CONFERENCE - HOW DID IT GO?

"This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein."

"Let me tell you a story"

You can't describe in words what we experienced during our CVE conference in Vilnius from 10th to 12th November 2008. The warm atmosphere, lively discussions and active learning when we divided into 4 workshop groups, meant that no one wanted to leave the room on the 3rd and final day! After the ending speech and Rolanda Sliaziene, Manager and Programme Coordinator, Youth Centre Babilonas, everyone was sitting in silence, reflecting on what they have experienced, wanting to stay a bit longer!

The conference gathered around 150 adult education professionals mainly from Lithuania, but also from Portugal, Greece, United Kingdom, Germany, Poland and Czech Republic.

more photos >>>

All of our partner organizations got positive feedback from the pilot courses. We were able to bring to Vilnius a few workshop participants from each country, which was a great educational experience for them and a natural completion of CVE courses.

more photos >>>

"I have taken part in such an event for the first time in my life."
Alina, Polish group

Together with our beneficiaries we presented the results of using cultural vehicles in education to the conference participants and invited experts. Presentations, workshops, theatre and music performances and exhibitions!

more photos >>>

"The expertise that our NGOs could offer to adult educators may be handy, in my opinion, to access closed or little understood communities. Social workers and pedagogues benefited from the easy, friendly, non-threatening encounters and activities generated by the use of cultural vehicles such as theatre, art, music etc in adult education. We also enjoyed learning from the experiences of the conference participants themselves".
Kumar Vishwanathan, Director, Life Together

The program of the conference consisted of presentations by Grodzki Theatre Association, Poland, Youth Centre Babilonas, Lithuania, Life Together, Czech Republic, Die Wille gGmbH, Germany and EST Education Centre, Poland. On the second day everyone had an opportunity to choose one out of four workshops to participate in, and to perform publicly at the end. The next day was devoted to presentations by experts from other European countries. Brian Holmes, Head of the Department of Lifelong learning of the European Commission in Brussels, was our special guest. The participants really enjoyed his speech and the idea of "giving him a message to take to Brussels", which motivated them to share with what they learned during the conference.

"This event was for the mind, body and heart".
A Lithuanian participant

Workshops before performance:

- more photos >>>

- more photos >>>

Thank you to all the speakers for their presentation and sharing with their personal experience of learning.

Thank you to all participants for taking an active role and reflecting on their own life-long learning.

All of our organizations have gained a lot of knowledge though organizing this international event and through partnership in a Grundtvig project. We feel that it's never too late to learn and develop new projects!

Selected papers - abstracts >>>

Programme summary >>>