Last April, AEGEE-Barcelona organised the Youth Employment Conference. The event was directly connected with the Action Agenda (Youth Employment Focus Area). For this reason, they were chosen as the ACTive Local of the Month. We spoke to Néstor Saura Torres, president of antenna, to find out more!

Which emotions did you have when you knew that AEGEE-Barcelona was chosen as ACTive local of April?

We were all amazed about it! Also receiving the news all together during our Summer University has been very special! We are really happy to see that all our effort is being recognised. Thank you!

Why did you decide to organise the Youth Employment Conference?

We decided to organise this conference for many reasons. On one hand, we thought that it would be really interesting for many people, as unemployment here is a big problem now for young Spanish people. On the other hand it was a good opportunity to show all the work that we do in AEGEE, as this topic is part of the Strategic plan 2014-17, and also to strengthen our relation with the university.

Also, it has been a good opportunity to organise something different that we hadn’t done before.

What was the result of the conference?

The reality is that we did not have an extraordinary big amount of attendants, but the general opinion from most of the people who came was that the conference has been really interesting.

Also, we received positive comments about the quality of the speakers. They were representatives of the European Commission, the regional government of Catalonia and the University of Barcelona, and they all offered great speeches explaining the roots of the problem and the solutions proposed by the institutions.

How do you inform your members about the Action Agenda/Strategic Plan?

We have some key moments to inform about it during the year: the Local Training Course and in the general meetings just before both Agorae. We constantly encourage all the members to explore all the communication channels and we inform the new joiners personally.

Do you have any other activities related to the Action Agenda/Strategic Plan?

We try to introduce some sessions about the Action Agenda in every event we do. We are really active on this point, as we have organised three events in the last nine months including a Network Meeting! Sometimes we like to discuss about the Focus Areas during our weekly meetings.

Why should other locals organise activities related to the Action Agenda/Strategic Plan?

They should organise as much as possible because the Action Agenda and the Strategic Plan are the reasons why AEGEE exist. We cannot forget that apart from cultural exchange and some other general ideas, we are involved in this organisation for building a better Europe, and we already have those guidelines to do it. Also, organising this kind of activities can motivate their members to become more active and also willing to give a hand in the European level.

Do you have any tips for organising thematic activities?

It may seem too obvious, but it’s important to focus on one single topic and not touching softly many. It would make everything easier and the results would also be better.

Another important tip is asking for advice to other people. For example, we received much help from some ACTies as Borja and Juragis, as they are always willing to help motivate members. Also external help is always important: without the support of the university this conference couldn’t have been possible.

Can you tell us a bit more about your local?

AEGEE-Barcelona was founded in 1986, so it’s one of the oldest in all the Network! Last October we celebrated the 30th anniversary with a great party where we were able to meet old members from the last decades, and of course many interesting stories about the ancient AEGEE!

Nowadays we have around 60 members and around 15-20 are active. We try to do at least one activity every week and this last course was highly intensive. Now we are just finishing our Summer University, organised together with our twins from AEGEE-Thessaloniki.

The next steps are getting new active and motivate members and continue having fun with the current ones. Of course we are also thinking about interesting events and activities for the next months! We are willing to meet you all in Barcelona!

Characterise your local in one sentence.

We are unstoppable! That’s our definitive motto since some months ago, when some members from other antennae were trying to make fun of us.

Written by Elena Efremova, on behalf of the Action Agenda Coordination Committee.

As we speak, another NWM has just rounded up in Catalunya (Catalonia), from the 10th until the 13th of November. To be more precise, it happened near Barcelona. The local is 30 years old and it has hosted several events, such as NWMs and even an Agora. We asked some questions to Katy Sánchez, PR and Vicepresident of AEGEE-Barcelona, and to Melissa Carreres Candela, the soon-to-be former Network commissioner of the area, informally known as, ‘La Nave’.  

NWM Barcelona cover pic

The AEGEEan: Why did you decide to apply for hosting the NWM?

Katy: We were thinking about applying to host the NWM when the Spring NWM application was launched. However, we had other plans in mind for those months and we decided to apply for hosting the Autumn NWM instead. All the locals from our area distribution (La Nave) supported us and that was a big motivation to finally apply for it [she smiles].

Board of AEGEE-Barcelona 2015/2016

Who is in the core team?

There are fifteen organisers. Néstor Saura is the main organiser of the NWM; among the team, you can find the current board of AEGEE-Barcelona, some members of the future one (we had elections on Saturday, 4th November) and a new generation of motivated members that were involved in the organisation from the very first moment.

Did you apply for any funds or did you get any help from the University?

Yes, we applied for a grant offered by the university and for another one offered by the local government. Recently, we have got super good news that we received the money! Also, we are working hard on fundraising.

Members of AEGEE-Barcelona from all generations on our 30th Anniversary

What is special about AEGEE-Barcelona and the city of Barcelona?

I think that what makes AEGEE-Barcelona great is that we are a group of friends. This group of friends is slowly growing, turning us into a big family of motivated members who want to achieve great things, and the NWM is the first step to it [she smiles].

What could we say about Barcelona? It is a big cosmopolitan city that has a lot to offer: mountains, sea, culture, art or gastronomy. Anyway, we have to mention that the NWM does not take place in Barcelona itself, but in a nearby city (Vilanova i la Geltrú) where we have booked a countryside house for the 90 people that are attending the NWM (including participants, organisers and the content team).

AEGEE-Barcelona & AEGEE-Thessaloniki (our Twin Antenna) wearing our T-Shirts

What is in store for the participants (facilities, meals, social programme)?

As I have mentioned above, the NWM is taking place in a countryside house where all of us are together. In this video you can see how it looks! For the social programme, we have prepared three thematic parties: an Animal Party, an American College Party (beer pong competition included) and a European Night on the last night.

How many participants are you hosting?

Melissa: We offered 60 vacancies for the participants, but because we had too many applications (more than 150), and due to the fact that the accommodation is big enough, we decided to increase the maximum amount of participants a little bit. So, finally, 90 AEGEEans are taking part in the event: 73 participants, 14 organisers, one member of the CD, two subcommies and I.

Members of AEGEE-Barcelona celebrating the #AEGEEDay.

What will be presented during the sessions?

We have a very diverse programme, several participants who are involved at a European level, and of course we are going to “use them” properly! There will be the compulsory NWM sessions: State of the Network, SWOT analysis, Sharing best practices, also others such as the Civic Education and Youth Mobility sessions, and last but not least, a session delivered by the ACTies.

Furthermore, to increase the quality of the event, we are having three training sessions: HR, KT and how to do a presentation. Therefore, I think we will learn a lot.

Local Organisers

Who will be providing the trainings?

We have a lot of content facilitators. Apart from Tekla Hajdu from Comité Directeur and my subcom team, Laura Pérez and Julian Ródenas there are:

• Ioanna Gympaki (AEGEE-Athina): She will talk about Your Vision For Europe.
•  Kristina Reshetova (AEGEE-Moskva): She is the current NetCom and she will contribute by explaining the different NetCom projects. Moreover, as a member of Youth Mobility, she will talk about mobility as well.
• Alejandra Piot Pérez-Abadín (AEGEE-A Coruña): Former President of her antennna and newly elected NetCom, she will deliver a Human Resourses WS and contribute to Sharing best practices session.
• Pablo Hernández Rodríguez (AEGEE-Alicante): AEGEE member since 2010. His experience includes management of European and local projects and coordination of policy and advocacy actions. He will facilitate MY-WAY’s session by giving an insight on how to use an entrepreneurial mindset to carry out your dreamt projects.
  

  Netcom and Subcom Team, la Tripulacion 8.1

• Juragis Garcia Perez (AEGEE-Tenerife): Board member of his antenna and also member of ACT. He and Borja will try to motivate us to be more ACTive in AEGEE and contribute to the Strategic plan.
• Asier Rodríguez (AEGEE-Bilbao): Former Treasurer and current HR responsible of his antenna. As a member of Youth Mobility, Asier together with Kristina will talk about mobility.
• Borja Torres Fuentes (AEGEE-Bilbao): President of his antenna and member of ACT. He will deliver an ACT session in collaboration with Juragis.
• María Ballesteros Melero (AEGEE-Madrid):  She will deliver the Civic Education + Gender Equality session and the European Citizens’ Initiative session together with Tekla.

Netcom, Subcommies and organisers

Why did you choose Barcelona as hosting local?

Well, actually, I had no applications from other locals to host a NWM during the autumn period, but knowing that Barcelona was planning to apply, made me really happy. I was sure that their project would be very good, and actually it was!

AEGEE-Barcelona is a great antenna that is growing a lot and takes part in a lot of activities. It is also known as the “unstoppable” antenna. They have just turned 30 and they have great plans in mind for the upcoming year. I have to keep it a secret, but stay tuned, because they will surprise us for sure!

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Verona

Or the ‘“life as Communications Director of AEGEE-Europe”. Dealing with communications means dealing with a considerable amount of accounts, social media channels and even managing a few devices at once. However, that is not all! As the rest of the members of the Comité Directeur, I have other tasks, ranging from the European Planning Meeting (EPM), to European Union funding and some external representation.

At many of the events that AEGEE-Europe is hosting, there is always a girl silently walking around the venue with a camera in one hand and her mobile in the other, taking one picture after the other and, at the same time, tweeting everything that is being said at full speed. That person usually happens to be me, and sometimes I wish I had a few more arms to be more productive. Sometimes, our guests at the conference roll their eyes when they see me photographing them and I even heard them once say: “oh, that must be the random communications intern” (true story).

Leaving this anecdote aside, the role of a Communications Director is two-folded. On the one hand, we communicate the initiatives that take place around the Network to our members, as well as let them know about several external opportunities and processes that take place in European institutions. On the other hand, our duty is to ensure that our external partners, supporters and institutions are well aware of what the AEGEE Network is and what our daily work is. In (very) short, we make sure that what happens in AEGEE does not stay in our AEGEE ‘bubble’. This often poses a dilemma: which is the most effective tool to reach our members, and which ones we can use externally? These are questions where the border line is often rather blurry.

Managing the communications of AEGEE means being able to learn everyday something new about the several platforms that I am using – ranging from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Mailchimp, WordPress etc. It means planning and producing content on a daily basis, so I always try to take my 30 minutes of the day to plan the daily online communications. These are usually my creative minutes of the day, which I always enjoy. I also have my fun designing on a regular basis banners and promotional materials for AEGEE, creating the biweekly newsletter for members, and working closely with the Public Relations Committee.

I am also often in contact with external partners and try to find the best solution to promote each other in our different communication channels. Moreover, some online publications are also in contact with us: so far, content and news about AEGEE-Europe has been published in several international online media such as EurActiv, Euranet Plus, Europe & Me or the Study International magazine, and we partnered up with POLITICO Europe for the EU Studies Fair 2016. Ensuring that our activities gain external visibility in several media platforms was, in fact, one of the goals of our annual Activity Plan. And we seem to be on the right track!

Last but not least, when it comes strictly to communications, I got an unexpected gift during the task division: the AEGEE-Europe’s website, which is the biggest and messiest labyrinth I have ever gotten lost in. Broken links and restructuring information are some of the things that often take quite a lot of time… and nerves too. “Any time that I hear Anna swearing in Catalan, I can immediately know that she is dealing with the website”, Pablo [Hernández, External Relations Director] usually says, “and sometimes she gets quite scary”.

Coordinating the communications… and not only

With the Content Managers of the EPM Leiden 2016.

Communications were traditionally tasks that a few members of the Comité Directeur worked on, or a portfolio that was often shared. In fact, the last person you will find in AEGEE-Europe with the title of “Communications Director” was Michael Makowiecki back in 2010. Although this might seem like a threat (as the composition and skills of CD members are often rather a lottery, which means that sometimes there is no continuation of the tasks), we took it as an opportunity to take communications in AEGEE at a next level.

However, this does not mean that my day is focused entirely on communications. CD members usually do a little bit of everything, which requires a lot of time management and often you feel as if you were juggling with many things at once. Or, more strikingly, that sometimes you do not even have time at all to take care of communications.

What has probably taken most of my time this past couple of weeks is the European Planning Meeting. Our Statutory event in Leiden is getting closer and I am in daily contact with the Content Managers to make sure that we provide high-quality content and meet the expectations of our members – as well as to support the work of our Policy Officer on Migration, Luca Bisighini. Working closer on the topic of migration has been probably one of the most enriching experiences, as it “forced” me to get myself familiar with the topic in a very short time.

But that is not all! I am slowly discovering the world of European Union funding – bringing Erasmus+ closer to our members by delivering sessions, providing feedback and organising Q&A sessions. Moreover, you will probably hear soon about a Horizon 2020 Project that AEGEE-Europe will be partnering in and which aligns very well with AEGEE’s core values of inclusion and youth participation, training members is something that makes me particularly happy and that I have been doing in some events, such as Network Meetings and Regional Training Courses. Lastly, I also enjoy from time to time representing AEGEE externally in some events in Brussels and beyond, such as in some of the activities of the European Movement International.

All in all, how is it like to work in the team? Whereas my tasks seem to be rather specialised, I am never really working alone – by trying to support projects on promoting their activities, I am always in contact with AEGEE members. Inside the Head Office, I am always cooperating with the rest of the Comité Directeur members, by providing feedback, being involved in the content of the activities that we organise, and working on PR and dissemination together with them. In the end, there is not a single boring moment, and not a day without having many things to tick on my to-do list!

Written by Anna Gumbau, Communications Director of AEGEE-Europe

A passion for communication and a love for AEGEE have convinced Anna Gumbau, AEGEE-Barcelona, to apply for becoming a new member of the Comité Directeur. Public Relations and Communications or Projects is the way! Read on to find out more about the candidate! 

The AEGEEan: Describe Anna Gumbau. How old are you? Where are you from? What do you study? How about your future aspirations?

Anna: I am a 22-year-old girl from Premià de Mar (a town near Barcelona), who recently graduated in Journalism. This has been my biggest passion in life since I was a kid, and for the past six years I gained quite a lot of work experience contributing in several media platforms in local and regional level. My dream is to keep writing, travelling, reading, writing and still write a little more and pursue a career in news reporting somewhere in this world. In the meantime, I am now a CD Assistant at the AEGEE-Europe Headoffice in Brussels!

Now describe just Anna. Who are you? How is your personality? What is your way of thinking and of living?

Anna is one of those people who are constantly dreaming awake. In the AEGEE teams I have worked in, I have been usually described as the “fluffy puffy” teddy bear, others call me “cuqui” [a Spanish word pronounced like “cookie”, which means something like “sweetie”] so you might get yourself an idea. I would describe myself as someone caring, idealistic, a good listener, extremely clumsy, and enthusiastic. As for my way of thinking, a very good friend of mine from AEGEE-Barcelona told me once that “positive thinking makes things happen”, and since then I adopted it as my personal motto. I always try to show passion and enthusiasm at what I do, and try to have a smile on my face for everyone!

What is your experience in AEGEE?

I joined in the end of 2011, even if I didn’t get active until summer 2012, when I got back from my first Summer University and started to get involved with AEGEE-Barcelona, for which I have been board member for two years and been main organiser of two of our biggest events, a Summer University with AEGEE-Las Palmas and the Fundraising European School 2014.

It was at Agora Budapest 2012 when I got to know about AEGEE’s European projects and initiatives, so I started to get involved in The AEGEEan, first as a freelance writer, then as editor, and spent a challenging but awesome year as editor-in-chief of the magazine, probably the most challenging but amazing of the projects I have ever been involved.

Now, besides being still part of The AEGEEan’s team, my main task is being the responsible for the 30^th Anniversary Conference that will be taking place in Brussels this May, as well as part of the Election Observation Project’s team (as Fundraising Manager and Mission Coordinator to Moldova, in November 2014).

In the past year, The AEGEEan was in the hands of Anna Gumbau Martinez (AEGEE-Barcelona), who was a very caring Editor-in-Chief. Although Erika Bettin (AEGEE-Venezia) was elected to take over, this doesn’t mean Anna will become inactive! While she will stay active for The AEGEEan, she is also a member of the board of AEGEE-Barcelona, the Anniversary Team and the newly founded Election Observation Project. For all these reasons, The AEGEEan thought it was time to get to know more about this active Spanish member who always has a smile ready for everyone.

First of all, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Who are you, and when and why did you join AEGEE?

Hey! My name is Anna, I am 22 years old and I come from Barcelona, where I studied journalism. I think that the most remarkable things about me are that I love beer, cheese and chocolate, I am a bookworm and I collect postcards from all over the world. I joined AEGEE in December 2011, but I didn’t become active until summer 2012, when I attended a Travel Summer University around Belgium and the Netherlands. It was my first experience in AEGEE, I hadn’t even attended any local meetings, so I had no idea what to expect. Then I found myself talking and having fun with a bunch of other students coming from all over Europe. I have always been very shy and, in that moment, I felt so at home that I was sure I had found my place!

In the past year, you were the Editor-in-Chief of The AEGEEan. How do you look back at this year?

It was a very demanding year, especially considering that I was still in my last year of my Bachelor’s degree. It’s not only about the magazine in itself and its content, but it embraces all phases of project management. Of course, there were ups and downs and moments I was even considering giving up, but in the end, if I could go back in time, I would have taken up the challenge again – The AEGEEan is the perfect platform to know and discover by your own means what happens in AEGEE and have a broad picture of the association. We speak with so many interesting people, we report about so many outstanding locals, and publish about so many inspiring projects and initiatives. My highlights are each one of our team achievements, our live meeting in Brussels, and all the times we have given voice to projects and members who have had a positive impact in AEGEE and in Europe.

You are also in the board of AEGEE-Barcelona. What are your plans with AEGEE-Barcelona?

Unfortunately I will be out of the city for a couple of months and my role will be mainly an advisory one meanwhile. But AEGEE-Barcelona has quite some interesting plans! In January we organize a Regional Training Course with AEGEE-Tarragona and AEGEE-Castelló, we are developing the concept of our pre-event for European Planning Meeting Burgos next February and we might be also organizing something for Spring AgorAsturias. I would personally love to organize something for the 30^th Anniversary of AEGEE, perhaps a meeting with current and old members, so we can re-gain contact with our alumni. We are also planning some exchanges, and of course, a Summer University, probably within Catalunya this time.

AEGEE-Barcelona recently became Local of the Month. What makes your local unique in the Network?

Hmm, I don’t know who runs the world, but I know who runs AEGEE-Barcelona – girls! Out of our active members, about 80% is female, while three-four years ago it was completely the opposite. I think our biggest strength is that there is a strong cooperation between newbies and older members, and that we are a big group of friends.

What are your plans for the upcoming months (both AEGEE and personal life)?

My life for the next few months will most likely be devoted to one single topic, since I’m part of the Anniversary Team: the 30^th Anniversary’s final conference. For this, I will be moving to Brussels, in order to assist the Comité Directeur with the preparations. This will also affect my personal life too, since it will mean to adapt myself to another city, even if it will be just for a couple of months. Therefore, at least until May I will be fully focused on this. As I said, I want it to be (nearly) perfect! After that, we will see – I will probably start applying for Masters and internships like crazy. Of course, I will also still write for The AEGEEan and work with my Election Observation Project mates.

What are your dreams when it comes to AEGEE?

That’s a tough question. I think one of the greatest things of AEGEE is that you don’t know which opportunities will be knocking at your door, so I am still up for new challenges as long as AEGEE doesn’t end up becoming my comfort zone. However, if I had more time, I would love to give more trainings. My father is a professional trainer and I always wanted to follow in his steps – I guess AEGEE would be a wonderful platform to start. Anyway, I always say that I won’t retire from AEGEE until: 1) I take part in the Transsiberian TSU, and 2) I see an Agora being organized in Barcelona again (the first and only one so far was in 1999). And none of both things seem feasible to happen within the upcoming months, not even years!

What is the most valuable memory you have of AEGEE?

Oh, I have been asked this question a couple of times already, and every time I talk about a different one. This association has given me too many good moments! The first event will always be something to remember, all Agorae I have been to have been special somehow, the inspirational project team meetings, the times you have been an organizer/trainer and you have seen the smiles on the participants’ faces, the long and crazy bus rides to almost anywhere in Europe. Even the European Nights, despite that from time to time I tend to forget what happened. But, the best memories are always made by the people who have somehow left their footprint.

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen

AEGEE-Barcelona is one busy antenna! They have meetings every Saturday where they meet, socialize and discuss the future of their antenna. In one of those meetings a while ago, they decided to host Fundraising European School (FRES) and it is that particular event that has made them become the Local of the Month of October. The AEGEEan interviewed Clàudia Nogués, who is the newly elected President, as well as Anna Gumbau, the Vice-President and co-main organiser of FRES.

The AEGEEan: How does it feel to be selected Local of the Month?

AEGEE-Barcelona: First of all, we did not expect to be elected as Local of the Month, so it was a great surprise for the antenna. Moreover, after organizing a good and hard-working FRES (Fundraising European School) it was the way to recognize our effort. In the name of all members of the antenna we want to thank you so much for this honor that The AEGEEan has awarded us with!

How do you keep your members active in your antenna?

We try to do many activities with different topics: ranging from our traditional weekly meetings and different lunch meetings such as barbecues or paellas for the members and friends (it is a strategy to get new members, too!) to excursions to discover Catalonia. Furthermore, we encourage all of them to apply for the hundreds of events happening around Europe, from Agorae until New Year’s Eve, and get steeped in AEGEE spirit.

You have elected a new board in October. What have been the highlight(s) of the past board year?

We are very happy with the activities and events that we have organized during this year, and the goals that we have reached. For example we prepared Agoraphobia, the pre-event for Autumn Agora Zaragoza, with lot of success. Also we have done our usual Travel Summer University, in this case with AEGEE-Valladolid.

In order to put an end to a great year, we wanted to organize a serious and formal event as Fundraising European School. But AEGEE-Barcelona doesn’t focus only on organizing events! We work everyday to maintain our members happy and help them with all they need. Also, we try to be present in different universities and make AEGEE more visible. So now we wish for the new board of AEGEE-Barcelona a bright future during this year and to keep working with our aims.

How was the organization of FRES?

Organising the Fundraising European School was a really big adventure: we had to prepare the budget, the social programme and all the logistic arrangements in a very short period of time, practically during only one month, since the event was right after the summer holidays and most of our corporate and institutional partners were out for vacation. Moreover, it is very demanding to stay full of energy, during almost ten days, for such an exhausting event… But yay, we managed!

Really, initially we organised the FRES because even though AEGEE-Barcelona has organised several events, most of them have been purely fun/leisure, with neither any learning content behind it nor any contribution to the Strategic Plan and the Action Agenda. Therefore it was a great way to step out from our comfort zone and try something new. The result, seeing that participants were having fun and enjoying the event, was really rewarding.

What did you learn from the experience?

On the thematic aspect, we got to learn how a training event is from the inside. Moreover, when we had some spare time, we always sat next to the participants during training sessions and took notes of what the trainers were saying, so we actually learnt some things regarding fundraising! On the purely organisational aspect, we learnt a lot regarding time management, and especially the importance of having a strong team, which is coordinated and has the same vision on the event.

What was the best thing about organizing the event?

Teamwork, without any doubt. When some locals organise such big events and the organisers spend so many hours working together, sometimes in very stressful situations, they always run the risk of fighting with each other, having arguments, facing misunderstandings… This was not the case in AEGEE-Barcelona, instead we always worked as a team, rowed in the same direction, got to know each other’s strengths better, and it made our friendship grow stronger. Moreover, we had many new and motivated members who learnt a lot about event management by taking active steps and we had kind of a knowledge transfer “on the spot” and while the event was taking place. Just because of this, all the effort was worth it.

Would you do it again?

Alright, the event is still too close to consider doing it again! Well, probably not FRES, and probably not even another European School, but since we have really learnt many valuable lessons in event management, we will surely come up with some other thematic event some time soon. The 30th Anniversary of AEGEE, the two upcoming Statutory Events in Spain… These are both some good excuses in order to challenge ourselves once again.

What plans does AEGEE-Barcelona have in the near future?

The new board has started with extra-motivation, with a team ranging from “oldies” to a new generation. Our main goal for this year is to keep doing things as good as the previous board. We want to organize, for example, pre-events for the EPM in Burgos and AgorAsturias. Also, we have started to think about the next Summer University. Furthermore, we are happy to have exchanges with some antennae, a part from the usual visits that we have during the year from other Spanish antennae with their Erasmus in Barcelona; moreover, we are also planning to get engaged again with the Catalan Youth Council. To finish, we would like to create a twin antenna for the next two years!

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-Zaragoza

There you are, in the air somewhere between your home country and the Summer University. Destination: two unforgettable weeks. Valladolid, June 20th 2014. As we arrived, tired from the more or less long travel, we just had the time to put down our luggage and choose a spot to place our air-mattress and we were immediately thrown into some ice-breaking games! One, two, three… twenty-five… twenty-seven… confusion! Who is a participant? Who is an organizer? Well, after two hours of games we knew. And we even knew their names, the nationalities, the likes and dislikes of everybody. I should use these methods to study.

In a few days we discovered most of the history of Valladolid (hey, did you know it has the oldest University of Spain and that it used to be the capital city?). We could appreciate the art of the sculptures (some had a very unique gender), and we were frightened by the Christian traditional Pentecost procession! We left Valladolid after some days, in a cloudy morning after a night we will always remember (or not) as Sexy Tequila Night, with a large Spanish vocabulary thanks to the lessons of our awesome organizers (¿Quieres follar? Contigo no, ¡bicho!). In Peñafiel we discovered the charm of a non-globalized old village, with its particular Plaza del Coso and the beautiful Castle with a view of the landscape, but we also discovered that old traditions of a population may go against our own ideas.

The big surprise has been Rioseco, for the first time in a week we could sleep in a real bed and eat real, handmade food (made with love) for the European Night. There we had one of the best days (and nights) of the SU: we could show our wild side during a morning of canoeing and cycling, our intellectual side through a visit to the old mill and our dark side, that had been unchained after dinner, during the European Night. We found out that trying to drink from each bottle on the same night is not such a good idea, even worse, is trying to play “I have never” and revealing all your darkest secrets without being able to remember it the next day.

After that we came back to Valladolid and the next day we took the train to Barcelona. In Barcelona were welcomed by new organizers that had set up a fresh dinner for us. It was nice to have dinner, lunch and breakfast outside, in the garden of the school that hosted us. Barcelona is a big city, which we explored by playing games. We have had a gymkhana all along the passage de Gracia where there are many works of Gaudì of which we found out curiosities and noticed little particular things that usually are not mentioned in tourist-guided tours. We also entered the Sagrada Familia, where the pleasant voice of the audio-guide led us under the column of this epic construction. We were shown The Gothic Cathedral through the history of Enrichetta, a thief of children, brightly performed by our creative organizers.

In Barcelona we also enjoyed the beach and the sun, when the weather finally decided to let us down. The beach of Sitges was definitely worth the visit. Despite the crowd, the village is nice, full of good ice cream shops and the sea water was very clear. We finished visiting the city with a bike city tour, where we revisited the wonderful Parc de la Ciutadella; the one we visited the first day when it was raining. When it is sunny, everything looks even more beautiful.

We got very instructive lessons about the culture of Catalunia. We finally knew how to insult each other in Catalán (ruuuuuuc) and we tasted the liquor Melody (a liquor made with Catalan cream) and the brioche. We were true gluttons, when the organizers prepared us an original delicious paella. Everybody agreed that it has been the best gift they could have given us. Every morning we experienced the consequence of the wild night life for which Barcelona is so famous, so sometimes loud music was not enough wake us up. We needed an explosion and we did get a true explosion. We had the true explosion on the last day, but of feelings, when we had to deflate our mattresses, put away our things, say goodbye and go back home. But we did not have to leave with nothing: we got to bring home a big suitcase, full of new experiences and memories, but with enough space for more awesome experiences like this one!

Written by Chiara Langianni, AEGEE-Firenze and Serena Zaccà, AEGEE-Leiden

Two Summer Universities, two New Years Event and one Youth Rights video are amongst the nominees for The AEGEEan’s Choice Awards “Best Video” category. The AEGEEan interviewed three of the nominees about the process of creating the movies and discovered how a precious AEGEE flag was almost destroyed in the process.

The AEGEEan talked with Ksenia Lupanova about the nominated AEGEE-Moskva video, which had the aim to entertain people and consider going to Moscow for a crazy event to see all the sights during winter time. “Me and Dasha Onohova came up with the idea for the video. She was main coordinator of the event. Since we started to be active in AEGEE-Moskva it was clear that shooting a promo always brings only benefits: it is a great local activity where everybody has fun, and of course it helps a lot with the promotion of events. Our event was New Years Event (NYE) Noviy God po-russki (Russian New Year), so we got the idea to make a short, fun and memorable video, with an element of action, Moscow beauty sights and a pinch of humor,” Ksenia tells The AEGEEan. The video was shot at Ded-Moroz and Snegurochka during the creation of the AEGEE-Moskva calendar 2014, so everybody at that moment helped Dasha and Ksenia with creating it. There weren’t many challenges for the girls when making the video. “Just to not die from laughing, and to keep a balance with humor. To be honest, Putin came as an element of fun already during the process of cutting the video, it was like “Why not, he is funny here”, and people reacted really cool in Agora Zaragora.” When asked about why this video should win Ksenia says, “It’s really hard to say who has the best video, because every video is so different from each other with different ideas. All videos can be winners. But the best video has to make you emotional and give you positive energy. I think ours got this.”

AEGEE-Gdansk is also nominated for The AEGEEan’s Choice Awards for the promotion of their NYE event. The AEGEEan interviewed President Tomasz Kowalski who came up with the idea. The script was written together in a project meeting through an incredible and fantastic brainstorming. Some improvements and ideas with stunt actions were added during shooting the movie. Later on everyone from AEGEE-Gdansk helped creating it. The cameraman and the director was Krzysztof Warzała from their fellow organisation Academic Culture Center (Akademickie Centrum Kultury). In the movie the NYE’s team and those who just came to the main meeting occurred. Everyone had the opportunity to try and show their acting skills. The aim of the movie was promotion of the New Year’s Eve in AEGEE-Gdansk and to show what the future participants could expect: Bond’s climate and good fun in AEGEE style. Small chills of excitement, incredible tasks and a final ‘battle’ with a happy ending. The challenges for this video were different than what you would expect. “We only had one problem… our President’s distraction. After shooting the first part of the cut scene, we went to McDonalds. I was proudly carrying our precious flag in a suitcase, which can be seen at the end of the video. Unfortunately, I left it in the restaurant. After an hour, at home I realized that I did not have it and went back to the restaurant to get it. Unfortunately… It turned out that the staff thought the suitcase (with the flag in it!) was a bomb. The whole McDonalds was evacuated, the police came and the bomb squad was almost called. They told us that the flag was gone forever and destroyed. Our Bond not only had the mission in the movie to recover the flag, but also had it in real life. Especially since the next day the final scene had to be shot and two days later we wanted to take it to the Agora in Zaragoza! Fortunately, the morning after, it occurred that the suitcase was on top of the trash-bin and Tomasz managed to take it back. The mission was completed and the flag was in the hands of AEGEE-Gdansk again. The whole story is written down and has five pages if anybody is interested.”

Another interesting event to promote are Summer Universities. Lídia Garcia Serra, Promotion Manager of AEGEE-Barcelona, is the master mind behind the video of AEGEE-Barcelona and AEGEE-Las Palmas that got nominated for The AEGEEan Choice Awards. The idea of the video was based in all of this: being Promotion Manager of her antenna, video maker and organizer of the SU.  Most of the video was recorded and edited by Lídia and she explains The AEGEEan the aim of the video: “The video was created for different reasons: its first aim was to sum up the Summer University that took place in 2013. We wanted it to be a souvenir for both the participants and organizers. I had made other videos about specific parts of the event, but I wanted to create one last video that showed the places visited and the feelings and emotions experienced by participants and organizers. We also wanted to make a video that served to show what a Summer University is in order to get new active members. So, we really wanted to show the AEGEE spirit.” The biggest challenge in the process was the lack of good material “to create an attractive and professional video with our resources and to record material while we were organizing all the activities at the same time was difficult, but I’m so proud of the result and I’m sure we’ll achieve our aims,” Lídia says. She was also asked by The AEGEEan about why the two antennae should win the best video category: “Our Summer University from last year was one of the challenging ones since the two locals are so far away from each other. It was difficult at the beginning but we finally built an awesome event that all of us will bear in our memories forever. It all started with a promotional video (which has a similar structure and the same song) and ended with this last one. Indeed, videos were a very important part of our Summer University as we also organized a lipdub and we obtained fundraising thanks to a promotional video too. That every participant and AEGEE member involved in the event -and even others who weren’t- think of our Summer University and our videos when they hear the song I need your love from Calvin Harris ft. Ellie Goulding is something that encourage us to think that we really contributed to the success AEGEE, its project and its aims.” 

The Comité Directeur is nominated for the “Youth Rights” video which was developed by the participants of the Youth Rights event, but it has unfortunately not been possible for The AEGEEan to get information about the video.

AEGEE-Dnipropetrovsk is also nominated for this category for this video. Unfortunately, it has not been possible for The AEGEEan to get in contact with the antenna and hear about the idea behind the video. In case that The AEGEEan obtains more information, this article will be updated.

In the meantime, don’t forget to vote! You have until April 10^th.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-Zaragoza

One of the most popular pre-events of Agora Zaragoza was “AGORAPHOBIA” organised by AEGEE-Barcelona and as it has been shown from pictures that were published on the Facebook page of AEGEE-Barcelona as well as Facebook profiles of the participants and organizers, and from their big smiles, it was really successful!

When my airplane landed I could not wait to go to the hostel and start meeting forty AEGEEans! Tired enough from my flight, but felt really fresh when reaching the dining room I heard the sounds of participants and organizers! They were laughing, they were talking… they were happy for being in Barcelona and let the event begin! How did it officially begin? By important and funny, and at the same time AGORAPHOBIC introductions from Nacho López del Blanco (organiser from AEGEE-Barcelona)! And what do AEGEE people need to start coming closer? Ice-breaking games of course! The group got out in Barcelona streets and played some funny and energetic games! Next stop – party! What else? The spirit was drinking beer, dancing, making crazy moves, funny AEGEEans, laughter and amazing time!

Next morning even if it seemed difficult to wake up, the sunny day and the thought of the first walk in Barcelona made it much easier! First stop: “Plaza España”! That was the best way to see how beautiful this city is – by walking in Barcelona’s big streets, watching the amazing edifices and the awesome water fountains. It was so nice to start “getting lost” in Barcelona! And what was the best price for being exhausted by walking so many hours? Paella! Some of the organisers had already gone to a big area, a bit out of the city, where people usually go to eat with their friends and being entertained. When the rest of the group reached them, cold sangria and some snacks were there waiting for the hungry participants. After having enjoyed one of the best paellas, three Spanish guys decided to entertain everyone more by playing songs in their guitars (David Martín Pérez, and El Juli Pallares Garcia, organizers from AEGEE-Barcelona, Ander Fernández, participant from AEGEE-Bilbao) and that is how that lunch turned out awesome! What was next? The AGORAPHOBIC night city tour! Did the participants dare to go? They did! Did they regret it? NO! People were all asked to get dressed in dark clothes and have candles… The meeting point was outside of the cathedral of the old town of Barcelona. That was the beginning…Two weird ladies (organisers) started to unravel a story… a scary story that was coming alive in front of the participants’ eyes!!! Some scary people (the organisers) were presenting a scary deadly story in parallel with the visit of the old town… In the aftermath their performance was great and made the night really worthwhile!

The next bright day in Barcelona started. What was first? Some weird but at the same time really interesting activities about trusting others, familiar and non-familiar. But the most impressive activity was the one that the group had their eyes covered – each sat at the opposite side of another person and had a material between them (something like clay) that could be formed in any shape. By cooperating with the other person the result was awesome. Everyone made some really nice objects. The event continued with the bike city tour. Two hours riding a bike and at the same time visiting the impeccable city of Barcelona was a fantastic experience!

The sense of riding a bicycle in a marine area with people full of AEGEE spirit along with the freedom that accelerating the bike offers was one of the moments of the event that will not be forgotten. Such a unique feeling that still feels hard to describe. The rule of the night was to be dressed frighteningly as it was the Halloween period! Everyone’s scary face made the night priceless! Spanish terror night was an amazing experience as participants had the chance to taste traditional drinks and food, all prepared perfectly by the organisers! After having a great time there eating, drinking and laughing, participants were ready to terrify the residents of Barcelona in a club! Full of joy, enthusiasm and energy, happy AEGEE people danced till dawn!

“Para bailar la bamba, Para bailar la bamba se necesita una poca de gracia, una poca de gracia para mi para ti y arriba y arriba y arriba y arriba por ti sere, por ti sere, por ti sere” This is how the last day in Barcelona started. Why? AEGEE-Bilbao had stolen the flag of AEGEE-Praha and here was the punishment. Participants from AEGEE-Praha had to find five random people during breakfast and persuade them to sing “La Bamba” in front of everyone so as to take back their flag! And they made it! The three participants from AEGEE-Praha (Lucie Zágorová, Pavel Jíša, Milena Jurigova) who were singing and dancing with the strangers, along with the guitar escort of Ander Fernández (AEGEE-Bilbao) made the day start with plenty of positive energy. Now it was the right time to start walking on the streets of the city! The group was walking for a long time but did not care as they were lucky to be gathered in an amazing city and make new friends.

The day passed by talking, laughing, watching incredible Barcelona, getting crazy and capturing mad moments that will remain the best souvenir! The last city tour culminated with a visit to a university where participants obtained knowledge about the first steps of cinema. Interesting even for those who are not passionate about this field! AGORAPHOBIA ended with a Suit Up party. The last night everyone was looking even more sexy in their fancy clothes! Drinking, dancing and partying with the most excited people made the night!

And it is always difficult when the departure day comes! Difficult to say goodbye to your new friends, but their warm hugs, their smiles and their “See you again” promises make it less hard to leave and make you feel blessed for having such an experience with these exact people, their exact smiles and positive energy that made you happy everyday!

Written by Dimitra Fratzeskou (AEGEE-Peiraias)