Behind the 1st Digital Session
Did you know that the 1st Digital Session in EYP history kicked off in April? Alina Gordienko and Viktoriia Ozerkevych represented EYP Ukraine at this historical event and we asked them to share their thoughts about the 1st Digital Session of EYP.
I am Viktoriia Ozerkevych and I am a participant of the 1st EYP digital session.
About the format: It is a brand new format for the EYP and it differs a little bit from a traditional EYP session. For example, how do you imagine team building during the session? Maybe some games, activities, but during the digital session the officials team provided it online! In my opinion, it was a great achievement. We didn’t have a traditional “Hi-ha-ho”, but we had a lot of new activities and we had so much fun! Despite the fact that there were thousands of kilometers between us, we became a real team with my committee!
How everything was organized: Although it seems impossible to feel happy or sad, to express emotions, to make friends online, we busted the myths. You should have seen us singing “Imagine” together with 111 delegates from all over the Europe and realizing that the session is over. It was so touching! And I remember our farewell — a Zoom meeting with my committee, when we said our goodbyes and left the meeting one by one, understanding that it is our last Zoom meeting. I was almost crying; it was impressive, and it is now forever engraved in my memory. By the way, we still stay in touch with each other and the main advantage of the digital session is that we can reduce our social distance and still make friends with awesome people! We created a wonderful resolution on healthcare systems’ preparedness for future pandemics and I believe it will help the EU and its Member States in the nearest future.
About Committee activities: Our Committee Work was very productive. And the advantage here is that we didn’t use any paper! It was completely online. We used a special app, which was very easy to use. We had good discussions and our Chairperson helped us so much! As for the General Assembly — it was brilliantly organized! It was in Zoom and I am more than sure that it was the longest and the biggest Zoom meeting in EYP history! Also we used a platform for online debates and it was very interesting as well.
I was lucky to participate in the Euroconcert organized by beautiful people and it is a good alternative to the live one.
About the new knowledge: Everybody has achieved their goals and, personally, I see that I have gained some new knowledge, improved my English (because it’s 4 days of English practice), improved my speech-writing and delivering speeches, developed my communication skills and became a proficient user of new apps!
Future perspectives of digital sessions: The advantage of digital sessions is in gathering so many intelligent, innovative and talented people from all over the Europe together to make history! Also it is democratic, because not everybody can afford to go to the International Session, but now here that is a chance! I am very proud that I was a part of such a cool event and met so many smart people from 35 countries.
I hope that EYP Ukraine will follow this digitalization trend and there will be a real digital session soon. And if you are new to EYP or even if you are an oldie, I strongly recommend you to participate in such kinds of events! This is the best way to feel this European spirit even during the pandemic without leaving your house! And I encourage everybody to become a part of this future! The future is exciting!
And let’s be united even if there are miles apart.
Remember that together we stay,
Divided we fall.
About the format: Honestly speaking, the Digital Session was neither anything dramatically unusual for me (I have been attending online school for weeks since the start of lockdown), nor has it been a drastically different EYP experience, since I only have one to compare to. Do not get me wrong — I am not saying that the conference lacked something, rather the opposite — it’s the community that makes the event special. As long as the EYP family is given a platform to communicate — we make it work amazingly.
How everything was organized: To get into more detail, various means, such as, but not limited to Zoom, Discord, Miro and Kialo were used for communication. The most outstanding benefits for me were the ability to capture and share information via audio and video messages in a matter of seconds and the lack of necessity to waste paper and plastic during the whole 4-day event. Thus, I would suggest that the session may even be looked at as more effective in terms of committee work. The General Assembly, however, was not too enjoyable, mostly to the absence of that feeling of unity and the need to be looking at a screen for the whole day, after having to do the same for three consecutive days prior to this.
General impressions: To sum this all up, maybe it is not the most popular opinion, but I would take part in a digital session once more. Quite surprisingly, some friendships that I have established over the four days have so far proven to be somewhat stronger than the ones I made in my first ‘real life’ EYP session.
