Post seminar blues..

That's a real thing, you know? I know that for sure, because I'm having a very bad case of it...

It's now been a little more than a week since I got home but I still live in my little RYE bubble. I miss all the amazing people around me with so much to share and an overload of energy! I want to go back!

I've read all my fuzzy notes over and over again, and I'm looking forward to seeing my RYE family again some time.

Luckily I have a seminar to look forward to next year! I've been taking notes at this year's seminar and noted down random thoughts and ideas, and I feel ready to start the planning with the rest of the wonderful prep team! :D

I've decided to keep this blog and continue writing about my travels within or related to 4H and RYE,a nd of course the preparations for next year's seminar! :)

Worcester

This morning we had to get up early! So I went to bed early and showered last night to save time this morning. No bar for me... We walked down to the train, a walk of about 20 minutes that took at least 35, and took the train to Worcester.

Worcester has an absolutely beautiful cathredral and we were lucky enough to get a tour. It was supposed to last for an hour but due to the overwhelming amount of questions it went on for another 30 minutes.

After the tour I met up with one of my friends from back home who's studying a semester in Worcester(find her blog here) and we went out for lunch at a mexican restaurant with 13 others from the seminar. The lunch was amazing! It was at a place called Chesters and I would definitely recommend it! You can find a link to the restaurant here.

This after noon we've had Nick from the venue talk about his business and John Hardman talking about business in HOPS, NFYFC and other areas. Very different, both very interesting and with a lot of questions afterwards.

This afternoon we're having another evaluation group meeting like every day, where we usually discuss the day's sessions, the blog, the entertainment of the previous evening, and some special information about the coming evening and next day.

This evaluation group is a great way to connect with participant and hear what they have to say about thing, and I really enjoy this part of my day! :)

Tonight WFYFC (Worcestershire YFC) is coming to entertain us. I've heard something about a pub quiz and board games, so that'll be interesting! :)

Business planning - for real

So yesterday all the participants had to present their solutions for the business problems that the businesses had presented them with. 

All groups came up with something creative and very useful, and I loved seeing how they all took the task very seriously always thinking about what the people behind the business would think about it. 

Also, the business owners were amazing. They took notes, bought back the flip charts with them and asked lots of questions. It really looks as if they will go through with some of the suggestions which makes us and the participants very proud! 

All the presentations had a detailed business plan (as detailed as it gets in about 5 hours..) and has thought a social media plan into their suggestion, and the whole task really brought together all the knowledge from the previous sessions.

Reading the blogs..

Well.. Since we as the prep team have decided that we all have to keep a blog, we not only have to blog ourselves but also follow the participants'. We agreed that we all need to read the blogs of the people in our evaluation groups, but some of the other participants have made some really creative blogs as well..

The people in my evaluation group are:
Bob
Alma
Rok
Heini
Sabine
You can click on their name and read their blogs - we all know the Ariel evaluation group is the best!

While all the groups are busy working on their solutions, I will read some blogs until someone asks for my help. They're all very independent and don't ask for much help. I'm looking forward to seeing the results :D

Så er der også lidt på dansk..

Nu kom jeg jo til at love, at jeg ville skrive en smule på dansk, og selvom tid ikke ligefrem er det, jeg har mest af her, så kommer der lige lidt.

Jeg befinder mig lige nu i Malvern, tæt ved Birmingham i det vestlige England, hvor jeg er på kursus med 29 deltagere og 7-9 ledere fra 15 forskellige lande. Jeg har førhen været med som deltager ved RYE events, men nu er det første gang, jeg er af sted som en del af leder-/styregruppen. Det er en kæmpe udfordring, men jeg er meget glad for at have taget den! Ugen ser helt anderledes ud som leder, og man får et helt nyt perspektiv på tingene. Nu er man ikke længere "kun" ansvarlig for sig selv, men også at hele programmet løber, som det skal. Heldigvis er jeg ikke alene om det! Den engelske del af teamet har stået for langt de fleste forberedelser, og de internationale har først været involverede fra omkring en måneds tid siden, hvor vi var til det første prep team møde her i England.

Grunden til vi er 2 danske deltagere på et engelsk prep team er, at Danmark er vært for efterårsseminaret i 2014. Det er Danmarks 4H og LandboUngdom der er værtsorganisationerne, og det kommer til at være på Skovly i starten af november. Temaet er bæredygtig fødevareproduktion, og det føler vi, ligger mange spændende perspektiver og muligheder i. Jeg glæder mig i hvert fald enormt til at komme i gang med arbejdet, selvom det også bliver krævende. Men det er næste år..

Dette års seminar handler om entreprenørskab, og hvordan man helt basalt kan starte sin egen virksomhed. Mange af pointerne kan dog også overdrages på organisationsarbejdet.
Ind til videre har vi arbejdet med at definere, hvad en entreprenør er, hvordan en business plan ser ud og kan bruges, hvordan man kan bruge sociale medier til at promovere og nå ud til en målgruppe, og helt konkret været ude at se 3 virksomheder, som hver har givet os nogle reelle problemstillinger, som deltagerene skal arbejde på at løse i morgen.

Det er et meget spændende program, og jeg glæder mig til at se, hvordan resten af ugen forløber!

Visiting rural businesses in rural England

We literally went from one place without phone signal to another. Rural England is very rural... But there are great opportunities for creative businesses and entrepreneurship. We've visited 3 different local businnesses ranging from a shop to a restaurant to a florist, all of which had an emphasis on the local area, locally produced food/flowers. The owners have all developed it from scratch and the enthusiasm, energy, and courage is striking and very admirable.

They've all presented us with some real problems/challenges they have encountered which the participants are going to find solutions for tomorrow. Hopefully they will come up with something good, innovative and creative, and I'm looking forward to seeing the results of that!

Tonight we've had the honor and pleasure of having Herefordshire YFC visiting and playing games with us - a very entertaining night! I'm feeling better today so I might stay up for a pint or two...

Getting started on the topic..

By now the participants know each other a little better so it's time to get started on the topic.

The sessions this morning was about "What is an entrepreneur?" and all the skills that such a person has. The next two sessions were about business planning and the last about social media and how to use it as a tool to promote a business or organization.

The reason why I'm not telling in details about these sessions is that I've spend most of my day in bed :/ Not really sick, but definitely not well.. Feeling slightly better now after having slept the whole day though.

I spent my waking hours checking up on everyones blog's and I'm pleased to see that all participants except for 2 have successfully created a blog. I've linked to them all in the right side of my blog :)

Now we've just finished the traditional English dancing and people are heading towards the bar for another evening/night of socializing. I'm probably off to bed and hopefully better tomorrow :)

Team buffet and international building, or something..

Yesterday so much happened that I barely had any time to blog. 

The prep team has been busy holding meetings in every break to make sure everything is under control, and when I asked if it was usual like that, the answer was "Yes...". So there's something to look forward to next year. I'm taking a lot of notes already. Claire has done an amazing job with the rest of the prep team, but there are so many thing you can't really control.

The morning started out with an official welcome by Claire, Kadri and, Nick from the venue, and after that all the countries had prepared a presentation about their country, organization, and a local business to sort of get started on the topic. It was amazing to see the creativity that all of the groups had to offer and not two presentations were the same! I felt very honored that they had all taken the time and effort to share a part of their lives with us!

The team whole team has now officially been built after three hours with the staff of Malvern Hills Outdoor Center where the venue is. We did som archery, problem solving and most interestingly the high ropes course where 4 people had to stand together on a platform the size of a pizza at the height of 4 meters... There are some good pictures that I'll try to upload later if the internet allows me. If not, I know that Kadri has uploaded a lot of good pictures!

The highlight of the week is usually the international buffet, and last night was no exception! Every country had brought some traditional food and drinks, and again I was amazed by the amount of effort that the participants had put in it with flags, beverages, snacks, food, candy, cakes, etc. 

The Danish table had rye bread with herring and curry "dressing", apple "cake" and Gajol - both solid and liquid. We were supposed to have snaps/akvavit as well but the bottle unfortunately broke in Frederik's suitcase.. Yuck...

It was a great night but unfortuantely I had to end it early with a stomach ache. It's a little better today and hopefully it'll go away soon! :)

Day 1 of the seminar

It's raining, it's cold, and where's the sun..?

But all that doesn't matter because now the first participants have arrived! Emma B and Stuart from Northern Ireland, and Alma from Latvia.

Let the fun begin!

Also, the prep team got a nice surprise last night! Santa must have brought us some early presents because we each got a warm, green prep team hoodie with name and logo. Love it!

Today my job is to help participants with their presentations for tomorrow and their blogs. But as there are only 2 participants here and awake right now, I have some time to work on my own blog. I added the Twitter feed in the left side bar and I'm not sure what to do next. Maybe something with some picture..?

Almost done for the day..

It's getting late but we're done.

I've been doing some of Russ' work, we all know "The Fox" by heart now, and we've discussed the method of evaluation for Friday.

Last thing: Go over the program for tomorrow to make sure everything is as it is supposed to be.

Looking forward to meeting all the participants tomorrow! It will be a busy and very exciting day :D

Friday - preparation day

So, I've finally started my blog.

At the moment we're busy preparing for seminar which starts with all the participants arriving tomorrow - 29 participants form 14 countries!

Yesterday the prep team arrived, me myself leaving at 11 pm yesterday morning. Last night we just familiarized ourselves with the venue, had dinner and chatted for a while.

Today is more serious. I've been writing about 25 flip charts with the daily programme for the next week, all in different colors and with something like a rainbow theme.. My blog is also inspired by that..

Second task of the day: Create a blog - check!

Now I'm just waiting for further instructions from Claire on what to do next. Until then I'll try to sneak away with one of the last Australian crunch cakes - they're delicious!