Day 3 of the Youth in Landscapes initiative’s workshop, Global Landscapes Forum, Paris
On Day 3 of the youth workshop, it was high time for participants to get their hands dirty in the task of developing solutions to their specific landscapes challenges. The teams brainstormed a range of solutions and then assessed them against a set of criteria they had developed.
Each group met their mentor – the partner organisation’s focal point – to keep pulse on the progress done thus far and to receive the support they needed. They were invited to discuss the steps they had taken towards tackling their challenges and the reasons behind their choices. The groups were encouraged to openly share any questions and to seek their mentors’ guidance.
“The interaction with our mentors really helped us to expand our ideas. We are coming up with something very innovative. It is scary in a way, because it is so new that we don’t know if people will buy into it. But we are happy about it. We are bold and happy to be bold.” Paul, Measuring Success challenge innovator.
As the teams were developing their ideas, a question was increasingly arising: “but after pitching our idea, what’s next? Can we express in our pitch the will we have to carry on working on this project? Will we have opportunity to bring this idea further?”
Not all mentors were able to make it to the workshop venue; the teams had to adapt and use the power of technologies -and meet with their mentor via Skype. This in no way harmed the high level of interaction of the discussions.
The workshop will soon come to an end. On the next and final day, the teams will finalize and practise their pitch. They will also have to go through the hard step of choosing their representative: the youth champion who will get on stage at the Dragons Den on Sunday to pitch their ‘solution’ to the challenges they have been working intensely on over these four days.
