given a walking tour of the area with in-depth accounts from local residents about current regeneration work.

Their task was to engage with the local community in a conversation about the future of the area, drawing from their respective knowledge and experience of regeneration and current proposals in other European post-industrial cities. The chief objective for the easa participants was to raise the profile of the regeneration of the area and to provide visual aids to inspire the local residents regarding the long term vision for Irwell River Park and the role of

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the Anaconda stretch as part of their local community.

The first work shop session was held in the famous Kings Arms Pub based on Bloom Street in Salford. After an initial site visit to the Anaconda Stretch, the introductory sessions were run by Professor Steve Curwell and Dr Ricardo Balbo from the School of the Build Environment at the University of Salford and Tim Hewitt from the Central Salford Regeneration Company. The day session was rounded off with a discussion forum with a panel of community representatives (Vertical Villages Residents Association and the Blackfriars Residents of Association) where the workshop participants were able to raise queries and comments about the scheme and its background, and this became a platform for the discussion of the regeneration prospects for the area. The participants were encouraged to put their thinking caps on and to get their creative juices flowing for the following day!

The next morning the enthusiastic students convened at an auxiliary office space owned by OMI Architects, based in Blackfriars, Salford. Here began the teamwork amongst the groups of easa members supported by the tutors from the University of Salford. Throughout the day the groups consulted their ideas with several of community representatives to test their ideas and challenge their engagement strategies and response to the design brief. Participants were invited to design ideas for the Anaconda Stretches, its landscapes and symbols for regeneration activities and processes in the area. The challenge was to represent the data, research and finding visually in the format of a postcard, which could then be printed and distributed to disseminate the ideas through the community as an output. The groups came up with a range of exciting ideas and proposals which were then reviewed by the jury and a selection of volunteers were invited to take forward the proposals to the briefing stage for the landscape design. Overall the workshop represented an insight into the complexities of sustainable regeneration and the challenge of applying innovative proposals to a post-industrial area demanding an acute understanding of the contextual, social and economic issues involved. The

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programme responded well to overall theme of easa010, Identity, and this was clear in both the physical output of the design charette and thinking of the workshop participants. [lco]

Nina Neeteson and Stephanie Johnston Lecture Representatives of Article 25, an operational UK registered charity that designs, builds, and manages projects to provide better shelter wherever there is disaster, poverty, or need. The lecture Bricks and Mortals: Human Rights and the Humanitarian Sector was an introduction to the Humanitarian Sector covering the origins of human rights and key organisations such as the UN and the Red Cross. Highlighting the need for the skills of built environment professionals in an international development/ humanitarian response context.

Simon Over and Richard Clarke Sponsor lecture Leading European lift manufacturer gave a talk titled Hall Call Destination (traffic management) covering how buildings are increasing in height due to the lift technology; an interesting talk covering how key architectural components can solve more problems of functionality than expected.

Anthony Collins Sponsor Lecture North West Sales Manager for Hardscape, Anthony lectured in his position as a member of the Stone Federation. The lecture extolled the uses of stone in architecture.

Mel Bax and Sarah Considine Lecture From the methodologies taught at the University of Sheffield Mel Bax and Sarah Considine have initiated the project, “‘We Heart the Suburbs’” to facilitate ourselves in becoming agents for a small deprived community in Southend-

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on-Sea, Essex. The project aims to address suburbia’s lack of cultural identity and how agency can change this on a community level.

Past and Future presentations Event Throughout the planning of the assembly we had been keen to establish better links in the minds of participants, especially new participants, between the assembly and past and future events. The night after we had the presentation by the organisers of the first EASA we held a Past Future night. We felt it important that the evening not drag but that all events had their chance to present, so after letting people know they would be presenting we gave SESAMs 10 minutes, INCMs and EASA Italy 20 minute each.

EASA2011 night Event One of the biggest disappointments for me with the loss of EASA011 night.

To our knowledge though it is a tradition that there is a presentation by the following EASA organising team, there had never been a whole evening dedicated to the following Summer Assembly - we wanted to change that.

Having got in touch with the Spanish team months earlier we proposed they took over a whole night on the timetable. At first the suggestion we received was that they would do a presentation and Sangria night ‘as is traditional’ - that word again! - but after some discussion we convinced them that the opportunity to takeover a whole night could yield so much more.

Identity Sessions [lectures] Having set the requirement that all applicants wrote an essay on the theme of the assembly, with no other limitations, we selected 11 to contact to invite to give a lecture on their essay. The lectures were a way of improving the ratio of professional lectures to student input.

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A big thank you to: Rene Mustafayeva, Gema Pendon, Katerina Serbozova, Ester Racek, Lonekjer Stieim, Javier Garrido, Leire Lopez, Milda Kulviciute, Thomas Groothuyse, Maja Jenko, and Christian. [cma] The selected essays can be found in Section Five.

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Chapter 6 - Network “... and remember to smile, even if you don’t feel like it - participants will be looking at you and if they see you look worried they will get worried, even if you’re just frowning because you lost your comb.” Words from the final team meeting before the start of easa010. We all laughed at the time, but they were words we’d be thinking again and again during the assembly.

It can’t be stressed enough the importance of making sure everyone at the event feels a connection to it. That they not only feel involved and informed but that they feel invested in it, because the spirit of the event comes from everyone involved being proactive. Though the level that participants engage with this side of EASA is out of our hands as organisers the majority of the effort to create the opportunity needs to be put in by the organisers.

No matter how hard you try you wont be able to keep everyone up to date. Try to limit important information to meetings only.

For easa010 a lot of work went into getting this message of all for one activity in the build up to the assembly - as can be seen in Section Two: Organising in the chapter on communication. Having done this preparation work a lot of time went into working out just how to make people feel part of the team in such the short amount of time of two weeks.

The assembly started on Saturday with the arrival day, there had been a plan for an opening workshop to be organised assembling furniture.

Opening

workshops haven’t been arranged for a few years now, which is a shame because the first day can be somewhat of an anti climax of waiting around after a long(ish) journey. Instead though we took the opportunity to get participants orientated with the lay out of the sites and spaces with walking tours around EASA locations. The walking tours were pretty laid back with groups leaving at regular intervals so participants had the chance to find somewhere to sleep, leave their stuff and then head out if they wanted to - which most did.

After dinner on the first day we had our first chance to get everyone together.

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We held a presentation with two objectives, no.1 was to welcome everyone to easa010 and create a sense of occasion, no.2 was to go through issues of safety and duties. The later may sound quite dull, but I really think people appreciate being told everything that is going on, this is what we tried to do. We produced a presentation with slides and even planned it to be quite light hearted. As well as going over the information that was included in the welcome guide, such as duties, fire exits and the like, we asked the supervisor of the door staff to come on stage and do a short talk. 24hr security is unusual for EASA so we thought it would be best to explain why they were there and let them explain who they were and what they would be doing, this seemed to work perfectly as we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t here a single concern about the security, and in fact received lots of positive feedback about their presence. The one problem with the presentation came from the native speakers. Having talked about the need to speak more slowly and clearly during EASA, the two giving the When putting up posters always put on presentation seemed to suffer from the DAY and WEEK, ie First Monday. A nerves of the occasion and clarity notification with NO DATE is NO GOOD. Almost no one knows the date after 3 suffered as a result. days at EASA! Straight after the welcome talk we had the first NC and Tutor meeting. Some times at EASA these are kept separate, but we made the conscious decision to have them at the same time because tutors have more consistent contact with participants, and often what they want to talk about can be dealt with by NCs. It is also a growing trend that NCs are quite often tutors any way.

We had planned to hold meetings at specific points through the two weeks on arrival, the end of the second day of workshops, end of excursion day, and the day before easaDAY - but as with so many things about the timetable, this had to change.

As well as meetings Info-Point plays a huge role in communicating to participants. It is important that at the meetings you have a group of relevant people - someone to do with each workshop space, someone to do with

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accommodation, and someone in charge of info point. It is vital that info point has the up to date information and advice, otherwise a lot of time can be wasted. As well as answering questions the info-point is leads the role in updating posters around the site(s).

As it turned out we (the organisers) benefited hugely from the open and communicative culture of the assembly when things looked at their worst.

On Friday of the first week EASA faced one of the largest crises of its history when the accommodation was faced with closure. A complete overview of the events is presented in the Review chapter of this section, of for the sake of staying on topic I will edit the events for this chapter. Having been visited on Friday morning it was clear there was a problem with the arrangements as they stood, Tom Bennell and I (Chris Maloney) discussed options with the view of resolving the out standing issues and staying in the building.

Good will can be stock piled by good organisation, but it will be spent in times of crisis.

We then convinced a meeting of the available organisers and it was clear that in order to make the best decision for EASA the whole of EASA needed to be consulted.

Having made the decision to cancel workshops for the afternoon and have participants return to the accommodation an unscheduled NC meeting was convinced. At this meeting I explained the situation and we were facing and asked for the opinions of the NCs. Obviously everyone was shocked and concerned but this concerned swiftly turned to support.

An unfortunate reality of the weekends events was, with our first goal to keep us in Downtex in the long run, new information was coming to light in a rapid sequence. This made it impossible - but more importantly impractical - to keep all participants up to date at all times. Everyone involved with easa010 was facing a time of uncertainty which leads to concern, which can lead to worry, as such we made a decision to limit the amount of information coming out from the team until we were certain about what was going to happen.

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This was most evident with poor timing from the fire brigade. We had been advised that we would have a visit before 5pm letting us know what their decision had been, at 5:15 there was scheduled another NC meeting which had been arranged to outline the plan. When the Fire Brigade didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t arrive we went ahead with the meeting because it was important to let people know that they would be moving that night as planned.

Following this meeting the Fire Brigade did arrive with news, not unexpected, but different to what they had stated that morning.

Following this the

organisers had a final meeting of the day and the decision to make the move of accommodation permanent was made. At this time, with dinner, lectures and the move all happening it was decided to hold back this information for the day, to allow the participants to stay relaxed in the knowledge that they When you face problems it is important were to have somewhere to stay, that to realise that the participants have put their trust in you, so if you seem EASA would continue and to enjoy the out of control they will be genuinely excursions of the next day without worried. the thought of moving hanging over them.

In the weeks before easa010 the team received a lot of compliments from all corners about how well organised we were, but ever the one to spurn praise, I honestly lost count of the amount of times I met this praise with the statement that you can only measure an organising team by how well they deal with the inevitable problems.

Though I did think about what to do if the worst did happen, including losing the accommodation, never did I dream it would happen in such a manner as it did. We will come to the move in full a bit later, but I believe that the team stood up to each part of the challenge impeccably well, not least keeping people informed.

Problems were inevitable though.

Dealing with peoples bags is a very

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trusted situation to be in, we realised this so we asked the NCs to encourage the participants to carry their own bags across to the new permanent accommodation, but offered the option of it being driven there.

Throughout the 2 days from the first sign of the problem to the move being complete everyone at the assembly worked harder than they should have, but everyone pulled together. Participants, NCs and Tutors all helped the organisers to help them. It was stressful, emotional and tiring, but we got through it with a resolution of spirit only EASA can boast. But afterwards, though it was not the direct fault of the organisers, there was a huge desire in the team to rebuild the good will that had got us through the tough times. [cma]

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The toughest part of EASA for me was seeing one of my best friends, who never complained, quietly start to weep.

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Chapter 7 - Timetable lectures <<<<<<< The lecture space (the Aviary) was set up as a joint use space combining the dining hall, lecture space, daytime workshop space and quiet night-time drinking area. It was first set up as the dining hall and served breakfast in the morning but would then be appropriated by participants as a work space throughout the day. Before dinner the Aviary was set up as a lecture space, in half of the room focusing on the projector screen and the other half as a dining space, allowing people to eat through the lectures as well.

The Aviary required a lot of power points especially when presentations required sound. To make sure that this was always possible we set aside extension cables and that were just for use in the lecture space, this was useful as once the assembly gets underway

A huge debt of thanks to Joe Gallen for lending us his speakers and equipment.

Joe is signed to Creaked Records and his first album For Triangles, was released in 2010

extension cables often go missing and are highly sought after. We also had a few issues with connection cables between computers and the projector and in experience I would recommend that you perhaps had a back up cable to hand in case this issue haunts you too.

With the Aviary being used as a multi-purpose space it meant that often the space was hard to set up, not only because people were using it, but also as it often would be rearranged after set up or the mess that was left made it harder to set up. One thing I found was that I needed to set up the lecture space before most participants came back to Downtex which was over an hour before the lectures were due to start. Participants can be surprisingly resistant to clear a space when you need it and I would set the lecture space up in good time in case of any issues. This not only made it easier to set up but also people were less inclined to then drastically move the seating.

Many times speakers turned up much earlier than their lecture and the time they said they would arrive. It is much easier when there are a few people

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around who can set up the lecture space and meet the speakers as often I would be mid set up when they arrived. Info Point can be great for initial greeting but after that someone needs to accompany them before their lecture.

The lecture space is fairly easy to manage with only minor niggling issues which are easily managed. As long as all the AV equipment is in good working order and the team is there to set the space up it is a fairly quick small task. [apo] >>>>>> Purchasing and Storage of Food As stated previously our suppliers were chosen for both convenience and cost. Many of the items we had to purchase and collect ourselves. As stated previously, with our storage facilities being limited, this meant a strict routine had to be time tabled to ensure we had the correct stock for both the participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; meals and the cafĂŠ & bar. This primarily worked around a two day schedule, always purchasing for the following day. A sample of this is below:

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It is to be noted that this is an approximate final purchase schedule revised from an original. This was due to as mentioned before, a fluctuation in quantities needed.

Purchasing of Alcohol As discussed earlier â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Bargain Boozeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; allowed us to purchase alcohol with a very healthy profit margin. However this strategy did have negatives. The major issue was that we had to pay for the alcohol up front when ordering and took four days until it was ready for collection. This meant that we had to undergo strategic planning to make sure we had the money to purchase alcohol at the right time to ensure the bar wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t run out of stock.

With there being a four-day turn around meant that we had to constantly have four days stock in storage; with four days originally calculating to approximately 250 crates. With such a large volume of crates meant that transportation became a large issue which sometimes meant heavy use of the limited van resources by needing multiple trips. However, I do believe the cost benefits outweighed the logistical troubles.

Storage of Alcohol We believed that the storage and the cooling of the alcohol would be our biggest logistical task. We were aided by having the use of the cellar of accommodation building that did the majority of the cooling when in store. To cool the alcohol during the operation of the bar we set up a series of fridges.

We would stack full crates within the fridges prior to operation to cool the cans further and re-stocking the fridges when needed from the cellar as the night proceeded. [jcu] Events and presentations <<<<<< Internal events cover the nights in Downtex and the final presentations at Victoria Baths.

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Firstly the parties in Downtex were fairly straight forward. They were mainly hosted in the bar and most of the equipment was already set up at the beginning of the assembly and it was just a case of turning the music on and letting the DJ play and the bar flowing. The night natural came to a start when all other internal events or tasks had been done by which time participants had started congregating in the bar and getting into the spirit of things. It was just a case of turning the volume up and the lights down.

More organised nights in Downtex, such as the UK Showcase Evening, required a lot more set up in the daytime, but this was easily accommodated in easa010 as most of the workshops took place away from Downtex, giving the organisers and volunteers the space to set things up.

As with all internal events there was a need for stewarding for security and fire safety issues but this was sorted when rotas were drawn up, however there was a little confusion, particularly at the beginning about national contact stewarding duties, but this was just about making sure that people knew exactly when they were expected to turn up for duties.

National Evening is indeed a stand out internal event for many reasons.

Unlike the set up of other nights the participants set it up themselves. We planned to have the tables in both the Aviary and the Bar but a slight lack of communication and an ability of participants to squeeze in such a small space meant that most of the tables were in the Aviary. This didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t prove to be too much of a logistical problem and almost helped with the cleaning up of the event as it was all concentrated in just one room. As this is the one of the biggest nights for participants and all involved in EASA it was decided that participants wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t steward and this task would fall onto the organisers and volunteers. The way we coordinated this was by asking all expected to work to just to be thoughtful and helpful to one another and take over tasks when someone has been working for a long time. This worked well and most people got to enjoy some part of the night and only had to work for a short time.

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Unlike all other internal events the Final Presentations were in Victoria Baths.

The venue was decided upon during the assembly meaning that the testing of the equipment happened a day before the event. This was not too much of a problem as experience from the lecture space just meant it was a case of testing light conditions. The baths worked well as the building easily accommodated this kind of presentation but I imagine with a little more preparation the presentations could have been made more comfortable for the participants.

The presentations were collected on easaDAY giving the tutors maximum time to create their presentations, however I found many tutors unprepared for this. This was for many reasons; some needed to build/locate the pavilion others in order to finish the presentation, others just hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t done it prior to easaDAY. I would recommend that tutors are encouraged and reminded about the final presentations throughout the beginning of the second week as it became difficult to locate all the tutors and their presentations when they had spread throughout the EASA locations and throughout Manchester.

Our running order was only decided on the day and we told the tutors the order they would come in, asking them to sit close to the front when near their presentation. What took most time was when tutors asked their participants to come up to the front, it often being awkward for some participants to get from their seat. This could perhaps be solved by asking tutors who plan to get the whole group up to tell their participants before so they too are prepared.

The schedule for presentations: Organisers arrived at 3pm to make final arrangements, Everyone else was due to arrive at 4pm, Dinner was served as usual at 6pm, so a one hour break was included, Curfew was at 9pm, meaning the building must be empty and clear by then, This left 4 hours for presentations of 24 workshops.

The only issue is that participants see 4 hours and think it is a long period of time, but with so many presentations it actually meant each workshop had less than 10 minutes to get on stage,

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present and get off stage again.

One thing that popped up as an issue on the day was the need to present the unbuilt project from easa009 and the ongoing build project of Hope Mill artist studios, whose tutors had already gone home. This was because it hadn’t been thought about until the final day and so I would recommend that if this was the case for other organisers that they remember the need to programme in and task these presentations. [apo] >>>>>> Symposium I thought I would put together a quick debrief of how things went yesterday for those who couldn’t attend/while it is all still fresh in my memory. I know things are busy so don’t expect this to be looked at in depth - the only thing I do need is information on who the speakers should invoice to get back travel This review of the symposium is taken from an e-mail from Luke the day after it happened

expenses/fees and how we are going to go about this.

Main Summary Points 1. On the whole I would say the event was a success with participants seeming to enjoy it (or at least do a good job of pretending to stay awake!) and speakers also seeming to enjoy presenting.

2. Despite starting late we were able to pull things back on schedule and finish at 4pm for the workshop fair. I know the length (and frequency) of breaks was probably less than the participants would have liked but for what was a very intense day the attendance didn’t drop off to much and we started back on time (the time we thought we would, not what we told them to be back by) after lunch.

3. The speakers spoke about a diverse range of topics which was the main aim of the day. There may have been a little too much on Manchester but this was perhaps to be expected with the speakers who could attend - I don’t really see this as a problem though. I felt all speakers touched on ‘Identity’ in some way.

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Speaker Summary With general running around - Phil Griffin - interesting and personal take on ‘Identity’, lots of references back to Manchester/North West. ‘Attack’ on regeneration as a destroyer of Identity - Isabelle Doucet - explanation of research based on Brussels and how cities are claimed/used/appropriated - Daisy Froud - some similarities to Isabelle but expanded to show built examples and how the process of “participation” informs the practice’s projects - John Robb - great stage presence, shame we couldn’t give him longer, spoke about the similarities between music and architecture. Quite funny at times but may have been lost on the audience.

- Gavin Elliott - provided good contrast with the morning presentations attempting to explain what influences the Manchester studio and how most of its buildings aren’t ‘Manchester’ buildings - Peter Saville - great end to the day, great to listen to, again though shame we couldn’t have him for longer, had a lot of extra questions/material to get through.

Budget The original budget was £500-£600. The breakdown of spend so far is as follows: - Daisy Froud travel expenses £128 (this may increase if she took a taxi back to the station, she walked in the morning) - Phil Griffin fee £200 (Phil has asked me to pass on that he would be happy to offer his services to any other easa event in the next fortnight for no extra fee) - John Robb fee £100 (John did ask for a fee in the end, he would typically also ask for £200 but as we are on a tight budget he offered to do it for less/what we had spare) - Food/drink on the day £30 - Other/miscellaneous £30 (estimate)

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- Total spends £488. I don’t expect this figure to increase drastically.

- Speakers have requested information on who how to invoice?

Other - Phil did complain afterwards that he was ‘disappointed’ by the lack of hospitality of speakers and he felt embarrassed asking for a cup of coffee.

Slight mix up really, we did offer him coffee but then he disappeared only to reappear. Anyway he has accepted my apologies and there are no hard feelings.

Video/Photographs - If anyone could let me know how much footage we got I’d appreciate it. If I could get a copy of it I could splice it together for youtube.

- Any good photographs would also be appreciated; there were a lot of cameras flashing on the day!

Just leaves me to thank everyone who lent a hand on the day - organisers, lead helpers, volunteers, everyone else - it goes without saying that without your help. I don’t want to single people out really as I don’t know everyone’s name - everyone did a good job of getting people in and out. I do think a special mention is need for Carrie, Adam and Mat who did a lot of running around on the day and missed most of the presentations but without them helping to meet speakers, relaying information to me and doing other stuff I probably have no idea was going on! Also thanks to Marten for filming (and asking Saville a question!) [lbu] >>>>>> easaDAY easaDAY was always going to be a very tight affair for logistically for the organisers and volunteers involved. Originally it was planned to be a simple variation on a standard workshop day, except everyone would meet back at Downtex earlier - simple. But like so many other things, due to the loss

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of the license for the bar the day was reorganised with a new venue for the presentation and the party found, meaning more pressure on the team covering the now separate locations. Again there was excellent work by Paul and Christoph to get the workshops in location at the crack of dawn, while I raced around in Van Damn delivering sandwiches Christoph was pedalling between various sites to hang and photograph the Makita sign and Adam ran around in circles hunting for tutors to get hold of their presentations.

With the deal we had done with Victoria Baths we had one hour to get everything set up before participants and guests started to arrive - side not, we couldn’t get in sooner as the building was booked by a photographer doing ‘artistic shots of the female nude’ - fortunately by this time the organisers dealing with it were a well oiled machine, with Jonny and In case you are dipping in and out, we named the two Miles setting up the bar in double quick time and vans, the larger Transit was Van Morrisons, the smaller Adam queued up the presentations. combi was Van Damn.

Throughout the day we were pretty short staffed because the last day brings huge temptation to be with friends, see the exhibitions or hang out with family. I felt the day - as all days - were especially tough on the van drivers as there was no chance to have a quick drink until all driving was over, ie after the presentations.

The clean up went well too, and we decided to leave the vans in location at the Baths and pick them up the next day, Everyone headed back to easaBAR II while some took the chance to pop into Sugden and get spruced up. We attempted to do some T-shirts selling - very last minute - but were interrupted by a phone call from the club we had booked saying they were about to send staff home if we didn’t turn up soon...

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Chapter 8 - Team Meetings: As previously stated, meetings within the team, at regular intervals throughout the 2 weeks, are vital in securing a well-organised assembly. Unfortunately there were many circumstances for us as a team that resulted in a major deficiency of these vital occasions. The major issue was the sheer size of the team and the variety of locations that pushed us apart as a coherent,”as one” team. Reflecting back, it would have been wise to set meeting times into the rota, so as to ensure that the optimum amount of people were present. The more people present, the less likely information is to get lost. Additionally, updates from each location every day would have been very useful to ensure everyone knew all developments. These could be displayed at Info Point so that Organisers and Volunteers were able to update themselves each day.

Sleeping: Sleeping for Organisers & Volunteers took place at easaHQ, away from the sleeping quarters of the participants. This was very useful as it allowed all of the team to get a reasonable sleep at some point throughout each day. easaHQ was quiet, and an escape from the participants (you do need a break!).

It was a haven for us all. The only real issue was the distance away from Downtex (A good 30 minute walk). Additionally, we did not walk Volunteers and Organisers to be walking Manchester’s streets at night by themselves, so we had many crashing at Downtex, to try to get some sleep before their late night shifts begun.

The first week, just the Info Point girls stayed at Downtex. We knew that we required a certain amount of organisers present within the building 24/7, however we found it very tough to escape Downtex (I don’t think I left in an entire week!). It was also very hard to sleep there in the day, and at night due to varying levels of noise. We found our sleeping space being taken over by a workshop 2 days in, which left us in a very bright, noisy room. If anything

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sleep is the most important thing for organisers to consider vital. It is hard finding time to sleep, but after a reasonable rest, tasks get done far more efficiently and to a far higher standard.

Eating: Again, it was hard finding times to eat at some points! As the majority of team members were at easaHQ in the morning, Breakfast was provided there, away from the participants. Lunch took the form of sandwiches and fruit, which was delivered at each location, easily accessible to both participants and organisers. It is important to ensure that those volunteers who may not be on rota still get their lunch. We had a few issues with volunteers going out into the city, and returning upon arrival to no lunch. Ensure that you make the entire team aware of where and when lunch will be served to avoid confusion.

Dinner took place at Downtex from 6pm onwards. Again, it was difficult to ensure that the entire team got their food, as many were out at different locations working with workshops, or catching some well deserved sleep. In the end, we split the quantities of food up, and transported it to the two main venues: half to Hope Mill, and half to Downtex. This kept both Participants and Organisers happy, with the addition of allowing the workshops to stay open longer. This ultimately resulted in workshops of a higher quality. It is situations like these that demonstrate just how important it is to be flexible and use your initiative. Look at each situation and discuss what pro-active solution you would be realistically able to implement to enhance each issue.

Communication: Internal communication within the team was very difficult. There were so many people in so many different locations that we were unable to congregate as a whole team for meetings, and each space was rather insular, with little contact to the groups in other locations. This reflected onto the participants, if we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know exactly what was happening, the participants obviously wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t either. Needless to say, the abundance of Blackberryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and iPhones helped us out a lot. Sending out regular e-mails was a solution but not completely

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effective, as planned internet connectivity was unavailable at info point during the first week. Word of mouth kept us going, but this was by no means a solution, a large game of Chinese whispers results in large levels of confusion and misunderstanding. This creates hearsay and gossip which are hard to avoid, but can create huge problems for the organisers. We did not appreciate how important it was to have regular, compulsory meetings, every day or two, where a representative from each â&#x20AC;&#x153;areaâ&#x20AC;? (bar, info point, workshops etc.) could give updates, which could then be transmitted to the rest of the team.

Issues within the Team: Organising and running an EASA is a huge amount of pressure to be placed on a young, largely unskilled and inexperienced workforce. Subsequently, large amounts of tension and stress can arise over the smallest of issues. It is how you deal with them that is key. Keep all queries, issues and problems out in the open. After spending a year in the office organising such a huge event, it is pointless falling out with your friends over petty situations. The more you are able to communicate with your team, or sit down and discuss approaches to complaints or problems within the team, the better resolved these situations will be. If you can see that a team member is struggling under the stress/ lack of sleep/lack of food/intensity of the situation, ask if they need help, or a break. Be caring and supportive of all of your team. A united team is like a family, look out for each other and you will be able to work in harmony.

We came across our fair share of arguments, tensions and difficulties, some which were exasperated by the stressful situations that were out of our reach, but the team stuck together and were supportive of each other. Give each other time out, sometimes people do need space to themselves (particularly when you are surrounded by bodies for what seems like 24 hours a day). Look out for each other, and make the most of the two weeks that you have worked so hard for.

[eun]

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Chapter 9 - Management Organising the events for the assembly doesn’t end when EASA starts, only when it ends. We’re all familiar with the all embracing feeling of attending EASA, it is like being removed from the world for a short amount of time, unfortunately as an organiser this isn’t possible for all. During easa010 a few of the team had to remain both available and presentable to the outside world, not an easy feat when you are sleeping in a warehouse after security duty of an EASA party until 4am. Nether the less it is an important role.

Personally I kept a lined note book with details of all relevant contacts - which was lucky as my Blackberry smart phone met with a terminal accident on more on what was the first Monday, and without the back up I would For canceled please see the have lost every number I had. review chapter toward the end of this section Being removed from the assembly is a tough job to have, having spent 2 years working on it all you can do is watch other people enjoy it, or worse, you notice every little problem and worry to death that people aren’t being looked after, or are not having fun - my approach to life in general. But it was important for us to have a person in this role, I was in contact with sponsors and the providers of spaces during the assembly, I was called on to arrange meetings when sponsors came to see the sites, and most obviously, the move meant there were a lot of things on the timetable to be rearranged. [cma]

Keeping track of money immediately before and during the assembly The revised budgets By about May 2010 the general form of the Assembly had become clear.

There was little chance of raising significant extra funding, the workshops were approved, and the events, venues and numbers of participants were

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confirmed or close to being so.

This greater certainty meant that a new sort of budget had to be used. Every two weeks we had a budget meeting attended by everyone with responsibility for spending or raising money. Those members of the team with individual responsibilities had been tasked with estimating the costs associated with their role.

Non-financial sponsorship An event like EASA is very dependent on sponsorship in-kind from certain companies. Many of the in-kind agreements that we reached were only finally confirmed very close to the event so we had to work out what it would cost us to provide an alternative if the agreement was not reached, and if this alternative was affordable or acceptable.

Balancing the costs at an event like this with so many uncertainties requires a more flexible approach than that found in most companies. We divided our both our estimated income and expenditure into different grades of certainty. [see example] Estimated income We divided income into several categories. The first category was money already in the bank and fees from participants and volunteers. This was money we knew we could spend. Then in increasing order of uncertainty we included sponsorship definitely pledged but not received, sponsors that were interested but had not yet agreed to anything, and projected profits from the bar and cafe.

Estimated expenditure Like income, expenditure was divided into five categories. The first category was essential things that would allow some kind of EASA to go ahead: food and shelter. Workshop materials and tools were in the second category, which

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included everything to make a recognisable though bare-bones EASA; third was to make an EASA that we considered acceptable, fourth our aim, and fifth were things we considered luxuries.

We then had two sets of scales to set against each other, and we could see how far we were towards achieving our aims. As far as we were concerned the first priority was not to overspend, even if this meant cancelling the event.

At these budget meetings it was clear that money was very tight. We knew we could afford to provide a very basic EASA, but not the kind that we hoped to host or that participants would be expecting. We still, however, had a large amount of income and sponsorship that was uncertain â&#x20AC;&#x201C; especially the money from the bar. We knew two things from the experience of previous organising teams: that a large (up to 20%) contingency was required, and that the bar and cafe often provided a large though unpredictable source of revenue.

We could not afford a contingency, so our contingency had to be profits from the bar. These would also go to supplement the minimal funds that we had allocated to workshop materials and tools. The process of stocking the bar and the cafes is described elsewhere, but it was necessary to buy x daysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; supply in advance. This was the only figure for the bar that we put into the budget; in the end our profit projections turned out to be very optimistic.

The cash flow and distribution system The final stage of the budget meetings was deciding what could actually be spent, and how much. If something was important enough and it looked like we would be able to afford it then the person responsible for that would place an order or go and buy it. This was relatively easy for discrete things such as the workshop stationery, but more difficult for something like refurbishing Downtex, where the statutory requirements and therefore costs continued to change. Our approach was to overestimate costs and to prioritise, so if something was essential it could be spent without each individual transaction

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being approved.

There were several different mechanisms for payment. Because of the distribution of roles in the team the treasurer was also responsible for the refurbishment of Downtex and it was not therefore possible for him to personally pay for everything.

1.

Debit cards. The two debit cards were shared between the four directors

which did occasionally lead to problems if we forgot to swap them around.

Problems also sometimes arose if the operational account was emptied by unexpected high spending.

2.

Virtual debit card. The organisers in the office copied the details of one

of the debit cards onto a piece of paper for use for online transactions.

3.

Written placement of orders, for instance for shower hire or instructing

tradesmen. This type of payment would be invoiced once the work was complete, for the treasurer to deal with personally.

4.

Cash, cheques and BACS transfers. Cash amounts larger than ÂŁ300,

cheques and BACS transfers had to be handled by the treasurer so they had to be planned in advance.

5.

Organisers or volunteers buying something and keeping the receipts

for later refund.

Keeping control of money during the assembly We had been warned by previous organisers of the difficulty of keeping track of cash during the assembly itself. With such tight margins and no contingency it was vital that we did not lose control of spending during the assembly, and yet it is essential that money can be spent when it needs to be. EASA is a very fast moving event and if the supply of money does not keep pace then the workshops are delayed and their potential is wasted.

Cash at the info point Like previous assemblies, all transactions at the bar and cafes were to be using the official currency of EASA, tokens. Tokens were sold primarily at

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the info point at Downtex and also at the satellite info point at Hope Mill, the Millfo point. This had the welcome effect of centralising the places where cash was handled, and reducing the number of people that handled cash, making it much easier to account for. With a token system there is an unpredictable delay between people buying the tokens with cash and spending them on goods.

This delay provides a degree of capital that can be used to buy new stock, but we were also planning to use bar profits to buy materials for workshops. If we did not know how much profit that we had made there was a risk that we could run out of stock to sell before all the tokens were spent.

The treasurer devised a system for keeping track of the number of tokens sold and the bar sales that relied largely on stock-taking at the end of the night (see diagram). In the event this system broke down rapidly because it was overly complex; the volunteers on the bar and info point did not have time to count everything, and also because if one person made a mistake there was no way of correcting that error. All of the volunteers working on the info point were not trained in the system before the assembly, but instead passed the information to each other, so the simpler elements of the system remained.

During the assembly the cash box at the info point was used, as at previous assemblies, not only for token payments but also for late participation fees and to pay for workshops. These payments and deductions were recorded by putting slips of paper in the box with the relevant information written on, a simple and relatively foolproof system.

At regular intervals throughout the assembly, ideally every day, the treasurer took the money from the info points, counted it, and took it to the bank.

Nobody wants to have very large quantities of cash in an open metal box at the centre of the assembly, however trustworthy EASA participants are. Even so, after one weekend the treasurer took almost ÂŁ4000 in cash to the bank in person.

The treasurer also ran through and updated a simple test of the finances each

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day, logging onto the online accounts to compare how much money we had at the bank with a running list of outstanding costs and expected income to produce an estimated surplus/loss (see illustration). This close financial control was intended to allow us to allocate extra funds to workshop materials but when, on Friday 6 August, we were prohibited from sleeping at Downtex, it enabled us to know that we could afford to immediately commit an extra ÂŁ5250 to paying for the Sugden sports centre.

Workshop budgets Responsibilities for workshops were divided between organisers on the basis of location, so the workshops at Hope Mill, Downtex and Madlab/Hive were organised differently. This extended to responsibility for ensuring that workshops were budgeted properly and had sufficient funds or materials ready. The different experiences of those workshops at Downtex and at Hope Mill provide a good example.

Most of the construction workshops were based at Hope Mill, and it is these workshops that typically use the most material, and the most money. The individuals responsible for these workshops worked out an estimated total budget in advance which the treasurer gave to them in cash as a lump sum.

The organisers at Hope Mill then had full control over this money to allocate to workshops as required without either needing a debit card or to go to the treasurer again. It was a very convenient way of keeping control of the money: once the cash was spent, the budget was spent. The risks involved with keeping large quantities of cash in an insecure location were reduced by immediately distributing the cash to the workshop tutors, which also gave them complete control of their own budgets.

This system did not, however, include all of the workshops; only those at Hope Mill. It was difficult from a financial point of view both before and during the assembly to keep track of the budgets and money for all the workshops as a whole, and as a result certain workshops suffered from an unnecessary lack of

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resources. It would have been better if the budgeting and money distribution exercise carried out by the Hope Mill team to have been applied to all the workshops. There would have been a single workshop budget to take account of in the assembly budgets and a single contact for money and resource allocation across the different sites. [tbe]

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Chapter 10 - Post EASA The term Post EASA has a number of implications - immediate clean up, legal stuff, getting rid of assets and legacy commitments - and this chapter attempts to deal with the immediate clean up only. [cma] Downtex <<<<<< Our experience of the aftermath of the Assembly shows that as an organisation there must be an agreed, formalised plan for returning all the venues to their former condition and disposing of all the surplus items that will be left. In our case many of those that considered themselves organisers did not take responsibility for sorting out the sites and materials.

The rent for Downtex was paid on a monthly basis, so there were two weeks remaining before we had to hand it back to the landlord. In this time we had to clear out all of the rubbish, furniture and participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; belongings, and arrange for the equipment that we had hired to be dismantled and collected.

In the few days following the assembly some participants stayed to help and moved all of the abandoned participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; belongings from the upper floors to the loading bay. Downtex was not a priority for the clean up at this stage because the Sugden sports centre was full of more abandoned sleeping bags, roll mats and clothes and had to be cleared immediately.

During the assembly, several organisers and volunteers had asked if they could have items of furniture once the assembly had finished. With the financial situation still uncertain, we decided to have an organisersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; auction to sell off as much of the furniture as possible. While a moderate success this did not reduce the amount of furniture we had to move, as few of the organisers had cars or vans.

The rest of the furniture was put on Freecycle, and some chairs were collected.

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We were very lucky that while we were in the building some scrap hunters were passing by, and they could take anything metallic. This way we got rid of many of the metal framed chairs and tables, old fridges and CCTV monitors. Some of the tables and stackable chairs were brought back to HQ as at the time we had not finalised plans for its future and there was talk of opening it as a studio for architecture students.

The large pile of sleeping bags, towels, clothes, roll mats and air mattresses was taken to HQ, sorted, and as much as possible given to charity shops and the Salvation Army.

On the final day, we dismantled the info point. There was still quite a lot of broken furniture and a large pile of other rubbish. With no time or funds for a skip, Howard from the next door warehouse once again made our lives much easier by offering to take the rubbish away for us.

We handed the keys back on the 2nd of September. During the assembly the landlordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s agent had shown several prospective tenants around the mill, and by the time we moved out had significant interest from the owners of Sankeyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nightclub and a deposit for the mill building, which had been unoccupied for several years before our intervention. [tbe] >>>>>> Mad Lab The 2 weeks went very well and the workshops all worked hard and used the facilities to their full capacity, really engaging and making the most of the space and the equipment that was available. After EASA though it came to light maybe a bit too much trust had been put in a few participants that resulted in easa010 being penalised.

We did an inventory on all the equipment on the final day as soon as we had collected everything from the participants and closed the space for use. We

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found that there was one tripod missing and a battery for one of the video cameras, and that at first all the other equipment had been returned.

What had transpired is that the missing tripod had been found in the container of hope mill, however after beginning to pack away the computers to be returned to apple on Sunday, we found that some of the participants stole 3 of the 3-pin plug adapters that went with the computers and also that someone had replaced one of the new apple power adapters of a 13â&#x20AC;? Macbook Pro with one of their older power adapters of a different generation. This ultimately led us to being invoiced and charged a few hundred pounds for apple to replace them. A lesson learnt. [mla]

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Chapter 11 - Review In writing this chapter I approached every attendee of easa010, every sponsor, lecturer, collaborator, adviser... absolutely everyone who had some contact with the event over the last six months or had involvement with the assembly itself in some way. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve included some of the responses here, the rest you can find - un-edited - in Section Five.

Obviously one event in particular during easa010 dominates the imagination, the unplanned move of accommodation in the middle weekend. In the weeks since the assembly I have had reason to repeat the story many times, but I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think anything does it quite as much justice as the e-mail I composed just a few days after the assembly finished. The Section Four is dedicated to the output from the e-mail was sent out to all our sponsors and assembly, you will find workshop reviews and plenty partners, which is demonstration in itself about of images there. our stance on the issue. It is reproduced here with only minor alterations to improve the way it reads.

The EASA fortnight drew to a close just over a week ago, the cleanup operation is drawing to a close and we are now moving into the documentation stage. In the weeks before the next EASA meeting November INCM in Copenhagen - the easa010 team will be producing a book as well as the Final Report for the event.

As a major part of the easa010 puzzle I would like to ask you for feedback to become part of the post EASA tie up.

Despite the disruption of the middle weekend, and thanks to the resilience of EASA as a network, the calm handling of the situation by the organising team and the generous spirit of the Sugden sports centre, easa010 was a huge success. The workshops delivered great quality content and output, easaDAY took over the city centre for a lunch time and the lecture, excursion and debates timetable was unaffected.

Stepping away from the drama of having to find accommodation for 400

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people on a Friday afternoon and then relocate them there, it would be fantastic for our final report to have a statement from you about your experience of EASA. This could cover your experience working with the team, the lasting effect of the event; it could even include things that didn’t go so well. The Final Report is an important document that is passed from organising team, to organising team from year to year.

What follows is our version of events - it’s quite long and not nearly as exciting as the events that it lead to: Pre EASA In the build up to easa010 the team made strong links with every possible element of the council relevant to holding a major international event, we started meetings with them way back in early 2008. Our aim was to do every single thing in a legal and safe way.

When it came to creating a venue for the event we adopted the Details of gaining the licence and planning permission can be found in Section Two. Copy’s of the approved drawings can be found in Section Five.

same approach, repeatedly meeting with representatives from every

responsible department related to planning permission and licensing, this included, among others, Environmental Health (in relation to public disturbance), the Police, Highways Agency and the crucially the Fire Brigade.

Fire brigade In the months before the event we met with one individual inspector on numerous occasions, we exchanged e-mails and had many many phone conversations. Throughout this exchange we explained clearly what EASA is with examples of previous events and we sought advice on what we needed to do to achieve a safe and legal standard of living for the participants for the two weeks. With the safety of the participants first and foremost in our minds we decided the best thing to do was to approach ‘experts’ and work from their feedback. At this stage we were delighted with the time and effort that was being afforded to us.

Permission granted Each and every thing we were advised to do we undertook, leading to the point where we were granted planning permission for people

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to sleep in Downtex. To get this permission we had to satisfy the Fire Safety Liaison Officer with the rigorous of our risk assessment - the key points worth noting being: that we had permission to sleep on floor one and two of Otter Mill, and a submitted plan of smoke detection throughout the complex.

In the week before EASA started we had a visit from the supervisor of the original inspector, this supervisor took a more hard line view of what we were proposing, which was fine, as we had always said safety was our prime concern and we had specifically sought out advice of professionals. We were, however, concerned that the level had been upped so close to the event. Despite this increase in expectations we moved on with the revised schedule of work and passed our final inspection.

The assembly During the assembly we had a visit from an Operation Service crew I.e. a fire engine. We were told that this visit was so the crew could get acquainted with the layout of the building, and that we were situated between three stations, each of which had 5 crews, meaning we should expect a total of 15 visits during the event. Of the third crew that came, the CO decided he didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like what he saw and wrote a damning latter to the Supervising Inspector. This report started in motion a chain of events that resulted in the closure of the sleeping accommodation in Downtex. This being so, we were now in a position where by instead of dealing with 2 inspectors, we were dealing with 2 + (3 stations x 5 crews x 4 men) = 62 inspectors. It should also be mentioned at this point that the majority of the fire brigade that came on site were courteous and some even said they had no problem with the situation.

Some of the problems highlighted were understandable, but were being policed by the organisers: tents were found inside the sleeping areas, cigarette butts were found inside the building, sockets were seen overloaded with non-fused adapters, curling tongs and hair driers were seen left plugged in unattended.

But our contention doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t come from these issues, as they were raised they were dealt with and they were part of the stewards duties, so

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they were dealt with every 15 minutes. Our contention, as you will see, comes from the standard of advice, level of support and attitude with which we were dealt with.

Change of attitude Following this report we received a visit from the original inspector and his supervisor at 11am Friday. At this visit it was clear that the supervisor had assumed the attitude that the building be shut down, this was not communicated to us, rather we were told that if we fulfilled more criteria we would be able to stay open.

New criteria 1 (key points) The supervisor now claimed that we hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t made it clear that participants would bring bags - his claim that he expected overnight bags only.

We were told that there were at least double the 200 people we claimed in the tin shed - impossible as hey also claimed more than 100 per floor in the mill, meaning we would have had around 650 people on EASA. Despite having provided a plan of the detection per floor we were told we needed twice as many smoke detection units. later At 5:30 Friday the two inspectors returned with a third, the weekend inspector. I was then served with a prohibition of sleeping notice for the building. We were told that to get it overturned was a full dayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work, so having been told previously that they were working on a restriction notice, had we not taken the decision to move we would have been left with nowhere to stay as the prohibition notice would take a day to overturn.

Criteria 2 (key points) On this final visit we were now told that there could be no sleeping above the ground floor, previously agreed to.

We were told that the bench in the - out door - court yard was a fire risk.

We were told storing plastic bottles of water was a fire risk because

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they were flammable.

Unhelpful The prohibition of sleeping notice included 2 criteria: ‘Inadequate means of raising the alarm in case of a fire.’

‘Inadequate means of escape.’

When I questioned what this meant I was told ‘we’ve kept the terms vague’, when I pressed this by saying it wasn’t left vague for our (EASAs) benefit, he admitted this was true. Our suspicions that we were been driven out became founded at this point.

Insulting The new, third, inspector stated that we couldn’t know how many people were

A copy to the notice of prohibition of sleeping can be found in Section Five.

here as EASA looked like the type of event that ‘people just turn up to’, he also asserted that ‘EASA will never happen in Manchester again.’ A decision that would never be within his remit and flies insultingly in the face of all the support received from every other sector of the city.

The BIG move From our operational point of view, we made the decision on Friday morning that with so many people on the ground in Manchester, our priority was 1. Keeping a roof over their head 2. minimising the disruption to participants and the assembly so many people had worked so hard on. Before the inspectors had left the first time we decided to move, this involved a lot of phone calls to our contacts in and around the city, the first one to bear fruit was Danny at the Sugden centre. We arranged a price and instructed participants to pack an overnight bag for the sports hall.

It became clear that we wouldn’t be returning to Downtex, but as it was late and there was so much chaos already and there was a strategy in place for the morning the decision was made to continue the excursions from Sugden and work on the details of a permanent relocation the next day.

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On Saturday evening participants were told to pack and tag their bag, any that wanted to take their own were encouraged to do so, the rest were moved by van by Alex and me. A slight hiccup came with trying to accommodate the bags at Sugden, not a huge problem, but when you are trying to communicate with 400 confused people these things can blow out of proportion.

All in all, by Sunday a new reality of easa010 was in place and part 2 had begun.

Conclusion It must be clear that we don’t contest the content of this report (which we haven’t been given permission to see, despite my request). I understand that Firemen put their lives on the line to enter dangerous conditions, and if the operational crews were dissatisfied with the conditions than the right thing to do was close the venue - participants must be safe.

Our dissatisfaction comes from 1. The substandard advice we received that lead us to do work that ultimately wasn’t enough 2. The moving of the goal posts in terms of requirements, exemplified with the removal of sleeping from the upper floors 3. The attitude with which the organisers and event were treated.

We are not looking for remuneration for the £5000 spent on new accommodation, but acknowledgment.

In my welcome speech in the Town Hall I mentioned that I was proud to show Manchester to EASA and that the city had supported us in the way only it could, I feel that two or three people undermined these words. As a Mancunian I want to be able to show the network that this is not typical of the support we received. As an EASAian I want to put this one small but significant element of easa010 to bed. In the welcome speech I also mentioned that easa010 was a chance for a generation of architects to demonstrate its determination and creativity, and despite 2 days of hassle the network pulled together and ended the event in exactly this way. As organisers we will continue to work until EASA is recognised for what it is, and what we did for the city.

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Epilogue National evening ended with dramatic scenes. It would be easy to think that the events of that night somehow undermine the position of EASA, but this is simply not true, I have the police report to show it.

National evening is a show case for all nations this typically includes food and drink, some participants over indulged and became ill. As part of the licensing criteria it is up the licence holder to control the consumption of alcohol, as such no drunk people were served at the bar, and the bar was closed an hour before the licence required. We also provided water to all drunken people, and closed the music and asked people to make their way home 30minutes before the licensed time.

Unfortunately an individual was so ill that an ambulance was required, on arrival the paramedic saw a lot of sick people outside a mill and assumed an illegal rave, after phoning in for support the scale of the response kept growing in a dominoes effect.

This lead to the suspension of the licence for 24 hours while the police could come to a decision in the cold light of day, having come round on Monday the licensing authorities felt there was no evidence of licensing infringement, none of the hospitalised tested positive for narcotics, so on the provision that we supplied them with CCTV for the night the licence would be reinstated. The problem came that the CCTV had been out of action for some days, and an oversight of our Designated Premises Supervisor meant it hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been checked, thus the licence remained suspended - not revoked.

2,500 words barely do the experience justice so lets add a little flesh to the bones. On Friday morning I was woken from my slumber on the warehouse floor by a phone call from one of our fire inspectors, saying he and his colleague were on their way around. When they arrived their attitude was pretty negative from the outset. By the time they had got the lap top from the car to show us horror fire videos I realised there was no point keeping up a polite pretence any longer - the time to educate would have been at the start of the process, not during the assembly. My cautious nature I immediately got on the phone to secure alternative accommodation, acutely aware that it page 318

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was a Friday in August, so if it wasn’t secured early there would be no time to find a place for people to stay.

In the days that followed I had a number of people ask me if we had planned for what happened, did we have the back up lined up all along, the short answer was no, it wasn’t planned in advance, but I had been anticipating the worst at all times - what if Downtex had burned down the day before the assembly? So when it seemed we had to look for somewhere new, I didn’t panic, rather I just did what I’d done when looking for spaces in the first place, I rang everyone I knew would still be in the city - being August that was only about half the people I knew might be able to help.

Having rung people in the council, at developers and in the universities the Once we were at the point of joking about it, Saturday perhaps, I remember reminding one of the team that we had always planned to have a two day excursion, camping one night with excursions the next day...

first offer to come through was from the sports centre near the university.

Though it wasn’t free it was safe, large and had great showers. I made

the decision not to look around for more options, due to the lack of time, and committed to it. In less than 4 hours on a Friday in mid-summer I’d secured accommodation for 400+ people, it was only afterwards I thought about what would have happened if we hadn’t found it.

Saturday night was a night of driving for Alex and Me. Despite the plea for participant to carry their own bags the vast majority took us up on the offer to drive them the two miles to the new accommodation. If you think about 400 people, with a hold bag and a piece of carry on - that’s an airliner worth of bags moved in a few hours in two cans. To name check just a few people, a big credit goes to Marko Vukovic for working long into the night, - Daria, Julia, Vitaliy and Yuriy from the Ukraine team who cleared out the 2nd floor and to the various unnamed heros who kept me company during the back and forth journeys.

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It was plain to see that the move was a very difficult thing for the organisers.

First and most important for me was breaking the news to the team and then keeping them calm and collected in order to deal with the problem. I did this, I admit for the first time, by not letting them know straight away. Being the native Mancunian with contacts relevant to finding a new space I made some quick phone calls to put out some feelers and gauge what was available.

After this we had a meeting and I explained what the situation was, but gave a couple of options for what we would do. I then gave people jobs to do - it is important that people are busy in a moment of crisis, my only regret is we didn’t have more tasks the participants could have helped with to relieve their tension too.

Once the new accommodation was found there 3 ambulance cars, 5 ambulances, was the obvious logistics to deal with which 2 marked police cars, one unmarked police car, brought their own stress, and I need to mention a dog handling unit, two armed response officers, Martin Michette’s invaluable input, he arrived the deputy chief of police for Manchester to EASA on the Saturday of the move and his cool head paid dividends in problem solving and a Helicopter regarding bags.

Where were you?

But the biggest drain for the organisers was seeing their work being taken away piece by piece - the renovation of Downtex, the waste management system, national evening(s), and so on. The reason it was difficult to see wasn’t the work that had gone into it alone, it was more that all these things had been done altruistically for the benefit of the assembly and the participants.

Having got through the weekend by mostly dealing with the issues at hand rather than thinking about what we’d lost, the realisation hit us individually in the second week. Ironic really, because the second week, as is usual, had a much more unified participant feeling and was much more EASA than the first, but the organisers could still see the ghosts of what was planned - the participants of course, could enjoy the reality of the now.

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Sunday night will surely go down as one of the most memorable in my time during EASA, and I have a feeling that the people there will talk about it whenever there is talk of national evening. My opinion of the evening was that participants had been under a lot of concern for the assembly for two days, and on Sunday they were settled in the new accommodation, we’d had a ‘Welcome to EASA part II’ meeting that afternoon and everyone was in a good mood to move on with the assembly. That evening was national evening and a few people let loose - blew off steam.

That night I was really proud of the members of the organising team - a team that had stood up to the biggest crisis imaginable for organisers, had not taken that pressure and barely slept - that went on duty as stewards that night and kept things at a clam level.

On his prearranged early departure, an EASA veteran of 8 assemblies told me that if we hadn’t left Downtex it The real unfortunate thing was one would have been the best ever. Kind words indeed, but really hard to hear. participant was genuinely ill for excessive alcohol so an ambulance was called. If we had been sleeping in Downtex, when the paramedic arrived all he would have seen would have been the outside of an industrial building, instead he found a quantity of students being sick - still nothing that a Friday night doesn’t produce - and for what ever reason he feared the worst, the absolute worst. What followed was a farcical escalation in response leading to the epic list of official vehicles on the scene.

With the move and loss of the bar licence, and with it our place to drink late and party, easa010 changed in more than just lay out, we had lost our major source of income at the same time we had to out lay our entire contingency on accommodation, we were now operationally in the red meaning we need to sell more beer to get back to even. More than this though, there were things in our plan that became un-achievable, from small things like improving the quality of breakfast to larger things like the provision of an entire night for

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easa011 to have a presentation and a party. Personally I was disappointed to have to cancel the excursion I was running to my home village of Styal, due to working on the new arrangements of for the accommodation.

It would be easy to look back at losing the accommodation as an indictment of Manchester, an indication of a lack of support, but from that crisis came the opportunity for others to show the great side of the city. First it was the Sugden Centre to come to our rescue and provide accommodation at super short notice, then when we lost the licence for Downtex the bar next door to the Sugden allowed us to use their beer garden as our easaBAR 2, and to sell our beer on their premises.

Once the dust had settled from the weekend a realisation came to us that we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a licensed venue for the final presentations or final party for the assembly. Having secured the accommodation in 4 hours I set about making arrangements for the final day of easa010, ringing the council, the university, developers, bars, clubs and pubs, it took 4 days to have the two venues in place.

The unfortunate events of the middle weekend really could have blown easa010 apart, but instead they served to draw everyone together, and a special mention has to go to all the tutors of workshops that met with their participants and used the problems to focus their minds on the work they were doing. It was clear to us as organisers that losing the cool accommodation, losing the private party space, all the priority went to protecting the workshops and helping them achieve wonderful results.

Though completely undesirable in terms of stress levels, the events of the middle weekend were completely in keeping with our original ambitions for the assembly - an unforgettable event, that drew people together in a community spirit, with engaging lectures and good quality workshops and output.

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So 3800 ish words on the move. I said in the introduction to this Section that each EASA is remembered for two things, one to do with the setting and the other the most memorable event, I suspect easa010 will be the EASA of walking and the move.

But I can’t leave it there, so lets have a look at the other things that made easa010. To do this I will revisit the method employed in Section Two. We had set out to highlight some of the preconceptions about what EASA could be, not dictate what it should be, so lets look at some of the key choices we made in the organising stage and how they panned out in the actual assembly.

National Evening Identity / tradition We had planned 2 national evening, but due to the shake up in the timetable it didn’t work out like that and we ended up with one instead. The night itself was a roaring success despite some initial misgivings about having to represent someone else’s culture. The only shame was it was moved to a Sunday rather than the Friday / Saturday, because Sunday licensing meant it had to finish 2 hours earlier than those other nights.

Quota Integration The quota was at once a big success, we received no complaints of the way we worked it out, but the discussion at INCM might be a different story. But it was also where we made the largest mistake - too many people. Looking back through the records it seems a simple miscommunication lead to an invite being sent to every country offering 2 more places on their quotas. This meant in real terms nearly 100 more people. This decision was made at a time when we didn’t have confirmation of accommodation and seems to be based on the previous discussion we had when we had the Car Parks at our disposal.

Though in theory the extra people would have been manageable - and indeed were managed successfully it is my opinion it left a strain that lead to other problems. It is difficult to talk about a change of this kind to easa010 as I

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believe the more the merrier - EASA is restrictive enough. But the fact is that we struggled to fit 400 people into Downtex, though the spaces felt OK to be in the number of people there underpinned the fire brigadeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s concern. 100 less and it is arguable we wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have faced the move.

Library / Debate space Identity / interaction / density Both had limited success.

The library did get a fair amount of literature,

but mostly from the UK and Sweden. The debate space wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t used as such most of the time, but people did hang out having coffee, so it did provide somewhere to be. I think that both of these things might take a little getting used to, so perhaps if they exist again it might work better.

Day workshops Identity / interaction / density A success! All the workshops had great feedback from both participants and the tutors. I think a bit of variety can really help in an event like EASA. Student Lectures Integration / identity A huge thank you to the participants that took part, and congratulations. I felt this experiment was a success, these lectures certainly produced the most discussion which was fantastic to see.

Lecture sign up Integration / identity Not so much of a success. To me it was an indication of the perceived gap between participants and the assembly that we were trying to reduce. I hope easa010 acts as a step in the right direction as far as this.

Datascapes Integration The introduction of a professional workshop - not wholly new I know - did provide the presentations with a different feel. I think the knowledge that

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professionals are giving their time to the event gives a perceived validity to all the workshops.

Workshop applications Tradition Any application process is going to be a touch subject, everyone has so much invested in the assembly. I felt that though there were one or two ruffled feathers at first the process was seen to be open and honest. We didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take such a big step - in the past there was an EASA that asked for suggestions for workshops by the network then approached practices to run them all, that is bold!

Docu+Mation Legacy Super fantastic. We had some issues that some of the participants quite clearly couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t leave their student mentality at home and needed tutoring, which was a shame, but most of the group delivered hugely important material that is strewn throughout this report. easaDAY Integration / legacy / urbanity / interaction Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve spoken at length about easaDAY. I think it was the best idea we had, it gave a much needed focus to the two weeks and a very real target for the workshops to aim for. I think the delivery of the day was superb too.

Personally I would like to note that walking into Hope Mill (delivering the sandwiches) brought a tear to my eye, all the hard work was worth it in that moment. I also want to say that the atmosphere that day was brilliant.

Welcome talks Integration Much needed, really should stay as part of the timetable forever more. The one note of caution goes to the bloody native speakers - talk slower, with less accent please!

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Duties Integration The duties were further evidence of the gap between participants, and some NCs, and the event.

Over all there weren’t too many problems, but we

saw a real split between the ‘get involved’ people and the ‘here on holiday’ people. I wish we had the answer, one suggestion Paul made is fantastic get participants to do the cooking. If people don’t do it no one eats, plus everyone knows why.

Lead Helpers Integration Most of these guys were worth their weight in gold - Fran Perez for one I can’t over estimate the importance of experience to you, so much so I’ll mention it again in a moment. Be aware of lead helpers though, because some will be their for a holiday, which is bad because participants wont know the difference between organisers and lead helpers.

There is more to the review at the end of Section Four. For the rest of this chapter we have reviews and thoughts from organisers, tutors, participants, talent, sponsors and the council. [cma]

JOSEPH FRAME’S PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS “It was a joy to watch Aero, Villa and Pekka of the Finnish team sorting out the skips in downtex.”

“The few times I checked wheelie bins and couldn’t see the wrong thing inside them” “Bribing the scouse shipping container delivery man to move the a skip.”

JOSEPH FRAMES PERSONAL LOWLIGHTS

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“Emptying rotting food into the skip at downtex with the help of Kieran, Matt Lambert and Jonny Curtis” “The innumerable times I saw the wrong things in the wheelie bins.”

“Not being able to find wheelie bin bags” [jfr]

In my opinion the website was the most up to date and innovative easa promotional material in recent years However the website could have perhaps made better use of resources and linking to other promo material/sponsors/ media etc The facebook page served as an invaluable tool for informing the easa student network about the preparations for easa010. However perhaps this could have been used more successfully as a promotional resource (such as for deadlines for submissions, applications etc, call for volunteers...) and update on the progress of easa010: media sponsors, interested parties and progress of the event line-up and venue preparation.

Twitter updates could have been filtered by category to sustain interest (wider use of social media and networking between participation countries and participating schools in UK) Lack of up to date global easa network website hindered promotional reach and impact (overall problem as presented at SCHOSA meeting, not due to easa010) The SESAM held in Manchester seemed very successful in raising interest for the event, both for those from participating countries and volunteers

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and potential stakeholders from the host country, UK. I am unsure of the feedback on the whole week as I was only present on the day or so leading up to the exhibition opening. However the decision to have a SESAM in the same country, city as the main event was incredibly useful as it tested the ground for the big event, gave volunteers and organisers an idea of the level of commitment and dedication that they would need to provide for the main summer assembly; and also allowed the easa â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;spiritâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to reignite the ethos of the event for the organising team. A useful networking/promotional event to set the ball rolling for building up media relations and advertising the assembly across the European network and the immediate UK school network.

Volunteers: most volunteers I encountered gave 110% to the role and performed incredibly well under pressure and often without knowledge of the whole picture of events. Responded extremely well to change of situation and adapted to venue changes and other organisational problems.

Organisers: as always some people remained more dedicated to their roles and pitched in more out with their required remit than others, this is a personal thing so nothing that could have been readily changed by the overall managing of the event.

In general morale was good and most organisers had attended at least one previous easa which helped to give an idea of logistics, event coordination and management of the Assembly as a whole. The whole team performed outstandingly under pressure when they were let down by the fire services which resulted in many complications and risk of closure of the Assembly.

Despite many problems (out with the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s control), the outlook was generally positive and wholly focused on the best interest of the participants and ensuring that the event ran to schedule as much as possible.

Closing Events: definitely pulled out of the bag at the last minute! easaDAY, presentations at Victoria Baths, leaving party etc - some workshops were not

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ready due to unrealistic building targets and delays in sourcing materials. As a whole the culmination of the Assembly was well orchestrated although an increased media groups present (left too little too late) would have been more ideal. However publication of the final report and ongoing media coverage across architecture departments and media stakeholders this year will more than make up for this – the legacy will live on.

Budget

- restrictive but understandably so; however after there was

misinformation regarding what was needed/what could be provided etc.

Team Communication: Internet problems posed many logistical and accounting difficulties (so much reliance on Google doc spreadsheets). Printed copies of everything with allowances for people not turning up and working overtime between shifts could have been accounted for to make things run a little more smoothly. Despite this the team coped extremely well with changes to the schedule and helping out wherever an extra pair of hands was needed.

Volunteers and non-Manchester based organisers could have been provided with more information regarding the running of events, logistics etc. Either this could have been improved with more forward planning re-subsidiary teams or even a basic ‘guidebook’ or ‘manual’; time was of the essence but often those who were least in the know where the ones so often referred to and relied upon for quick solutions to participants queries regarding resources, workshops, events etc [lco]

Hello hello! about EASA: For Luis and me (Sergi) was our first EASA and we can only say that was AWESOME. Tutors of the workshop Canalizing Sergi / Luis what about report there’s only one thing I would like to say to people who

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want to organize easa: think ten times before even speak about it. and to all the organizers: thank you people for teaching us to struggle and survive) love, Daria and all the ukrainian team.

To All Organisers and Participants of EASA 2010 After the frenzied weeks of activity during August, Hope Mill feels a very quiet and relatively empty place now that Easa has ended. I have to admit that I was totally unprepared for the scale of the event as well as being initially fairly sceptical as to the purpose of it. However, having lived through it and being part of it on a daily basis, I have to declare my utter amazement and admiration for all that was achieved.

There are so many things I want to thank you for.

Thank you on behalf of my mill. It was incredible to see my beautiful but battered building being brought back to life, albeit for a short while, by the energy, commitment and skill of everyone involved. All of you made quite an impact on the â&#x20AC;&#x153;regularâ&#x20AC;? tenants, as well as the Crusty Cob and the residents of Ancoats.

Thanks to the organisers for bringing the workshops here in the first place.

Thanks to everyone who designed and worked on the new studios on the 5th floor. Special mention goes to Kieron â&#x20AC;&#x201C; what a grafter!

Thanks to Wendy and Leanne (must be something about the Irish) and all their helpers who did such a magnificent job turning the 4th floor studios corridor into a really special environment.

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Thanks to everyone on the ground floor, especially Jenny and Michelle (not bad for a Scouser) for providing me with my morning coffee.

And extra special thanks to Christoph (or Stefan) – what a top fella. German engineering at its best! Without you the 5th floor just wouldn’t have happened.

So, from my early doubt of what this conference would achieve, I have been completely blown away by the professionalism of the organisers and the work of all the participants. All of you have left a lasting legacy at Hope Mill (and on Manchester). Thank you all once again. Any time any of you are in Manchester please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Regards David French Owner of Hope Mill

Most enjoyable to spend some time in the Mill and meet people involved.

Thoroughly enjoyable. Full of admiration for the organising committee. What a good job they did. I hope everyone involved will look back on the Manchester Event and treasure the memories. (though) Not qualified to judge, I felt that there was a remarkable fit between the City and the event.

I was involved with the early ‘Winter Schools’ in Liverpool back @ 1979/80 I think. It was just great to see that the spirit was still alive and that the whole operation had moved on to become something significant in Architectural Education. The people with the initiative to organise and attend events like this are the people who will make a difference to the world as time goes on.

Not because they will be stars of the architectural firmament ( although they might be) but because they are people who ‘do’ rather than sit around to be spoon-fed.

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We were delighted that the Brick Development Association took the opportunity to be part of the event - Thank you Michael Driver Brick Development Association CEO

Organisers were very welcoming and friendly, and very helpful when it came to showing us around. The event was well organised and there were no major issues.

It was very impressive to witness the enthusiasm and buzz of activity that dominated the atmosphere. Participants were also friendly and welcoming, and seemed to enjoy themselves.

I think the event was very beneficial to Manchester, and pertinent considering the problems of urbanisation that the city faces. The chosen venues sent a strong signal about the use of urban brown sites and the need for innovative regeneration.

EASA is a fantastic event for Architectural students in that it allows for collaboration and exchange across cultures, and it provides students with an alternative forum for their education.

Participants benefit from the

opportunity to gain hands-on experience, explore new areas of knowledge, and meet others who share similar interests. The variety of workshops and lectures on offer gives participants a chance to develop great knowledge in their formative years.

Thanks again for having us in Manchester, we really enjoyed our visit and were grateful to have the opportunity to test-run the lecture. I hope the participants found it interesting! I have included my answers in the section below, let me know if there is anything else you need from us.

Best, Nina Neeteson

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Article 25 Education and Communication Officer

I wish to report that I was very impressed by the professional way you pitched the sponsorship deal to me at the outset. I receive many requests to sponsor events and yours was away ahead of many of the so called professional fund raising efforts I have been exposed to. It made it very easy to understand how we could work with you to use the event to promote Salford.

Best wishes Steve Curwell University of Salford School for the Built Environment

Chris Many thanks for sending us your publication and for featuring us on the front page. I really hope you had a good time at the Baths and if we can help easa in the future, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be delighted to welcome the organisation again.

Steve H Steve Helme Project Coordinator Victoria Baths - Britainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Best Loved Restoration Project, with Restoration Phase 1+ now underway, open as a Heritage Visitor Attraction and also an arts, education and community venue from March to November each year

I would like to say in my opinion the event was very well organised and the organising team did everything to make the event safe.

Tony Rogers Contract Manager, Marpol Security

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To Whom It May Concern

28 October 2010

Dear EASA members Re easa010 On behalf of Manchester City Council, can I say how delighted we were to host easa010 in our city earlier this year.

We worked closely with key members of the Organising Committee over many months in the run up to the event and were impressed by their dedication, tenacity and commitment to making this event a truly successful one of which all concerned could be proud.

Inevitably, we became aware of the disruption to the accommodation arrangements half way through easa010 and are really sorry about the impression this must have made on some of those attending. It was undoubtedly a crushing blow for the Manchester team who had put such immense effort into planning for this event. We feel it is testimony to the organisational skills of the Manchester team that they were able to react to a newly presented set of circumstances in such a calm and efficient way.

We truly hope this unfortunate incident did not mar the Manchester experience which in every other way seems to have portrayed the powerful effectiveness of a group of young professionals working together with the common goal of demonstrating creativity and innovation in the field of architecture.

We would like to add our voice to those saying a huge thank you to the easa010 organising committee and wish them, as well as those who came to Manchester in August, every possible success in the future.

Yours sincerely

Margaret Stephenson Head of Events Unit

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