Lessons learnt
After more than a year of international mobility restrictions, we have learned how the structure of online meetings, especially those with many participants, can limit the opportunities for interaction in Q&A or wrap-up sessions (risk of overlapping, closed microphones, etc.). To stimulate more interactions during the 4th TLJ, partners decided to experiment with live discussion boards, which will accompany and (potentially) enrich the discussions during the 3 days of the TLJ.
During each of the TLJ days, at the opening of the meeting, we shared a link to a dedicated discussion board that remained active throughout the entire session. Each participant was invited to express his or her opinion and share ideas and comments on digital post-it notes.
These "extended" post-it sessions were then used to organise wrap-up sessions at the end of each of the TLJ days. In addition, the second and third TLJ days began by summarising the reflections shared by the partners on the previous day, to coherently resume discussions and stimulate further reflection. The following graphics represent the main topics discussed through the live discussion boards during the three days of TLJ.
Conclusions
Faced with the renewed impossibility to organise the TLJ on-site, LCA4regions partners continued on the same dynamic as previously to organise another successful journey. This new piece of the puzzle provided useful information, references and learnings to partners and helps them setting towards the elaboration of their Action Plans.
For example, one partner is studying the possibility to include in its Action Plan an action related to GPP and the use of LCA tools for GPP, so this TLJ and in particular the Good Practices and the experience of Slovenia proved to be very useful.
Partners tried an innovative method to compensate the diminished interactivity inherent to online meetings, in a spirit of always improving the TLJ. As suggested above, efforts for the next TLJ should be focused on the preparation of the peer-review session beforehand and the engagement of stakeholders.
The next TLJ will take place in September 2021, organised by the Lodzkie region. It will tackle the topic of LCA in training and capacity building.
