The latest online workshop for National Coordinators for European Robotics Week took place on 3 May. Hosted by euRobotics secretary-general Reinhard Lafrenz and communication consultant Steve Doswell, ‘Rethinking ERW’ gave participants an opportunity to explore themes raised at the previous workshop in March. Against a backdrop of uncertainty arising from the continuing pandemic, war in Ukraine and recessionary pressures in the European economy, there are currently no candidates to host a Central Event this year.
However, the workshop applied some creative thinking inspired by ‘A Beautiful Constraint’, an approach (and a book) which encourages problem-solvers to embrace constraints rather than to be limited by them. As a result, euRobotics and the National Coordinator community are now working up some ideas to re-imagine the ERW model. One element of this concerns the delivery of a pan-European competition. A sub-group of NCs has been formed to pool their thinking and experience of delivering competitions and to take a closer look at an outline proposal that was shared at the workshop.
A further workshop for National Coordinators is foreseen for early summer, date to be agreed. The newsletter will report again on progress towards ERW 2022.