Organising Guide by Laax 2016

Organising Guide

The Laax 2016 Organising Guide Written by the Organising Team of Laax 2016 – the 83rd International Session of the European Youth Parliament March 2017

Introduction Knowledge storing and transferring in the EYP has always been an issue, however recently some National Committees and the International Office have started developing their own set of organising tools and guides. We wanted to add to this process by sharing our tips and our findings after having gone through our big organising experience. This is the collective work of the 25 organisers that took part in shaping Laax 2016 – the 83rd international session of the European Youth Parliament. It is nothing more than an extensive collection of tips that we would happily give to any Organising Team that is working on any session of the EYP, not just an International Session. Feel free to share this with your Organising Team, contact anybody mentioned in the guide or browse in our summarise Google archive where you can find examples of multiple organising products. Being this nothing more than a list of lessons that we have learned while working for our own session, for this reason they might seem often specific to own context or subjective, however we hope that can be useful for your next great event.

Introduction

Getting started

Creating spreadsheets

Possible criteria and column names

Filters

Colour-coding

Freezing

Fundraising and financial databases

Task management and databases

Fundraising materials needed

Fundraising Brochure

Do's and don'ts

Contents

Corporate fundraising

Elevator pitch

Foundations

Public funding

In-kind

Follow-up and reporting

Drafting a programme

When to start building your programme

The Masterplan

Tips for the Masterplan

Structuring a session

Division of Roles

Division of roles at an early stage

Specific roles before and during the session

Division of roles across evening events

Selecting venues Finding venues: Where to look

33 33

The City and Region

Good old internet

Appropriate venues for various session elements

Gathering information

Negotiating the price

Covering all the bases

Managing transportation

Gathering information

41 2

Managing logistics

Transportation lists

Arrivals and departures

Transfers during the session

Cars Food and Beverages

44 45

Basic responsibilities

Pre-session tasks

Session tasks

After session tasks

How to plan shifts

How to plan committee and delegation dinners

Working with a caterer

Communicate with the other organisers

Don’t forget about beverages

The alcohol question

Quality and quantity

Number of F&B team members

Guest and Externals Management

Inviting Externals

Briefing your speakers

Briefing your committee experts

Handling guests at the session

Thanking guests after the session

Press & PR

Getting started with Press & PR

Tools and materials

Strategy

Press releases

What the press is looking for

At the session

Additional tips and tricks

Contingency Planning Medical Emergencies

66 66

Closing words by our Head Organiser

Annex

Cover Photo: Tom Wolfskämpf (DE)

Getting started Congratulations, your bid was successful and you have been selected to organise one of the next great events of the EYP. This section should serve as a list of tips for when you are just starting out on day zero. ●

Scout the area for venues. Especially if your session is somewhere remote few people in your team might be familiar with the location. For our session it proved very useful to go there all together for a first organisers’ weekend. Develop a connection to the place, go on long walks and talk to all locals to brainstorm for venues. Most important is to have an idea of your options and to make sure that every element of the session could potentially take place.

●

Make sure your local partners are on board. Most likely when you submitted the bid you proposed an accommodation for the session. Inform the managers of this accommodation that your proposal has been accepted, do not leave them hanging. Meet up with them, tell them about your goals, and your future milestones, ask for all the support and contacts they can provide and agree on a timeframe for when you would both like to seal the deal. This does not only apply to your accommodation but also to any other local partners to whom you have reached out while coming up with your project.

●

Establish a line of communication with your NC. Especially for projects of this size it is essential to ensure coordination and collaboration with your national board. Have a clear talk about the separation of responsibilities, agree on who will take what action and when. Establish a process in which you mutually monitor each other's’ progress and set common objectives. If your NC has other, smaller events coming up, also establish a contact with the Head organisers of those projects and agree how to coordinate fundraising with these other events. If possible meet up with these Head organisers, so that they do not feel you are the “big project, which is stealing the spotlight”. Establish a culture of collaboration with 4

them instead. Lastly, see what resources your NC has, ask for all databases and contacts, and, in case your NC has such programme, ask for a liquidity loan from your NC. ●

Collect ideas on potential partners. Partners from the most different backgrounds often contribute to shape a session profoundly. Be ambitious and positive, think of your theme in depth and conclude who you want to contact next. The EYP can be pitched in infinite ways and commonalities can be found with most other organisations.

●

Find a core team. Publish a vision, make it very personal and really specify what you expect from the people who will be working with you. Launch an open call and within the call include the dates of the first organisers’ weekend, make acceptance conditional to the participation at this weekend.

●

Agree on the key messages of the session together with your core team. What are your objectives for the participants and what output do you aim to achieve. Based on this, start defining your corporate identity, create your logo and the first PR material containing a more advanced version of your vision. A corporate identity does not only consist of your visual identity, it also reflects the key messages and values you agreed on.

●

Legally found an association. Legislation differs from country to country, however for projects of a certain size, we recommend founding a legally separate entity for the session itself. Make sure this entity is protected from bankruptcy, so in cases things go really wrong this does not bankrupt your NC. Once this is done open a separate bank account for your entity. Make sure to coordinate with your NC to ensure, they agree on this procedure.

●

Draft a timeline based on the milestones, which you have drafted together with the office, your core team and the NC board. Specify these objectives: by this time we want to have this percentage of the budget, by this time we want to have the venues secured. We recommend creating two or three separate budgets for different fundraising scenarios for example an ideal budget and a minimum budget. 5

●

Set up your project management tools. Set up a online storage such as Google Drive to load all your documents and make sure every organiser has access to it fully. Set up a project management tool so people can keep track of each other's progress and you can assign tasks. In Laax, we used Podio for this purpose. Lastly, set up a communication platform and multiple channels for different types of communication to make the process more efficient.

●

Find your source of inspiration, this project will be something you remember in the long term and working for it should be a positive and fulfilling experience. Think of what keeps you motivated, organising a session is a difficult process but also a beautiful adventure, good luck!

Creating spreadsheets Google Drive is every EYPers best friend. Thus, most work is done on this platform. A great tool for creating brainstorming spreadsheets is Google Spreadsheets. It gives you different options on how to structure your work and allows you to create an overview and set priorities. Many of the following sections will elaborate on how to manage your data using spreadsheets to keep a clear overview of your session’s data. The examples in this chapter will use a spreadsheet containing venues and their details.

Possible criteria and column names There are various column headings you can add to your spreadsheets. These are either criteria-related or headings related to the organisational information concerning the venue. Here are possible criteria-related headings: price, proximity to accommodation or other venues, reachability by foot, car or public transportation, coolness or fanciness of the venue, sustainability of the venue or belonging to a certain organisation. These are purely session-related and can vary a lot from event to event.

Creating a brainstorming spreadsheet early enough and adding all the necessary information can save a lot of time in the future, when you know whether your financial resources allow you to look for the “coolest” or the “most sustainable” venue, depending on your priorities.

Filters Google spreadsheet offers you a great option, namely “filtering” information. In order to activate the option, select the first row, go to “Data” and select the “Filter” option. Then, if you click on the box, a whole menu of possibilities will appear and you will be able to select the options which suit you. Here an example with “availability”: You can then reselect the options which are not available anymore and you will get a list of all available venues without deleting the ones you initially researched. Thus, you have a complete database of the venues in the region, including contact details. The lists can later on be used by other sessions.

Colour-coding Colour-coding is something so simple and trivial, it barely needs to be explained. However, we still felt the need to include a short introduction to the art of using colours in your spreadsheets. You can colour code absolutely everything in every context. However, you have to make sure all relevant people are informed about the meanings of different colours and can easily “read” the information they carry. A simple tab with this information on the top of the spreadsheet can simplify things and help avoid confusion. 8

Freezing Freezing columns and rows is another great option offered by Google Sheets. To use this option, go to “view” and then to “freeze”. Now, regardless of where you are on your spreadsheet, you will always be able to see the header row and the first column.

Fundraising and financial databases Task management and databases Covering your budget is arguably the most important task to make your event happen. Therefore, start fundraising at the very beginning of the organising process and have as many of your organisers as possible (even all of them, in the beginning) contribute to the fundraising efforts. Covering a high budget will also mean that your fundraising efforts will be very diverse and will be covering a lot of ground. It is therefore crucial to have a good overview of who is in charge of what, and what the status of the sponsoring request is. This can for example be in a spreadsheet on a collaborative platform such as Google Drive, which will need to be constantly updated and is available for insights by everyone, including the following information: ●

Name of the company or organisation (called “supporter” from here on)

●

The organiser in charge

●

Your contact person at the potential supporter

●

The potential supporters’ address

●

The potential supporters’ phone number

●

The status of the request

●

When did you start working on this contact

●

The proofreading status of the letter to the potential supporter

●

The date of letter sent

●

The date of the last call with the potential supporter

●

Email address of the potential supporter

●

Type of support granted: money or in-kind

●

Comments

There will necessarily be changes to your planning of when to contact whom, so use separate tabs for each month of fundraising, between which you can move fundraising targets according to your needs. You can also use the same database to keep track of your in-kind food and in-kind material fundraising efforts. Once a sponsoring request has been accepted, it is again crucial to keep the overview of secured money and its status. Was it paid already? Is follow-up needed? These and similar questions need to be answered by your database.

Fundraising materials needed A flyer-type document is very useful to provide a brief overview of all the core information at a glance. Additionally, a longer brochure presenting your event in detail ought to be sent along with every on-paper sponsoring request. Along with that (especially for corporate fundraising), you will need to send a letter addressing the company or organisation. It helps to build up a basic skeleton of a few paragraphs presenting your event and what you want from them, which can be used in every letter, but it is absolutely essential to tailor each letter to the specific addressee. Mention why you think the company would make a good partner, why what you can offer them will be beneficial for them, and what exactly you want from them, e.g. financial or in-kind support, knowledge exchange or something completely different. It is even better if you already have a contact person or someone who is specifically in charge of sponsoring, so you can address them directly in the letter.

Fundraising Brochure Do's and don'ts ●

Do ○

use nice formatting

○

include the session’s IBAN

○

include a rough budget from which it is easily distinguishable how much money you will need

●

Don’t ○

mention how much money you already have

○

overload the reader with information

Contents ●

Possibly an introduction by the Head organiser

●

Executive summary (all info on one page, very abbreviated)

●

Your organisation and umbrella or mother institution ○

For example, the Schwarzkopf Foundation Young Europe

the

umbrella

organisation of the

International Office of the EYP, which is a partner organisation relative to your National Committee in regards to International Sessions ●

Facts and figures about your session such as where it takes place and when, how many participants it has and from where or the event theme

●

Event structure and programme. You could explain Teambuilding, Committee Work, and General Assembly as well as cultural programme elements such as Swiss Village, EuroConcert, the Farewell Evening or any other evening activities you have planned

●

The sessions venues

●

If you have them already and if they’re well-known: Patrons, speakers, guests

●

Organising committee: it’s nice to have at least an overview of your Core Team, with pictures, what they do (uni, work, etc.), age, canton, city, and function in the team and contact details

●

Information and contacts of the Head organiser as well as fundraising chief

●

Estimated budget and funding needs and banking information (IBAN)

Corporate fundraising How to sell ●

What we offer (some examples) ○

Visibility (logo)

○

Reach: how many people will hear of things happening at the event (including its sponsors) - calculate approx. number of participants times five (their own friends, family and acquaintances)

○ ●

Image (e.g. “greenwashing”)

Always adapt your letter to the company (as you would with job cover letters)

Classical approach ●

Send letter and brochure or leaflet

●

On the day that you know the letter must have arrived, make a follow-up call (preferably in the morning) and refer to the “letter you have received this morning”, make sure they are looking at it, then explain again

Partnerships Approach ●

Main Partner (this would be if you are willing to label your event “xyz, sponsored by ABC”, but will mean that the partner is providing almost all of your budget)

●

Gold, silver (very high contributions)

●

Regular (regular contributions)

I-insist approach ●

Call the secretariat or office of the CEO or CFO directly

●

“Annoy” the secretary until they pass you the CEO (approach of St.Gallen Symposium with a several-million-CHF budget)

Elevator pitch The struggle to explain what EYP is all about is as old as our organisation. At the same time, it is of the utmost importance that fundraisers are able to explain our organisation’s activities and goals accurately, pertinently but also briefly. The Elevator Pitch gets its name from the (fictional) scenario of riding an elevator with the CEO of a big company, who you, the fundraiser for an event, want to convince of how cool and important the event is, and why his company should support it. The catch: the CEO will leave the elevator when you get to the ground floor, so you only have approximately one to two minutes to get across all the relevant information. This is a fun and educational exercise to ‘play’ with new fundraising teams. For example, put people in pairs and have them come up with their own contents for an elevator pitch. Then put the relevant inputs together into your Master Elevator Pitch.

Here are some the key points to mention. You may have to adapt your range of selected facts according to the addressee and pick-and-choose from the information below. ●

Info about your umbrella or mother organisation

●

Specific info about your event ○

number of participants

○

dates (or amount of days)

○

Mention origin of participants

○

Reach: participants and their social environment = number of participants times 5

○

Event theme (tie it to the area of work of your addressee)

○ ●

Programme elements

What you can offer ○

Reach, which can help gain customers or recruit people for their cause

○

Recognition and visibility on a national or an international level ■

Logos

numerous

media

(e.g. event

newspapers, resolution booklet, potentially roll-up, social media)

●

○

Networking with other sponsors

○

Product placing (welcome bags)

○

Speeches, patronage

Your own special selling points (e.g. related to the event theme) ○

E.g. region: brings tourism (more for international events); spotlight, selling the region and also your country

Foundations Foundations can be a crucial contribution to your budget. By searching through national databases with keywords that apply to your organisation or event, you will find numerous foundations that are keen to support projects.

Most foundations give out grants in bigger amounts, for which rather extensive applications have to be completed. Applying to foundations: step by step 1.

General research about the foundation: Find out what the foundation is about, what are they trying to promote, how do they function, what kind of projects do they support, etc. Most importantly, find out if they have funded similar projects before

or have previously been approached unsuccessfully and talk to the people who previously worked on applications to the same foundation. 18

2. Project specific research: How is their application procedure is

structured, what are the requirements: both for events, and for entities. Would they support your umbrella organisation as such?

3. Verify the requirements and conditions: Check that your

organisation or event complies with all the conditions, that what they require from you is compatible with the project, when is the deadline, what kind of external documents are required, etc.

4. Establish contact: Call (!), identify who is in charge, get a contact person, present the organisation and explain your

intention to apply, get specific feedback from within the foundation or organisation as to your chances of success, and get tips for the application procedure, ask if you could send them a first version of your application for some informal feedback. Make sure they know you, the organisation and your event well before they receive the application! 5. Planning:

Plan

the

time

to the deadline, allocate

responsibilities, don’t forget about proofreading, native check and potentially time to receive feedback from the foundation before the final deadline, aim to hand it in 1-3 days before the deadline. 6. Execute: Think, write, proofread, prepare documents, etc.

7. Submit: With a few days to spare and during office hours: formal impressions count!

A few things to keep in mind: ●

A foundation is not a private sponsor, approach them accordingly.

●

A good application is a targeted application, make sure you paint your event the colours the foundation wants to see - without ever lying though.

●

Watch your language and the terminology used in the application.

How to sell: Always present your organisation or event in a light that coincides with the aims or purposes of the foundation. Even if a foundation may not on the first look to be 100% congruent with your organisation’s aims, there usually still is at least a residual area where activities overlap. The important thing is to remain adaptable and open, but also not make any unattainable promises!

Public funding It is useful to devote a separate part of the Organising Team to research different governmental agencies which often provide funding for organisations that have a beneficial public impact. Note however that this support often comes with a set of conditions, and the money may be attached for one special use (travel, sustainability, etc.).

In-kind An important part of keeping your budget in check and support your event is through getting the materials or food you will need directly from the suppliers. The first step is to brainstorm what your actual needs are, the estimated quantities and which companies could provide them for you:

Then, following a basic task management in line with the other fundraising efforts makes sense. Your in-kind requests should though be timed closer to the actual event, since large deliveries will be made and it is easier to be able to store it at your venues where the material will be needed. Also, always ask for money first: When they turn you down, you will at least already have a foot in the door and they will be more willing to provide you with their own materials or food - after all, it is very direct advertising!

Follow-up and reporting Just like with any partner of your project, it is important that your financial and in-kind partners keep hearing from you. Sending them a thank-you letter or email (possibly along with any products of your event, e.g. Resolution Booklet, Media, etc.) is not only a nice thing to do, but very important if you are looking to secure long-term partnerships or have similar follow-up projects that will also need support. Foundations often have very detailed reporting processes. Make sure that right when you get support that is attached to certain conditions, including reporting, you list all those obligations in the same place so as to keep an overview of deadlines and workload.

Drafting a programme When to start building your programme The programme of a session is nothing more than a long series of decisions that will slowly need to be taken in the months before the event. Everything needs to be decided: When does event X start? When does it end? Where it will take place? Who will be in charge of it? Do not leave all these decisions to the two weeks before the session

or the last organising weekend before the session. It is good to have an unspecific preliminary programme already a year before the event or earlier, if your current progress permits. Exact times can be decided three months before, they can of course then be changed, but do not leave everything to the last minute. The early bird catches the worm.

The Masterplan A Masterplan is a document in which you collect all the important information for the functioning of the session programme. There are

many formats for this, and each event has very different types of 22

Masterplans, but ideally, this is some sort of table that collect the following entries: ●

●

What element is happening? ○

A coffee break

○

A transfer

○

Committee dinners

○

etc.

When does it start? ○

This is not the starting time which is communicated to the participants, but the actual starting time

●

When does it end? ○

Realistically estimate the length of each element, in case you are unsure it is better to estimate too much time than too little

●

Where is the element taking place? ○

Be precise, note the location down, as specifically as the room in which you are doing this

●

Who is in charge of the element? ○

Who will set up the coffee break, who stays there to fill up things, who leads the transfer, etc.

Masterplans are mostly meant for organisers — they serve as a central database on the programme of the session, but at the same time should be easily consultable whenever somebody has doubts about anything. Consider printing the Masterplan for every organiser, of course a digital version is also useful but do not underestimate barriers to the internet. Encourage all organisers to have the Masterplan with them at all times, maybe by providing them a nice booklet in which they can keep it. “A Masterplan allows every other organiser, at any moment, to know who is doing what, where and at what time.”

Tips for the Masterplan Many Head Organisers write the Masterplan on their own a few moments before the session. This can lead to infinite complications during the session. If a masterplan is poorly planned or communication it will actually lead to more chaos within the orga team. Instead, consider having an organiser (the Masterplanner), who is specifically in charge of monitoring the Masterplan process, starting to work on it a long time before the session. Also consider having your Masterplan available on a file sharing platform like Google Drive, before and during the session. Do not forget to make the Masterplan available not only for the Organising Team but the entire officials’ team. This allows everybody to access the document whenever they need any piece of information and post comments if they spot incongruencies. In Laax, we had moments in which each day of the programme had at least a five comments every week, which was a lot of work but really helped us define all the fundamental details of the session. In the end, the Masterplan should serve as a centralised database, use it to the fullest extent as it is the only tool to efficiently coordinate your organising team.. Update the Masterplan together during organisers’ weekends, such as the allocation of organisers or important dilemmas. This might take a lot of time — organisers allocation can easily take five hours or more — but it really pays off, as every organiser gets the full grasp of the project. Think of it this way: If your organisers are aware that a specific moment of the session will be most stressful then they will be more proactive during such moments. Try to get external feedback on your Masterplan, experienced alumni will be happy to give a fresh perspective. Feel free to consult Masterplans of previous International Sessions, which are available on the member platform or on request. “A Masterplan is like a battle plan, your troops need to be well coordinated for the battle to be won.” 24

Structuring a session Only a few other things are as fundamental and necessary for a session programme like a proper structure. For International Sessions, there are many suggestions for structures, which can be found in the guide on organising an international session.

International Sessions are slowly gaining more freedom in regards to the session structure. While some smaller sessions have already started to incorporate new ideas like two shorter General Assemblies, balancing the time between General Assembly and Committee Work. There is no one right way to structure your session — while you of course need the basic elements, be ready to innovate. When it comes to our experience in Laax, there are a few lessons which we learned and would like to share here: ●

Having the organisers’ programme begin earlier really pays off. Have organisers arrive one, two or even three days before the first other officials. These days do not have to be very structured but are very useful for distributing the numerous on-site preparation tasks to come.

●

Goodie bags creation: This can be an exhausting and unpopular process, however, there are methods to make this fun and efficient. We structured the system like a factory, where some organisers were in charge of specific items while others would run with open bags across the stations, having the item-specific organisers drop the goodies into the bags.

●

Aperos and standing dinners are always classy touches to sessions; however, they tend to be low on food, so make sure that nobody walks away hungry.

●

Especially during the first days of the session it really pays off to have some organisers stay in the lobby of the delegates’ sleeping venue, even if there is nothing going on. Delegates will have a lot of questions and will not hesitate to come up if organisers are clearly visible. This is also the perfect place for a centralised lost&found. 25

●

Check-in should not be underestimated and requires a considerable number of organisers working around the clock. To avoid bottlenecks, we recommend to have no fixed order of desks but rather a system which allows people to go to whichever desk is free at the moment. You can find an example of this in the Annex.

●

Do not fill in your programme too much. Especially with large officials’ teams it often happens that everybody wants to have their special project where they need all participants for a certain amount of time. This is of course admirable, but needs to be balanced with at least nine hours of time that people should have at their disposal (nine hours between the moment they arrive in their rooms at the end of the day and the moment breakfast begins). Also, at an International Session, Committee Work should last a minimum of 15 hours and we recommend to plan 50 minutes per GA debate.

●

Should your session take place in a small town, consider opening up events to the general public. This fits very well with the values of the EYP and is often appreciated by sponsors and press.

●

Chairs appreciate their coffee breaks most when they are flexible within a long period of time. If you have the resources, make your coffee breaks long and flexible. Try to get solid boxes or possibly even carts to transport big quantities of material. Your venue probably has some of them if you ask.

●

Often sessions feature some people who, regardless of the exhaustion, still want to wake up early to do sports. We implemented a completely optional schedule for morning sports. Each morning featured a different activity run by an official. We can highly recommend it (e.g. pilates, jogging, just dance), it is both free and fun.

●

Sleeping shifts are the most productive thing that you can organise for your team. Have sleeping shifts that allow as many organisers as possible to sleep each morning, some people really need to be encouraged to sleep by being assigned, there is no reason for all organisers to have to wake up each morning. Actually we recommend having only the amount of organisers needed for things to run right wake up in the mornings.

●

Fully use the multimedia tools that your venue has. Usually communication to the delegates is difficult and has to go through

the

Chairpersons.

However

case

your

accommodation has TV screens or projectors you can use them to give out information or in case it has free wifi you can set up a platform for updated briefings. ●

Organiser´s meetings can be incredibly inefficient if not coordinated properly. Set yourself strict time limits for your meetings, anything above an hour and a half will inevitably become stressful and unproductive. If any topics do not require the presence of all organisers to be discussed then absolutely arrange separate meetings for the relevant organisers. Also, do not, unless absolutely needed because of an extremely busy day, schedule orga meeting late in the evening.

●

We can recommend a new evening event for the EYP community: the Ideas, Opportunity and Impact Fair (IOIF). This is an evening where youth workers, NGOs and members of any interesting organisation are invited for an evening that is structured like a Job Fair and is used to get to know each other in an unstructured manner. The idea is to bring the EYP out of its bubble and make our participants interact with and be inspired by other interesting actors. This needs a lot of coordination before and after the event, but plays really well with sponsors.

●

We can recommend another new evening event for the EYP community: The torch hike. If you are somewhere close to a beautiful night view an evening spent hiking with torches with your committee (or officials’ group) can be a great way to bond. Be aware though of safety regulations and have each organiser equipped with a flashlight, a map and a bottle of water.

●

End of GA is always one of the most chaotic moments of a session. While each committee will want to have their moment of about 30 minutes, officials’ teams too will want to have a conclusive meeting. We recommend scheduling 45 minutes of buffer and emotional time at the end of GA before the next event or transport.

Division of Roles A good division of roles is clue for a healthy and functioning Organising Team. An efficient division allows the Head Organiser to really shift towards being more of a management and representation figure and allows the organising experience to be truly educational, by allowing people to take personal responsibility of important tasks. For a large session we recommend three levels of divisions: Division of roles at an early stage, specific roles during the session and division of roles across evening events.

Division of roles at an early stage At the early beginning of the organisation there is no need for an officials support organiser or someone coordinating the teacher’s programme. What is instead needed is a team looking for Venues & Transportation, some people that are willing to coordinate fundraising and finances and a few individuals that will handle early PR and IT. While one team should do fundraising coordination everybody should contribute to the fundraising process (including international organisers according to their capabilities). We recommend, however, to keep the structure simple to begin with; three or four small teams at most. As the session draws closer, people will start to naturally specialise and figure out what they enjoy most in an organisation, and at this point we suggest moving into specific roles.

Specific roles before and during the session A number of months before the session, the basic organisation and the minimum budget will hopefully be secured. What we recommend is at this point is to segment the Organising Team into “specific roles”, each carrying one or two people, who specialise in their different competences. It is important that this is done soon enough before the session and that everybody (including other officials) is aware of each organiser’s role. This, from ample experience, really allows people to 29

take responsibility, feel connected and passionate about the project. We recommend discussing and assigning roles all together during an organiser’s meeting. Communication may become a problem, but that can be tackled with a set of project management tools (e.g. Podio, Mattermost, Slack, Trello), with regular skype calls featuring the whole team and with a lot of unstructured working time during organising meetings. We feel that while having specific roles will definitely take effort and time to keep each other updated, it is a necessary choice to give your organisers an enjoyable and enriching experience. You can find the roles we decided to implement for our specific session listed below with their names (feel free to contact them if you wish): ●

Delegate support (Aritz Labrador, Miriam Aitken, Andong Hu, Anniken Knutsen) handled everything referring to the

delegates, communication before and after the session, coordinated

with

the

international

office

regarding

delegations, prepared daily briefings and had an overview of all the delegates. ●

Media Team Support (Michal Kolacek, Caspar Spillmann) handled all the needs and communication with the Media Team.

●

Chairs’ Support (Matthias Masini, Misa Novotna) handled all the needs and communication with the Chairs’ Team.

●

Teachers’ Support (Jakob Gutschlhofer) handled the teacher's programme, from check-in to feedback workshops. In the case of an International Session this person usually works in close cooperation with someone from the International Office.

●

VIP & Guests (Lars Kieni, Tamta Tsveraidze) handled all

committee experts, speakers, patrons and all externals coming to the session. ●

IT & Tech (Lucius Miller, Jakub Roślewski) supported all teams with all relevant software and hardware issues, formatted every document, and were in charge of the websites and printing.

●

Finance & Accounting (Riccardo Passarella) handled all financial and legal needs of the event including insurance, liquidity planning and budgeting.

●

Press & PR (Gioia Bomatter) handled all media output for radio, television and newspapers as well as printing and multilingual press releases.

●

Internal Coordination (Tom Wolfskämpf) was a particular role we invented for the session. Tom handled our personalised communication platform both for delegates and officials as well as always striving to make communication and other processes more efficient.

●

Event Management (Seraina Petersen) was in charge of all

venue related concerns as well as keeping track of the needs and progress of all event organisers. ●

Food & Beverages (Cécile Schluep, Allegra Margelisch) were in charge of contact with caterers, making sure special food needs are respected, managing our food stash and coming up with a balanced food plan for the session.

●

Transport & Travel (Kate Gurevich, Angela von Ballmoos) were in charge of both travel to the session and transportation within the session.

●

Masterplanning (Manfredi Danielis) was a role we invented for

the session. Manfredi was in charge of drafting the programme, making sure that the Masterplan was reasonable and coordinating the workflow of organisers. ●

Stashmistress (Laura Ahlborn) was also a role we invented for

the session. This person had an overview of all session materials, was in charge of the procurement process and the organisation of the organisers’ room and storage room.

●

Well-being & Fun (Tarik Lazouni) was another role we invented for the session. Tarik was in charge of checking up on the personal well-being of all officials, coordination with the medic and for example arranging the music in all necessary moments.

●

Theme Implementation (Mahaut Estier) was a role specific to the theme. Mahaut was in charge of coordinating many specific projects related to our theme, communicating with a wide range of external stakeholders and drafting the sustainability guide.

Division of roles across evening events In addition to the specific roles, when it comes to evening activities we adopted a system of event-HOs. Each evening event had its own separate Head Organiser, who was helped by a small team of organisers assigned to the event. Most evening events had their own (informal) budget, their own media output, their own VIPs and even their own sponsors, all drawn up in a separate event concept. We can, especially for longer sessions really recommend this system of event-HOs as it really provides individuals with a satisfying feeling and to shape the session according by adding a very personal touch to each evening event.

Selecting venues Finding venues: Where to look Usually you will have a local on your team, able to provide you with a selection of popular and suitable venues in your city. However, in various cases, such as a session in a big city where knowing all the options is impossible, will require you to brainstorm for the best solutions. Laax 2016 provides a great example of what can be done remotely as the session took place in a village up in the Swiss Alps and the Organising Team did not have a person from the region.

The City and Region Fact is, cities, regions or parts of the cities will mostly want you to

organise your event in the area and will most probably already have guides on organising conferences or fairs and and various other middle and large scale events. These guides will contain information on catering, travel information, venues, etc. For the venues, you will then find a description of every room the place has to offer as well as the amount of people according to the preferred set up. Below you can find an example of the venue which was used for Opening Ceremony for Laax 2016.

Depending on the programme element you planned to carry out in the venue, you will select a different setting. While formal events such Opening Ceremony or General Assembly usually require the theatre setting (although alternative GA settings, such as committees sitting around two tables have also proven to be a success), parties will require either a cocktail or a party setting. Make use of the documents provided by the city as it saves you a lot of time.

Additionally, most cities and regions have a tourist information service.

These have a lot of knowledge on the city and the area and possibly some experience with organising events. Since gathering people from the whole country and possibly whole Europe is also in the interest of the tourism office, they will be motivated to help finding the best venue options. Larger cities or cities famous for organising fairs and conventions will also have a convention organising service, which will not only provide you with information on how to organise an event in the city, but will

also offer various services. In some cases these services will not be for free, but asking never hurts.

Good old internet As trivial as this brainstorming solution is, the power of internet should not be underestimated. In most cases, cities or countries will have a search engine, which will allow you to select suitable venues according to different criteria. Below, you will find an example for the city of Basel.

As you can see, you can select from different criteria, such as the location (wo = where). In this case, the area of Basel was divided into

different sub-areas. Next, you can decide whether you would like to eliminate some areas, which would especially make sense in a larger city. The second criteria is “what”. You can choose what you want - a room,

an auditorium, a sports hall, etc. Make sure to on the one hand add all the suitable venue kinds but on the other hand to also be realistic and save yourself some work. After all, there is no point in adding “sports hall” as a possible GA venue for an International Session if you will not go with the option anyways. This website also gives you the option of choosing the size of the

room, which is another criteria you want to think about. Should you choose a venue which is ‘just right’ size-wise or one where you will have loads of space and could fit another three sessions in? The correct answer lies in your programme and the expectations and plans you have for the venues. If your GA venue is also where you will have lunch, dinner, play various games and so on, do not get one room which can just fit the number of participants your session has. On the other hand, if you are planning a party, do not get an empty event room which can fit 1000+ people, as people like to be close to each other when partying. Last but not least, what do you need the venue for? This section will

help you create the appropriate atmosphere for your event. However, it does not know that there is no limit to creativity in the EYP. Thus, make sure not to be too restrictive in this section. You might be wondering why we added a random website, which only applies to one city and is also in a language only few of us understand. There are two reasons for this. First of all, as mentioned, other cities are likely to have similar website. Sometimes, there are even country-wide databases you can use. Secondly, these questions are a very good example of what you could ask yourself when looking for a venue. 35

Appropriate venues for various session elements The general framework could and should be minimizing the amount of different venues you use. If you are accommodated in one venue, have Committee Work in another venue, the evening programme in the third venue and eat your meals somewhere completely else, you are likely to end up having a lot of organisational trouble as you will require various materials in all of those venues and will have to set those up and clean them. The example of Laax 2016 is a very good one as the number of different venues was minimised to three. One the one hand, the WAG (Weisse Arena Gruppe - our main partner) grounds were used for most of the session elements, La Fermata was used for Opening Ceremony and the Theater Chur was used for Euroconcert. The fact that transfers were minimised to a minimal amount contributed to time-efficiency and productivity of the session as delegates could get up and walk directly to Committee Work, lunch was just 30 meters away and putting on warm clothes for the evening programme was easily arrangeable. However, the willingness to save energy and money should not be prioritised. Rather, the different venues should be suitable for the needs of the teams. For Teambuilding, a large area such as a park is perfect for a nice day, Committee Work is usually done in classrooms and General Assembly in larger auditoriums.

Gathering information Gathering information about the various venues is the most crucial part of the work. If you have an overview with all the information about the venue, you will be able to make an informed decision. Some information can be found online, but you are likely to have to contact the venue in order to gather all the necessary information. Both calling and writing emails have their advantages and disadvantages. While emails allow you to ask all your questions and receive an elaborate answer, you might have to wait for some time until you 36

receive it. On the other hand, you might not be able to get all the information you need by phone. Thus, when organising sessions, mixing these two options makes sense. The first contact can be established by phone, where you explain what you are looking for and ask whether they would be available in general and would be able to answer your questions. This saves you a lot of time with writing an email in case the venue is already booked out for the dates. The next stage would then be writing an email asking for all the information you need, such as suitability for the session programme element you have in mind, availability for the dates, price, etc. Have a template email prepared so you can adapt it for every venue you approach. Here is an idea of how you can structure your email: “Dear Mr or Mrs x, Thank you for the phone call earlier today. I am now sending you all the necessary information. First of all, I would like to quickly introduce the European Youth Parliament (EYP) to you. The EYP is a politically neutral platform run by young people from all over Europe. We offer the possibility for young people to engage in political discussions and exchange their ideas on how the future of Europe should look like. An important element of our events is also intercultural exchange as well as the development of personal skills. The EYP is active in 41 countries, including {your country}. {Depending on which country you are from, you can add a sentence on how EYP is not directly connected to the EU.} It is a privilege for us to be able to organise the International Session in spring/summer/autumn {year}. This is a very special event, as it only takes place three times a year and assembles young people from all over Europe. The session will include various elements, such as a so-called Euroconcert, a concert where participants can show their talents, and a General Assembly, where all the work of participants will be discussed and other participants can contribute to the generated ideas. These are the two events we would be interested in carrying out at your venue. 37

Euroconcert will take place on the xx.xx.xxxx in the evening and General Assembly will be on the xx-xx.xx.xxxx. For both events, we would require seats for 350 people, facing the stage, as well as some technical equipment. I would be very happy if you could answer the following questions: ●

Do you have the possibility of hosting events in the format described above?

●

What technical equipment does your venue have?

●

How well is it connected to public transportation? Is there a possibility for busses to park directly in front of the venue?

●

How much would the venue cost?

Should you need any further information about the event or the organisation as a whole, feel free to contact me anytime. I am looking forward to your answer. Kind regards, xx”

Negotiating the price Negotiating the price for various things is a big part of the organising process as it can help you cut your costs tremendously and is thus an important counterpart to fundraising. Here are some ways of making venues agree on a smaller price: ● ●

Pointing out we are a youth organisation.

All of our work is voluntary and supported by various sponsors. Also feel free to tell what kind of sponsors support your session if you think it can benefit the negotiation.

●

Research and set an anchor price. Doing your research is crucial. Venues often have prices written on their website. When proposing a price to the venue, you can use the sentence “as a voluntary organisation, we are used to paying around xx for a venue”. The sum you indicate serves as an anchor price for

the host. The end price will thus possibly be somewhere between your proposed price and their final price.

●

Try to get the venue in-kind sponsored. If the venue belongs to the city or a public institution, you can try to get the venue for

free as a kind of sponsorship. Make sure to list the advantages for the venue, for example them appearing in the list of sponsors, and adapt your reasoning to the venue in question. For example if the venue has something to do with the EU, rather focus on how your discussions are relevant to the EU. Of course, not all venues will be ready to negotiate the price with you, but it is definitely worth a try.

Covering all the bases While some things, such as chairs and technical equipment, are quite obvious, other things get easily forgotten. Below, you will find some things you should not forget about. ●

Garbage. Regardless of how sustainable a session is, events often produce a big amount of garbage. Make sure to get information on how garbage is handled at the venue and to make recycling stations for paper and bottles in case the venue does not have those.

●

Cleaning. The cleaning arrangements is something that should

be discussed while negotiating the price, as it is often either not included in the venue rent or has to be paid extra. ●

Coffee Break place. Regardless of the event, some of the best traditions of EYP, such as Coffee Break, are always present.

Thus, you should think of where you can set up tables, food, etc. You will also most probably need at least one socket. ●

Plates, Cutlery, Fridge and a Sink. In case you are planning to have at least one meal at the venue, make sure you either get all the necessary equipment from the catering company or the venue itself.

●

Disability access. There is always a chance that you will have

participants with disabilities. In order to ensure their inclusion, for example make sure that all venues are easily accessible in a wheelchair.

●

The importance of thank you notes. Everybody likes to be thanked. Write an email to the venue thanking them for providing such a suitable place for your event.

Managing transportation Gathering information It is important to know all the options you have when it comes to transportation in your city or in general your country. Similar to selecting venues, spreadsheets can prove to be very helpful. The main points you will want to investigate will be price, convenience as well as sustainability. Do not be afraid to contact transportation companies and ask for the price at which they could provide their services. Your main thing to decide will be when to use public transportation and when to get private busses. The following criteria can help you to reach a conclusion: ●

How convenient and fast is it? Private busses are not always the smartest option, especially if your session is in a compact city with narrow streets. Private transportation or even walking can be much more comfortable in this case.

●

How expensive is it? In most countries, private busses will be more expensive than private transportation. However, in some countries such as Switzerland, the prices for public transportation are very high, making private transportation companies more attractive. Make sure to contact some companies and do not forget to mention the size of the event, as not all are able to provide busses for 300+ people. Additionally, do not forget to ask for group discounts.

●

How sustainable is it? This can be a criteria for choosing between public and private transportation. In most cases, public transportation has proven to be more sustainable.

●

When to walk. Walking between venues is probably the best

thing you can do, as it saves you costs and organisational work. However, not all routes are equally convenient for walking. Make sure to walk the route before you decide that it is possible to manage by foot and brief the organisers doing the transfers accordingly. Each transfer should have a leader,

optionally marked with a safety vest, and at least two organisers, one at the front and one at the back. Of course, most of these things can only be decided upon once you have set your venues and events in stone and not many changes are planned.

Managing logistics In order for all transfers at the session to run smoothly, they need to be thoroughly planned and listed. The most complicated parts are arrivals and departures, as most participants have different arrival or departure times.

Transportation lists A list containing all the necessary transfers throughout the session including the dates, times and numbers of people who need to be transferred can benefit both the Organising Team as well as the transportation companies. Here is an example of such a list:

Seeing that the public transportation companies in Switzerland directly assisted the Organising Team in handling big transfers, this list was created specifically for them. However, it has proven to be very helpful for the whole team as it created a nice overview of all the transportation needs and possible difficulties.

Arrivals and departures A system which has proven to be efficient when having to cover large distances for arrivals and departures is the checkpoint system. Here, 42

organisers are stationed at different checkpoints throughout the way, for example at places where participants have to change from one train to another. This way, the Organising Team has enough oversight over the situation while keeping the necessary human resources at a minimum. In case your meeting point is a station very close to your check-in venue, you might consider transferring participants in shifts, for example once an hour, or giving them very precise directions on how to get to the venue. Since participants will be asked to fill out a travel form, you will have all the necessary information to plan their arrival and departure. It is definitely beneficial to create an arrivals and departures list to see whether there are any rush hours. These lists can then also be used to plan check-in as you will have an estimate of how many people arrive at what time.

Transfers during the session In our opinion, transferring participants in committees is the most efficient and safe method, as chairpersons can help with the responsibility of ensuring all committee members are present. Additionally, it is much easier to divide 10-15 committees into several shifts rather than 300 people. In case of during-the-session transfers, communication is key. If participants know where they gather and at what time, the probability of them being there is much higher. In case you plan on having many transfers without officials, you can consider having committee organisers or fixed transfer organisers for each committee.

Cars It is recommended to have at least two cars available for a large-scale event, one for transporting materials, so a rather big one, and a smaller one for smaller shopping, transferring single participants as well as for emergencies. Make sure you know which members of the Organising Team are comfortable with driving larger cars and plan all the car travels (except for emergencies of course) ahead.

Food and Beverages People tend to underestimate the amount of work that organisers have to put into the department of food and beverages (F&B). This has to do with one basic factor: while other departments only have to deal with specific programme elements or have stressful days (delegate support has for example check-in and check-out, transport has arrivals and departures and some transfers), F&B has responsibilities throughout the whole session. Every day, three meals, as well as up to two coffee breaks have to be provided. It is therefore crucial that as much as possible is planned before the session. This will spare you a lot of stress and prevent conflicts during the session. The following chapter shall provide a basic overview of the department itself and then move on to more specific subchapters.

Basic responsibilities The department of food and beverages includes a variety of different tasks which need to be completed. There are some tasks that need to be completed before the session and some after but in general most of them will keep you occupied during the session.

Pre-session tasks ●

Come up with a meal plan for the whole session. This meal plan can and should develop later on into a food Masterplan, an example of which you can find in the picture below. For every day, every meal needs to be written down in order to get an overview and make sure that variety of the different meals is granted. Always make sure that the meals provided are diverse, satiating and healthy. It is not always the case that you have to come up with a meal plan but your caterer might come up with one himself. In that case, it is absolutely crucial for you to look over his meal suggestions and give him input if needed in order to guarantee your participants a balanced menu during the session.

●

Plan the coffee breaks. It is important to think about coffee breaks beforehand. How do you imagine your coffee breaks? Are they theme related? Are they healthy? Did you manage to get a lot of in-kind food? How can you keep the balance between sweet and savoury? What kind of coffee do you want to provide (filter, powder, beans or capsules)? Even though coffee breaks seem to be a basic thing you will have to plan many of them and people expect variety. It is therefore advised 46

to also add in a detailed plan of what you more or less want to provide at which coffee break in the food plan. Also think about participants with special dietary needs and plan enough variety for those individuals as well. ●

Draft the food Masterplan. As mentioned before, the food Masterplan will naturally evolve out of the meal plan. The food Masterplan will become your most important document during the session, just like the normal Masterplan. Things you should include in your Masterplan: ○

Date

○

Type of meal

○

Time range and any potential shifts

○

Specific programme elements (e.g. arrival of delegates, EuroVillage, gala night)

○

Venue

○

Type of food (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free options, as well as buffet, served meal, etc.)

○

Amount of people and kind of people (participants, guests, externals, etc.)

○ ●

Comment section

Work on in-kind fundraising. Most probably you will be more involved in in-kind fundraising than you think. You should not only coordinate but help out in this department especially since it concerns your interests. Try to start early with the in-kind fundraising process. We suggest starting at least three months before the session.

●

Brainstorm nutritional values. People don’t get enough sleep at EYP sessions and are usually on a constant coffee and sugar diet. It is often the case that sessions (especially during coffee breaks) provide not enough vitamin-rich food, i.e. greens, fresh vegetables and fruit. If you plan a short session this might not become that much of an issue but the longer the session gets the more the people will start realising it. Since you want to make the people as happy as possible this is an important factor to think about.

●

Make a shopping list of what needs to be bought for the session. It is very important to make a shopping list before you 47

go shopping. You don’t want to end up buying food and beverages that you will never use at the session. Along with this goes the determination of quantities (see subchapter on “Quality and quantity”). Check with the Officials’ Support the needs of the chairs or officials in general since they might need some food related articles for TB. ●

Go shopping. Preferably, you go on one gigantic shopping trip before the arrival of officials and delegates and try to buy as much as you can. However, it will be unavoidable to go shopping every few days, probably even every day especially if you want to provide a lot of fresh things. These shopping trips should however not consume much time and money.

●

Ask the participants for their dietary needs. The bigger the session the more complicated it gets. People can have the weirdest allergies and you do not want to go to the hospital with them in case of an allergic reaction. You should ask for the dietary needs in a Google Form, often this information is asked in the travel form. Ask for dietary requirements (vegetarian, vegan) and for any allergies (gluten, lactose, nuts, others). It can be the case that people have severe allergies. If this is the case, try to avoid to offer any kind of food which contains nuts all toghether - you will make your life and the life of the allergic person much easier. This information will also help you with the meal planning and the shopping list planning. Most probably, you will have to provide this information to the caterer beforehand.

●

Plan committee and delegation dinner. You should plan committee and delegation dinners as early as possible in order to ensure that you have enough spots secured. Not only is it important to have enough spots, but also to ensure that each committee has one table to themselves. We do not want them to be scattered all over one room.

●

Plan Eurovillage. Probably, you will be responsible for collecting the food for Eurovillage during check-in. Best, get tape and markers and many many bags (sometimes delegations bring their own bags but mostly you will end up with many single items). The most important thing though is 48

to ensure that there is a fridge where food and beverages can be cooled until Eurovillage is taking place. ●

Plan food shifts. Most probably you will have to plan shifts for different meals. It is best to come up with a general idea before the session and have at least the first day planned.

Session tasks ●

Keep a good overview of the stock. You should always more or less know how much food you still have left in order to plan the shopping trips in the most efficient way possible. Write down how much was eaten more or less during the first few coffee breaks to help your estimates. It is often not really possible to just leave the session because you will have also other tasks besides taking care of F&B. So going on a big spontaneous shopping trip might be difficult especially because you will need a car and driver. Plan a shopping trip every second or third day just to be on the safe side.

●

Be present for the first few meals and check whether everything works out well. This is just a process that will become very natural especially if you work together with a caterer — in the end, they are professionals. However, in case there are any questions from participants or the caterer, it is always good to be there.

●

Introduce the organisers into your coffee concept. It is always good to be at the first few coffee breaks and supervise them. Ensure that there are always enough people to prepare the coffee break, supervise it and also clean it later. Food that goes to the fridge should be stored there right after you cleaned up, etc. It might make sense to show all the organisers, who will be responsible for coffee breaks at some point during the session, where the food is stored, where they can get plates, etc. and what they need to do during the coffee break.

●

Ensure that committee and delegation dinners work out well. Since this is your responsibility, people will most probably come to you and ask questions. You will also brief the other organisers

that

will guide the committees to the 49

corresponding restaurants. During these events, you should really be available throughout the whole time in case something does not work out well. ●

Go to meetings with caterers. In general (and this concerns especially the first few days) you should always give direct feedback to the caterers. They can then still adjust things for the following days in case something did not work out. Meeting on a daily basis also allows you to plan the next day in more detail (if needed) and foster a friendly collaboration.

●

Ask people with special dietary requirements whether the food is fine for them. Not only is this a nice gesture but it is also important for you and the session itself. It can be the case that the people don’t have any options or always get the same so it is good to get some feedback and input from them. If the dietary needs of a participant are somewhat unclear to the caterer, the best idea is to coordinate a meeting, in order for the two to find a solution for the food situation.

●

Adapt the food shifts. You should have planned at least one day of shifts beforehand and then be present during the meals in order to see how everything is working out. You can then adapt them or leave them how they are and plan the following days. Best is that you make them for the whole session after the first day. Warning: Plan in enough time for this task because it can get very nerve-wracking.

After session tasks ●

Take care of the leftover food. It is really hard to plan how much food will actually be used for the session and usually the last few coffee breaks are the ones where you just give out everything that is left. However, you will probably still have many leftovers. The best way to take care of those is to have the organisers and maybe even officials take everything they want back home and send everything that remains to charity in the surrounding.

●

Write follow-up letters or emails. You will have to thank the caterer and in-kind sponsors for their contribution. This is also a nice way to ask whether they are interested in a long-term partnership.

●

Update the databases. In case you contacted many in-kind sponsors, also ensure that the sponsor database of your NC is up to date.

How to plan shifts ●

Be fair. Don’t let one committee always have breakfast at 7:00 and another one at 9:00.

●

Communicate. Chairs will be the main communication tool that you have to the committees so make sure that they always have the latest information and know where to go. It is also good to project the shifts somewhere all delegates will eventually pass by. Additionally, make sure the caterer is also informed about the times of the shifts. It might also make sense to not print the entire Masterplan with the times at the beginning of the session but to print it daily because the shifts allocation as well as the times can still change.

●

Be open for changes. It might be that you made a mistake and have to change all the shifts - not great, but mistakes can happen. Just adjust the shifts as quickly as possible and don’t forget to inform the responsible people about the changes. It is a good idea to keep one document where all the changes are made and that is clear to everyone that that very document is the latest version. In that case, this also helps other teams within the Organising Team (delegate support, media team support and chairs’ support) to communicate the latest and correct information.

How to plan committee and delegation dinners Depending on the programme of the session, you will have to plan committee and at longer sessions even delegation dinners. Committee dinners are usually rather in the early days of a session since their purpose is to make delegates, chair and journo (sometimes even committee organiser) bond. Delegation dinners are usually later and bring together delegates and their chaperones or teachers in order to exchange their experiences. Even though this might seem like an easy task because for once you don’t need to take care of the menu and caterer, there are several important things that should not be forgotten. 1.

Get an overview of who will participate and write it down. How many delegates are in a committee? Do you have co-chairs? Will the Journalist also participate? Does the session have committee organisers? How many delegates are in a delegation? Does the delegation have a chaperone? Is the chaperone responsible for more than one delegation?

2. Get an overview of all the restaurants close to your accommodation or Teambuilding or Committee Work venue. Bear in mind that especially at international events, people come from all across Europe and are used to certain prices for a meal. It might be a good idea to ask in the restaurants for special offers or an already given menu (however, do not forget about the dietary needs). Also, make sure that they have enough space and enough big tables for a big group. 3. As early as possible, phone preferably as many restaurants as you have committees. Tell them how many people will come but also stress the fact that they should all sit together at a table - it might seem logical to us but it is not for the restaurant. 4. Plan who will guide the committees or delegations to the restaurant and plan enough time for the transfer back and forth. Often, there will be programme after dinner. Also, this is a typical example for cooperation between the different departments since you will need to work together with 52

transportation here. Should you need to use any transportation, make sure to inform the responsible organisers as early as possible, since it might not be that easy to organise transfers last-minute. 5. About one or two days before the dinners will take place, call the restaurants again and reconfirm the reservation. Nothing is worse than a delegation that does not have a spot to eat. 6. Do not forget about the people that are left over. This usually includes the board of the session, guests plus remaining organisers. For committee dinners, you also have to plan something for the chaperones and for delegation dinners for the whole officials team. 7. Provide the people that guide the committees or delegations with the necessary information. What is the exact name and address of the restaurant? Which committee will eat where? On what name is the reservation? How did you plan the transfers? etc. A good way to pass on this information is during a short briefing or orga meeting.

Working with a caterer You will have to work together with professionals so there is one main rule: stay professional. Be prepared for the meetings, be determined and know what you want. Make sure to try and stand your ground and not give in too quickly. Also, they usually tend to underestimate our work and that we are willing to help in every context so make use of this fact. It is important to give and get constant feedback in order to ensure a healthy work environment.

Communicate with the other organisers Whenever a F&B related question will appear in the team, people will come to you. So it is important that at least always one person is available in any case of urgent matters. Especially when it comes to shifts, it is useful that you let them be checked by other organisers. Often, you will have to pass information on (e.g. to Masterplan, Officials’ Support, Transfers). Make sure that you always give the 53

correct and latest information and double-check. Nothing is more unprofessional if you have to change things in the last minute and people notice that there is a mistake. In order to minimize the danger of inconsistent information is to create a document which is used for all communication channels with the latest information.

Don’t forget about beverages As the name suggests, you are not only responsible for food but also for beverages. This means that you need to make sure that participants stay hydrated throughout the session. Depending on the location of your session, you can be lucky and one can drink tap water which makes your job a lot easier. If there is no direct access to water because e.g. team building is taking place outside, you should think of providing big bottles of water or water gallons. In out event we were lucky to have sponsored sigg-bottles, this was very useful because the participants were always carrying their bottles around and drinking a lot. Dehydration can be a recurring problem in EYP so you need to ensure that your participants drink sufficiently.

The alcohol question The question of whether and how much alcohol is allowed really depends on the National Committee, the International Office and also the law in your country. You should never encourage alcohol consumption but also be aware that it will happen nevertheless. It is therefore a wrong approach to be super strict about it and try to prohibit it completely. If you can and if it is allowed, you can offer alcoholic beverages (usually up to 15%) at the parties, Eurovillage, Opening Ceremony or any other special events such as Gala Nights. Usually, either somebody from the board of your NC or a representative from the International Office will help you to deal with difficulties concerning delegates with excessive alcohol consumption.

Quality and quantity Probably the most complex task of a F&B team is calculating the quantities of the food. Either you buy too much or too little and in general it also depends on external circumstances such as the activities that were planned on that day, whether it is cold outside, etc. Food calculation usually concerns the coffee breaks, you should very much avoid having to make food calculations for the main meals and leave this to your caterer. It is always a good idea to start with a general calculation and then offer the food you planned with at one coffee break. You will quickly see whether more is needed or whether you have many leftovers. The first day should give you a good benchmark on how much is needed for the following days. However, make sure that you don’t buy too much in the beginning because there is always the possibility to buy more later. Pay special care not to buy fresh produce in bulk. Fresh food can become stale or rot quite quickly so don’t buy too much of those products.

Number of F&B team members Food is essential for our well-being. It also very much defines our moods and influences our productivity levels. Therefore, because it is quite an important part of a session, we find that two people should at least be responsible for this department. For an IS or an IF, it might arguably be good to have more than two.

Guest and Externals Management Inviting Externals Firstly, it is important to brainstorm the externals you would like to invite. Do not be afraid to think big: Do not be afraid to approach high-ranking officials, ministers, etc. and tell them about your session. If you do not ask, the answer will be “no” anyways. When writing to them, make sure to explicitly explain: ●

Who you are: What is the EYP? What information about your session?

●

Why do you think they fit the session? What would be the benefit of you having them present? Why them and not somebody else?

●

What do you want from them? ○

If you want them to hold a speech, when and in which frame would that be?

○

If you want them to be a patron, what obligations for them would that come with?

○

If you want them to be an expert, how would they be involved exactly?

Ask yourself whether it would be more appropriate to send a printed letter or an email. With experts we have only been in touch by email. For patrons, however, it has proven to make a better impression if you approach them first with a printed letter. You have to transmit very much information. Still, try to keep the email or letter as short as possible: not longer than two A4 pages. We had one case where somebody replied to the email, saying that it was “too long to read” and asking for a short version.

Briefing your speakers As the session is drawing closer, you will have to send a briefing to your guests to give them the necessary information so they can prepare for their role and know what is going on. You can find an example in the annex which we sent to the foreign minister of Switzerland. Make sure to at least include the following information when approaching speakers: ●

Again, explanation: Give a short explanation what the EYP is and what this session is all about.

●

Meeting time and location: Make sure to tell them where to be

when. Let them know that you will welcome them there and will be at their disposal throughout their presence. ●

A rough schedule of the event: Comparable to a Masterplan, give

as much information about the procedure of this event as possible. When does the event start, where is it taking place, who holds a speech and in which order, what happens after the event? ●

Other speakers: who else will hold a speech and in which order? Who are those speakers? Indicate times if possible.

●

Other present VIPs or guests: Are there other guests or VIPs around that this person should be aware of?

●

Journalists: Inform them that your Media Team will take pictures, inform them if you also have external Journalists. For speakers it is usually more comfortable to have no external Journalists around, so they can also speak a bit more off the record.

●

Audience: How many people will be present? Who will those people be?

●

Setting: How will the room look like? Will there be a speaker’s desk? How long will the speech be?

●

Speech: If you want, you can give a few suggestions what would be good topics to hold the speech about; what do the participants want to hear?

●

Contact: Designate one person who is responsible for this speaker and include their contact details in case of questions.

Briefing your committee experts The experts’ briefing should be sent out earlier, several weeks before the session actually takes place. This allows for them to coordinate with the Chairperson on the content and the exact setting of their intervention. ●

Explanation: Give a short explanation what the EYP is and what this session is all about.

●

Meeting time and location: Make sure to tell them where to be when and let them know that you will welcome them there and that you will be always at their disposal during their presence. Also say how much time is planned for this element.

●

Setting: At which point of the session will their intervention

take place? Also make sure to explain what Committee Work is. ●

Audience: The committee will consist of some delegates and one or two Chairpersons. At which level of knowledge will the delegates be?

●

Content: What will the expert be expected to talk about? Tell them the committee topic. At this point, we asked the Chairpersons to give 2-3 guiding questions which would be debated.

●

Structure: How will the expert talk be structured? Normally, there is a round of introductions first, followed by a presentation of what the committee has already worked on and accomplished. Afterwards, the format is pretty much what you want it to be.

●

Contact: Give them the contact data of the Chairperson and declare that you are at their disposal for organisational questions, but that the Chairperson will be responsible for the academic part.

Sending out the briefing is also a good opportunity to direct a few questions to your guest: ●

How and when will they arrive? Do they need a parking spot?

●

For speakers: Do they need to leave early?

●

If you are speaking to a personal assistant or secretary of your speaker, ask them openly if there is something else you should be aware of. They might tell you something personal about your speaker which makes it easier for you to make them feel comfortable.

Handling guests at the session ●

Be sure to be at the meeting point five minutes before the meeting time.

●

Welcome them cordially, but professionally. Thank them for coming.

●

Make them feel welcome and important.

●

If you have waiting times, engage in small talk. Prepare for yourself a few talking points in advance.

●

Guide them around, either on the shortest possible way, or give them a tour around the session if they wish so.

●

During their speech or expert talk, offer them something to drink. Most likely, they would like to have some water.

●

Let them know that you are always there for them, but then keep yourself discreetly in the background, e.g. when they talk to other people.

●

When they are about to leave, thank them again for coming and accompany them to the exit.

Thanking guests after the session A few weeks after the session, it is a nice gesture to send them a final thank you card. ●

Do not make it too long, just say that you valued their involvement and that you think that they have made an impact. You can even mention that you as the organisers received good feedback on their performance.

●

For a committee expert, you could even add the resolution booklet and encourage them to have a look at the final output of their committee.

●

In Laax, we also included a group photo (for speakers) or a committee photo (for experts). If you want to do this, instruct the Media Team to make sure to take one group photo of every committee which gives a professional, but friendly impression and can be used for such an occasion.

Press & PR Getting started with Press & PR It all starts with a clear vision and a planned approach with a realistic timeline. This helps to plan out the rather long time span leading up to a big event. An official facebook page and a well organised website with a press section are important tools in order to ensure a clear and appealing picture to the outside. It is important to keep in mind that everything that gets uploaded on your website or facebook page is accessible to not only your sponsors, partners and patrons but also the public and the press. So being consistent with the format and language you use in posts and all documents you use for your PR work helps you to seem professional and well organised.

Tools and materials Sending out press releases is crucial if you want to get the media’s attention. Use as many personal connections as you possibly can and if you have an up to date media database of previous sessions in your organisation, use the contacts of people and media outlets who have reported about your events before. In our case we translated the press releases in the three most important languages for Switzerland: German, French and Italian. This increases the reach greatly and we would recommend to take this extra amount of work upon yourself if your country features multiple national languages. We used an adapted version of the fundraising dossier we used for foundations and corporate fundraising. We added a section with inspiration on what kind of reports could be published and it also contained the other parts like programme, venues, who support us, what EYP is all about and why our particular session is especially interesting. We sent along these press dossiers with the press releases

and referred to it in the accompanying email. Also with the dossiers we made to sure to have them in the three different languages. It makes sense to upload all your materials on the website in the press section, so it is accessible to anyone who is interested and in need of information. It is also advisable to include the contact details of the organiser responsible for press. In summary, you need: ●

updated website

●

active facebook page

●

updated media database

●

press dossier with all important information

●

strategy

Strategy We approached the media in different ways: sending out press releases (read more about that below) or attaching our press dossier. The second one was approaching the press in the region from which organisers or other officials live. So we sent the press release, the dossier and a simple PDF with pictures and a bit of information of the people living in this area. The reason why this works is that a newspaper that is read in a certain town (for instance the Zürcher Tagblatt), journalists look for a connection of an event with their city. So they are automatically more interested in the event if there is a person who is involved in the project living in the city. We of course wanted the attention of the big national press but we also focused our energy on the local press, as they are interested that an international event is taking place in the region. This proved to be true as we got very extensive coverage in the local press around Laax. So this is definitely a strategy worth pursuing as well.

An additional idea is to contact universities of applied sciences who offer a major in journalism or something similar. We had a group of students in Laax who created an amazing website with portraits of some delegates. They did this as a project for one of their courses.

Press releases We sent out three press releases in total. One general version with the announcement, that the session is going to happen and with a very general outline of what an International Session is, what the theme is, where it happens and who supports it. If you have a well known patron make sure to include them in the press release, as this gets the press’ attention. If you have a quote by him or her about the EYP or your session, definitely include this as well or even ask for one specifically. Generally make sure that your press release is very current and only write something that will happen in the future as the press doesn’t care much about something that already happened. This is why we sent out the second press release on the day the session officially started, announcing again that our patron would speak at the Opening Ceremony and trying to attract the journalists like this. The third release we sent out after the session stating that the session was a success. As expected this one didn’t catch a lot of attention anymore. Generally what was visible is that word suddenly spread very fast and we got a lot of calls at the same time and only very shortly before the session and during the session. Apparently a lot of media outlets only heard about our event quite last minute although we did send out the press releases to them as well. This just shows how quickly a press release is lost somewhere in the many emails and that it never hurts to follow up by phone or send something again in the hope to catch the attention the second time around.

Also what I observed is that as soon as an important newspaper or channel picks up on your event other media outlets learn about the event from this and then follow up with you.

What the press is looking for In our experience we worry a lot about showing all the special features of our session as we are very proud of them. The truth is though that usually the reports about the session are rather general about what EYP is about what an International Session is. Only if the journalists visited the session more than once they dove more into the details of the session. So prepare to be saying the same things over and over again. What mixes up media reports very nicely are interviews with participants. Sending emails to delegates before the session asking who is interested to give interviews gives you a pool of potential people and you can then send the journalists to visit their committees. Always make sure to ask the chair for permission first, there are some times that are not suitable for external people and this should be respected at all times. Sometimes it is not necessary to organise participants for interviews in advance as the journalists are used to finding their way around an event and can also approach the people on their own during coffee breaks if they only have short questions.

At the session We underestimated the amount of time the role of Press & PR would take in the last week before and during the session. Our experience was that if you wanted to be flexible in the times in which journalists could visit the session, at least one organiser had to be available at all times. This made it really difficult to deal with other obligations. Being allocated to various tasks like coffee break in the masterplan plus receiving three journalists at the same time and guiding them around 64

the venues and making sure they get the footage and information they want proved to be stressful and not feasible. If there is a lot of interest in your session, make sure you have one person who is entirely dedicated to dealing with the press and at least one additional person who can be of assistance if many journalists want to visit the session at the same time. It is possible to help out spontaneously or even head-organise an event parallel to this role but it doesn’t make sense to be allocated to the everyday session tasks in advance as this will only cause chaos if you are unable to make it and the task has to be reallocated.

Additional tips and tricks Before the session it is advisable to have a small database with EYP pictures. There is an EYP archive on the member platform that you can use with representative pictures. For articles that are published prior to the session this is appreciated a lot by the journalists as a picture makes an article look more appealing and is an eye catcher. If you are ready you do not have to spend finding pictures within a short time frame. At the session it is good to have some USB sticks with you with pictures of the session taken by the Media Team and additional materials like your press release(s) and the press dossier and a programme that you can give to the journalists who visit the session. At least make sure that you have the respective materials ready to send via email or upload on their own USB sticks. It is also nice to have a business card with your personal session email address and your phone number so they know who to contact and what your name is. We advise to ask for the articles before they are published so you can avoid

misinformation

being

read

the

public.

Small

misunderstandings happen a lot and can usually be fixed with one sentence. Journalists also want to publish accurate information so do not hesitate to point out mistakes. Of course this excludes the content and style of the article. 65

Contingency Planning “A session is always remembered by what went wrong and not what went right. The moments when something unexpected happens and the reactions of the Organising Team really shape the outcome of an event”. Contingency planning must work in parallel to every well-organised event. There are innumerous things that can go wrong: natural catastrophes or political events, huge programme delays or problems regarding participant behaviour. While one cannot prepare for all possibilities it is important to spend sufficient time within an orga team before the session considering some of these. Brainstorming and training with simulations are actually more useful than they might seem. For this session, we spent around ten hours of pure contingency-related preparation before the session, and we feel this was just sufficient time. Draft down a list of realistic scenarios that could harm your event and then ask yourself these questions: ●

Why did this situation arise?

●

What could have prevented it?

●

What to do next? How should the organiser react?

●

Who to contact next when the problem arises?

You can find a long brainstorming of this planning on the drive linked in the appendix. We can really recommend you take time to create your own contingency planning and that you involve every organiser in this delicate process.

Medical Emergencies The most recurring and important emergency during the session is a medical emergency. This usually consists of participants getting sick, intoxicated from alcohol, dehydrated or needing the Morning-After Pill, but can become more serious. Many NCs host a Session Medic for the duration of the event; we find this to be fundamental. The Session Medic does not need to be a fully qualified doctor, but a medicine student in their third or fourth year of studies. The role of the Session Medic is not really to cure patients, but rather assess the gravity of 66

medical emergencies, provide access to medication if needed and accompany the participant in case they need the assistance of local medical authorities. For this, check your national legislation as most counties do not allow non-graduated doctors to prescribe medication, however, the Session Medic can still facilitate access and advise. You can think of the Session Medic more as the person in charge of medical emergencies. It is important that the medic is present at all moments of the session, that they are sober, know the local language and is a person who can work calmly and responsibly in stressful situations. It is also important to equip the Session Medic with all necessary medical supplies (paracetamol, aspirin, thermometers, eye drops, disinfectant, etc.). The contents of this “MediBox” should be discussed and developed together with the Session Medics. Do not underestimate this aspect by not having a Session Medic. At Laax, we invited our Session Medics (Lukas Bock and Martti Klockemann) advertising a “peaceful vacation in the mountains”. In practise, they had to deal with more than eight medical cases per day. Another important note would be to have a room reserved solely for the Session Medic, as most medical emergencies are private and cannot be treated in front of a group of people. On the note of emergency trips we can recommend our system of emergency drivers. We developed a system of shifts for all organisers able to drive for the full duration of the session. Each shift lasted 24 hours and the person allocated had to be in the same location as the delegates for the full time. In addition, the emergency driver always kept the keys to one car, had to be completely sober and had to have slept at least six hours. The emergency drivers were called into action numerous times following a severe case of laryngitis, a broken ankle and other emergencies.

Closing words by our Head Organiser Dear future organisers, When I think back to the start of the Laax organising process, I think of how inspired I was and convinced of the vision, and yet had absolutely no idea how we would make it work. And indeed, I hope that this is how you feel too, because if you are going through life doing only things you are absolutely certain you can handle, you are probably wasting your time and potential. Special ideas and projects often encounter skepticism and when you’re on a journey to do something you have never done before, it is hard to find the words to legitimise your belief that it is possible. Here’s the secret: you do not have to. Your belief and energy, and how that will attract and inspire others, is the key element that will make the dream come true. I would like to share with you a quote that someone sent me after Laax, and resonated a lot with me: "The first step in creating change, then, is to receive a vision that feels true. The second step is to heal the wounds and doubts that that vision illuminates. Without doing that, we will be conflicted, simultaneously enacting both the new story and the old one that accompanies the wounds. The third step is to bow into service to that which wants to be born. This process is not linear. Usually, the vision comes more and more into focus as we heal the doubts that obscure it; that, in turn, brings up new dimensions of the vision along with deeper wounds. The path of service is a path of self-realization. When we are in service to something that is real, when we speak of it, our words have power. Others can feel its reality too. That is why some people have the seemingly magical ability to speak things into existence. When they say such-and-such is going to happen, everyone believes it is going to happen, even if it is happening depends on everyone believing it will happen. 69

To be fully in service to something one has experienced as real is the essence of leadership in a nonhierarchical age. A leader is the holder of a story, someone whose experience of its reality is deep enough so that she can hold the belief on behalf of others." — Charles Eisenstein, the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible When you start a project like organising a session of scope you never thought you could manage, of course you will be scared. But you also have the vision that did not let you rest and will keep energising you, and others. Do what you need to do to grasp what lies ahead of you and feel a bit more confident to start the journey. For me, that was ordering about 20 books recommended by TED speakers and all kinds of smart and successful people who, I figured, must know things I do not, to have accomplished what they have. Do what it takes for a solid foundation to be built, to which your team and everyone else who will contribute to the project will add their piece of the puzzle, but never lose sight of your dream up in the clouds. It is holding these two at the same time - the incredible vision and solid grounded foundation - that will create the framework needed for everything to unfold, and for the magic of what people do when they work together to happen. I wish you lots of energy, compassion, and perseverance in order to reach your goals, and, even more importantly, joy and growth as you walk towards them. Savour each step, work hard, and Closing Ceremony will feel like the most natural culmination of an incredible journey. Lots of love, Nora - Head organiser of Laax 2016

Annex https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1_bRYM-bF57M2F6eWNKOExSQ 1U The above link contains a small selection of the most important organising documents that were created during the organising process. You can find templates,

examples of data storage,

communication to stakeholders, the Masterplans and much more. In case the link is broken please contact Manfredi Danielis. We unfortunately had to clear some of the data out to guarantee the privacy of our participants however we hope that this material can still be useful for your session.