World Cafe in the European Conference on Volunteering, Brussels

Here's a harvest, sent to us by Toke Paludan Moeller, of the World as Cafe in the European Conference on Volunteering in Brussels last May:

On 23 and 24 May 2011, 300 representatives from different parts of the volunteering sector in the EU met at the Hotel Crowne Plaza and at the EESC for the “2nd EU-level thematic conference for the European Year of Volunteering 2011”. This second conference had the specific purpose of looking at the world of volunteering through the eyes of the individual volunteer and to gather experiences from the field of volunteering. The third and fourth conferences will take place in Athens in  November and Warsaw in December of 2011.

True to the purpose, the format of the conference was highly participatory, which allowed participants to share experiences of volunteering, develop connections and networks, as well as explore possible next steps to support the further development of volunteering in Europe. The conference was a joint event of the European Commission (EC), the European Parliament (EP), and the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).

The support for the conference and for volunteering was clearly demonstrated by the keynote speakers. The keynote addresses of the first day were given by Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament, Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission, and Zoltán Hernyes, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Hungary to the Kingdom of Belgium. Claus Sørensen, Director-General for Communication, European Commission, opened the conference and introduced the key note speakers.

The keynote addresses of the second day were given by Seán Kelly MEP,
Staffan Nilsson, President of the European Economic and Social Committee
(EESC), and Gabriella Civico, Project Manager for the EYV 2011 Alliance.
Ylva Tivéus, Director for Citizens at the EC moderated the closing plenary
session and made the closing speech, The keynotes were interwoven with conversations among the participants.

The conversations explored and provided input on the following topics:
• What works well in the volunteering sector?
• What are the conditions that support this?
• What are the challenges or barriers?
• What are the areas that need to be developed or improved to create
even better conditions for volunteering in the future?