Summary of evaluation of 7th (and final Summary of evaluation of 7th (and final!) Plenary meeting, Sofia & overall average results Emilie Carmichael CA ESD II Management Team meeting, Brussels 15 June 2011 1 1

Contents Conclusions Overall satisfaction Relevance & understanding Plenary sessions Parallel sessions Qualitative feedback on CA ESD Communications feedback – website and Forum Facilities and logistics Pre-event preparation Suggestions for future invited guests

Conclusions One of best plenary meeting to date Satisfaction of participants over all 7 plenary meetings consistently high (see average score for all meetings in brackets) Over two thirds of respondents agree that “CA ESD has triggered action in my country” Satisfaction with communications is high and has improved as a result of programme continual improvement

Overall satisfaction “The event fulfilled the general aims and objectives” 100% (94% CA ESD average score) “Overall the meeting facilitated valuable interaction” 97% (93% CA ESD average score) “The CA ESD has triggered action in my country” 69% (74% Lisbon – confirmed this is not statistically significant)

Relevance & understanding “My knowledge of ESD implementation in other participating countries increased” 97% (93% CA ESD average score) “Other participants demonstrated a good level of knowledge on the ESD” 98% (93% CA ESD average score) “The topics covered within CA ESD are relevant to ESD issues being worked in my country” 100% (97% CA ESD average score)

Plenary sessions Day 1 Scott Pedersen, Chairman of the European Association of ESCOs 87% News from EACI - Tim Noel 80% News from EC - Krzystof Gierulski 87% Lucinda Maclagan, CA ESD Coordinator – 92% Day 2 Outlook on EU Energy policy - Krzystof Gierulski & Mark Rimmel 84% Outlook on CA ESD II - Lucinda Maclagan & Emilie Carmichael 98% Qualitative comments – very interesting discussions with DG ENER on Outlook on EU Energy Policy – suggestion to allow more time in future. Some people disappointed that they missed the most valuable discussion (DG ENER outlook on Energy Policy) at the end of Day 2 6

Plenary sessions – Core Theme finale! Q&A with CT Leaders on CA ESD II subtopics 88% CT leader closing addresses: Ulla Suomi 93% Tadeusz Skoczkowski 74% Nino Di Franco 88% Stephan Renner 57% Inguna Ozolina 75%

Parallel sessions Feedback similar to Lisbon: Generally well received & positive feedback from participants Time allowance, relevance, interaction between participants and group exercises most variable responses See detailed analysis in accompanying document (in MT area of website) Future focus for improvement: more time for discussions, focus on increasing interaction between participants and better planning of group exercises

Qualitative feedback on CA ESD – most valued Parallel sessions – discussions on specific topics Face to face interaction: plenary meetings, networking & bilateral opportunities Case studies / good practice – can we make event better? Facilitation of information exchange (comms, website, reports, structured exchange) News from DG ENER, EACI, Coordinator 9

Qualitative feedback on CA ESD – room for improvement Parallel sessions – presentation of draft report / results (too long – we’ve read!) WG questionnaires – length, questions (structure, composition, language) – more supervision / support required? Website forum – how to increase use? Alternatives (email list?)

Communications feedback – website general Website speed - 82% (compared to 55% Warsaw) say the website speed is acceptable, 18% (33% Warsaw) it is sometimes slow, none said it was always slow (9% Warsaw) – significant improvement! New promotional boxes - 83% say they are either very useful or useful. New signposting page - 82% of respondents say it has improved navigation Homepage signposting -100% very useful or useful CA ESD section (plenary and general documents) 100% very useful or useful Management Team section - 83% very useful or useful Core Themes section - 95% very useful or useful Resources section - 82% very useful or useful Forum - 100% either useful or average (Useful 70%, Average 30%)

Communications feedback - Forum Nearly a third of respondents were not aware of the Forum (28%) Of those who were aware of the Forum nearly two thirds haven’t used it (62%) Of those who were aware of the Forum just under half (47%) are aware that you can sign up for alerts – more than 50% (53%) were not aware of this functionality Of who were aware of the Forum only 16% have signed up for alerts – more than 75% (77%) have not and 7% don’t know if they have! Of those who responded to the question "how useful do you find the forum?" 12% very useful, 50% quite useful (so very or quite useful = 62%), 35% OK, only 3% not at all. More positive feedback than we expected – problem is with awareness, promoting the benefits and getting people signed up for alerts.

Communications feedback – website feedback summary High level of satisfaction with all sections of website. Expect to see improvement in balance between very useful and useful for Resources sections in CA ESD II due to some of the new tools we'll introduce. (Unsurprisingly) Least satisfaction is with Forum (although this still gets good / OK feedback)  Forum will be the focus for our improvement work in the coming year - link to results to specific questions on the forum (- i.e. need to raise awareness / promote, get more people signed p for alerts etc...

Facilities & logistics Quality of venue 90% (87% CA ESD average score) Accommodation 95% (88% CA ESD average score) Food & catering 83% (82% CA ESD average score) CA ESD dinner 75% (78% CA ESD average score) Overall cost 70% (70% CA ESD average score) Getting to and from the dinner venue considered challenging / a bit too long by some. Suggestion that hosts prepare some short information about nearby sight seeing / history of the city in future. Information on dinner should be sent out earlier in future.

Pre-event preparation “I received enough information prior to the event in order to prepare” 100% (96% CA ESD average score) “Clear info was communicated regarding registration, accommodation, agenda etc…” 96% (96% CA ESD average score) Information on dinner should be sent out earlier in future.

Suggestions for invited guests CA EPBD & CA RES CONCERTO & CONCERTO+ PERMANENT, Czech Republic, Michael ten Donkelaar (ENVIROS) Energy Savings Calculation project by the IEA www.naesco.org 16