Annual General Meeting 2024: Promoting literacy in a changing world
Modern society is facing big challenges: all over Europe (and beyond), people are worried about misinformation and the impact it has on nations.
Social media is by now ever-present in our daily lives, and the group of (even young) children using them keeps growing. Meanwhile, their reading skills decline. The development of Artificial Intelligence is reaching a momentum that is being followed closely (and with fear?) in the fields of education and the creative sector. World crises dominate mainstream media.
In this context, it seems even more essential for reading promoters to fight illiteracy and to promote reading skills in general. We see a clear correlation between declining reading skills in society and the aforementioned problems. But how do we get that message across to parents, teachers, and our financial partners and promoters? How can we raise awareness of these issues at local, national, and European levels? What is our responsibility, and what is our response?
The AGM 2024 will be held on the 3rd and 4th of June, 2024, in Athens (Greece).
Location: Premises of Goethe-Institut Athens, 14-16 Omirou str., Athens, Greece.
AGENDA
3rd June, 2024
12.30 – 13.00 Registration
13.00 – 13.20 Welcome notes by the special guests Bettina Wenzel – Goethe-Institut Athen, Ava Chalkiadaki – Diavazontas Megalono, Katarina Barley – vice-president of the European Parliament (video) and Andrew Kay – CEO World Literacy Foundation (video).
13.20 – 13.30 Official opening by Dr. Jörg F. Maas, Chair of EURead | Stiftung Lesen
13.30 – 14.25 Strategic Vision and EURead Statement on Reading and Literacy. Discussion for further actions on strategy and advocacy
14.25 – 15.05 Welcome new members from Poland, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Bulgaria
15.05 – 15.35 Reading promotion in Greece: the deficits of public reading policies and the leading role of the civil society (Speaker: Ava Chalkiadaki, Diavazontas Megalono (Greece)
15.35 – 16.00 Coffee Break
16.00 – 16.40 Reading To Change Our Minds: Keynote speaker Prof. Adriaan van der Weel, Leiden University, The Netherlands
16.40 – 17.50 Let’s Talk About… Early Literacy
- Update from the Global Network for Early Years Bookgifting (Peter Jenkins, Global Network Manager | BookTrust United Kingdom)
- Bookgifting Toolkit: Process and Motivation (Emmi Jäkkö, Lukukeskus – The Finnish Reading Center – Finland)
- Pilot reading promotion intervention in Primary Healthcare in Greece. First observations (Evanthia Sakellari, Diavazontas Megalono – Greece)
- BookStart Spain: reading promotion, culture and more (Ana Molina, Asociación Artística-Sociocultural Mestiza – Spain)
- Q&A session Global Network topics
- The Impact of Networking: Can EURead learn from Global Network and vice versa? How can we be more impactful? Discussion, moderated by Daan Beeke – Network Manager EURead | Stichting Lezen
17.50 – 18.00 Reflections on Day 1
20.00 – 22.00 Official Dinner
Speech by Eleni Geroulanou – writer, educator, founder of Library4all and the Hellenic Children’s Museum in Athens, member of the Greek section of IBBY and an honorary member of Diavazontas Megalono
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4h June, 2024
8.30 – 09.00 Coffee
9.00 – 09.30 Warm-up with Evi Andrianou
9.30 – 12.30 General Assembly – Members Only! Finances, Legal Matters, Reports from the EURead Teams etc.
12.30 – 13.30 Lunch (Street Food Challenge)
13.30 – 14.25 Let’s Talk About… New Media
- Fakeless – Exhibition on media literacy – Nikoletta Stathopoulou, Head of Information & Library, Goethe-Institut Athen (Greece)
- Innovative Approaches to Digital Reading in Education – Sonja Hoge, Managing Director of Onilo, Germany
- Q&A New Media
14.25 – 14.35 Coffee Break
14.35 – 15.35 Let’s Talk About… Reading Promotion and Politics
- Good Practices in the field of reading promotion and politics
15.35 – 15.45 Reflections on the AGM 2024
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18.00 – 20.30 Open Forum “Literacy and democracy in the era of technology and information: facts, challenges, strategies”
