Invitation to ECHN family online brunch #2

How to empower our communities in the time of uncertainty

Staying connected in our community becomes even more crucial in these times of uncertainty. Last week, we initiated our first online brunch as a family, where we exchanged opinions and discussed our concerns, feelings and ideas and the impact of this new condition to our lives and work.

We all thought that this first meeting was valuable and we would like to share this experience with even more members of our family.

Therefore, we would like to invite you to the second online ECHN family brunch this Friday, to discuss how we can empower our communities in the time of uncertainty, exchange our experiences and best practices to overcome this period and prepare for the new challenges.

On Friday 27th of March, at 11 am (CET), grab your brunch and join us via the following zoom conference call.
We will arrange tables of four to shift-share our feelings and experiences.

Please register via the following link:

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/v5wsfuGgrTgozbhIkk27T6MsT0qWwQqv9Q

Summary of the online family brunch #1

On Friday, 20th of March, ECHN had its first online family brunch in order to connect during this tough time and share thoughts, feelings, and ideas.

We discussed what is good, bad, lovely and ugly while connecting in this moment we are experiencing, and a lot of good, bad, lovely and ugly thoughts arose:

Quality time, more focus and more sleep!
We are strong in adapting to uncertain situations – we should use that force!
After the coronavirus crisis ends and recession kicks in, our role for the future of the sector will be more important than ever.
Feeling less efficient, working only from home.
Time to come together and rely on each other, share good practices, be relevant as hubs and networks.
The health crisis is a social crisis too. Time to reevaluate the sense of community.
Everything will change after this challenge; but also since now: ongoing projects will have to be approached in a completely different way; creative hubs will have a major role but now we need help to survive.
We will explore new ways to stay connected.
We all share this crisis and a sense of solidarity.

We also explored how we, as hub leaders, could respond to uncertainty, stand together and support each other more in the upcoming months? What are the challenges and the opportunities?

Some challenges and opportunities that were penciled down:

Be aware of the role that we can have in the future after the crisis, to be able to create social, economic and cultural value (through our teams, communities, knowledge, infrastructure). Now more than ever, we have the chance to better focus on strategy and exercise strategic thinking. Our responsibilities cut across traditional sectors in order to create and run innovative models, thus we can be of great help to other stakeholders (pmi, schools, PA) to deal with innovation (new digital, organizational, technological challenges).

Explore new tools and perspectives to remain connected: we should keep the value of the online community high, and keep on building trust among us (hub managers) and within our communities.

Keep on gathering and providing data on this current devastating situation (economic losses per month; losses in terms of community, resources, connections, commissions, places, estimated number of people connected to each hub and affected by this crisis). Make these numbers known and share the impact of the crisis on our sector – hubs and creative professionals.

Advocate for the sector to the regional and local authorities, in order to be immediately recognized as beneficiaries of fiscal and economic measures, both at the national and regional levels, as well as stakeholders for funds that will be available for the creative sector.

Contact other similar structures such as associations, communities etc, and campaign for self-employed people at all levels (local, national, international); share policies and examples of governmental interventions.

The value of online community management is going to increase. Building trust without any physical attachment will be even more important. We should share more knowledge, tools and best practices of online community management.