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

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

3. Conclusions
Best plenary meeting to date – participants starting to feel comfortable
Satisfaction of participants remains high overall & plenary session satisfaction more consistent
New question: “CA ESD has triggered action in my country”
Opportunity to review future questions (to inform CA ESD II & benchmarks for CA ESD II evaluations – standard questions)

4. Overall satisfaction
“The event fulfilled the general aims and objectives” 100% (95% Sofia / 92% Brussels / 97% Rome / 93% Riga / 86% Vienna / 93% Paris)
“Overall the meeting facilitated valuable interaction” 97% (99% / 91% / 92% / 96% / 89% / 88%)
“The CA ESD has triggered action in my country” 69% (74% Lisbon - new question)

5. Relevance & understanding
“My knowledge of ESD implementation in other participating countries increased” 97% (93% / 94% / 92% / 91% / 91%)
“Other participants demonstrated a good level of knowledge on the ESD” 98% (89% Lisbon / 94% Brussels, 92% Rome)
“The topics covered within CA ESD are relevant to ESD issues being worked in my country” 100% (98% Lisbon / 96% Brussels, 95% Rome)

6. 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

7. 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%

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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 ( list?)

11. 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%)

12. 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.

13. 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...

14. Facilities & logistics
Quality of venue 90% (96% / 86% / 72% / 85% / 86% / 95%)
Accommodation 95% (98% / 78% / 80% / 84% / 86% / 93%)
Food & catering 83% (92% / 80% / 70% / 85% / 75% / 89%)
CA ESD dinner 75% (71% / 53% / 87% / 86% / 77% / 95%)
Overall cost 70% (70% / 64% / 61% / 89% / 67%)
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.

15. Pre-event preparation
“I received enough information prior to the event in order to prepare” 100% (100% / 90% / 100% / 93% / 96% / 90%)
“Clear info was communicated regarding registration, accommodation, agenda etc…” 96% (100% / 96% / 100% / 96% / 96% / 90%)
Information on dinner should be sent out earlier in future.

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