In this current climate of forced isolation and remote access to work, the engagement of the community is more than ever close to the GÉANT Partner Relations team’s heart. So, the idea to create a platform for the whole community to touch base and enable information flow sparked very naturally from this team. In less than a week the GEANT Community Café was launched and saw its official ‘soft’ opening on Thursday 9th April.
35 participants from NRENS and other friends of the GÉANT community joined our virtual café. The hour flew by as everybody was ready to chat informally just like during TNC’s coffee breaks or any of our community events.
For practical reasons the café was split in three breakout rooms (Networks, Services, People) and participants were given the option to access a room of their choice.
In the ‘People’ room both, GÉANT Community Committee’s former and newly appointed chairs, Valter North and Claudio Allocchio, took active part in the event demonstrating their support for the community in the time of COVID-19. Claudio commented: ‘There is a great need to support all possible ways to share ideas, discussions and issues, as easily as possible, with our great community. The Community Cafè is a great initiative as it enables to enhance and extend what usually happens during informal meetings.”
The ‘Services’ room attracted several participants, Maria Ristkok chaired discussions around issues such as the use of the Zoom platform and clouds for R&E.
The “Network” room, hosted by Craig Volp, touched on a number of questions around how NREN networks and GÉANT are coping during the pandemic.
The participants’ interest and enthusiasm were so strong to encourage us to organise more regular GÉANT Community Café events soon, where we will try different formats and follow up on shared ideas. So, get ready for the next gathering on 23 April at 16 CEST.
If you need more details, please don’t hesitate to contact the GÉANT partner relations team at partner-relations@geant.org.
How to join:
