Focus on outcomes and new initiatives!

Dear participants of the 2008 ESF in Malmö,

Your and your organization’s presence in Malmö is a testimony that you are willing to act in a variety of ways to make another world possible. We salute your presence and wish you good luck and a great forum – you are needed to make another world possible!

The ESF in Malmö includes hundreds of program activities and uncountable informal  discussions and meetings. It is our role as the Nordic Organizing Committee to support the dynamics of the ESF process. And it is our role to mark this ESF, not as a singular event but as an incubating process for new initiatives, alliances and actions.

The aim of the ESF is not merely to discuss the status of Europe and the world – it is to really change the world. Our focus will therefore be put on new initiatives, alliance buildings, mobilizations and actions, and we will make an extra effort to highlight all the important outcomes, results and new initiatives that will surely be the fruit of this ESF.

The goal is to highlight all the results and new initiatives stemming from this forum – be they new alliances, mobilizations, call for actions, demonstrations, petitions, decisions and working plans among groups of organisations and give possibility to  participants to review them, join and express support for them.

Outcome and support forms

We have prepared two forms that you can use during and after the ESF – one for outcomes and new initiatives, one to support and register interest for new initiatives. You can download them as PDF here and here.

Outcome form

The Outcome form can be filled in directly online here. Please remember to bring your organization’s registration code to the ESF, as these will be used for registering outcomes!

Please use the online form if possible. Filling your Outcome form online is a necessary to make your outcome visible on the Internet also ensures that your outcome will be accessible on the ESF website after the forum. Using the online form also helps the work for the ESF outcome team.

The Outcome form is also included in paper version the program leflett on page 59, and will be handed out to you at all seminars, workshops or assemblies, and also available at Baltiska hallen, the ESF media-center and Amiralen during the closing session.

Filled in paper forms can be handed in to any of the ESF room coordinators present at all seminars, workshops or assemblies, or at the ESF media-center. The paper forms can be considered sketches for your final version later registered online. Write clearly if you are not sure to be able to register online before the end of the forum.

All registered outcomes (handed in as paper forms or registered online) will be copied and displayed on poster boards at the special outcome display point in Baltiska hallen (and possibly at more display points), and during the closing session on Sunday, 1.30-4.00 pm, in Amiralen (see below).

Whenever possible, please complete the process by entering the final information via the web-forms online.

Note: All outcomes registered on the web until Sunday 21st 12 am will be printed and taken to Amiralen. After that please bring your outcome directly to Amiralen from 1 pm and register and present your outcome directly at the venue.

Support form

The Support form will be handed out at all seminars, workshops or assemblies, and also available at Baltiska hallen, the ESF media-center and Amiralen during the closing session. Use them to collect support and interest for your outcome, for example by attaching them next to your outcome in Baltiska hallen and during the closing session in Amiralen.

Filled in Support forms can also be handed in together with the Outcome form to the venue volunteers at all seminars, workshops or assemblies, or at the ESF media-center. They will then be attached together with your outcome in Baltiska hallen and during the closing session in Amiralen (see below).

Suggestion on using the forms during a program activity

Outcomes and new initiatives may be the fruit both of the scheduled program activities – seminars, workshops, assemblies – or of all the informal meetings or networking outside the program. As activity organizers, you perhaps intend or will be able to finalize and present an outcomes/initiatives in the course of your activity. You can then use the Outcome- and Support forms (attached in this mail or handed to you by the ESF room coordinators and volunteers in connection with the program activities).

For example you can make a first draft of your outcome on paper before or during the program activity, together with other organisations, clearly stating which organisations are promoting it, and present it  - you then become an “outcome presenter”. Towards the end of the activity you can circulateit among the participants along with several copies of the Support forms, so they can express their type of interest, either in personal capacity or in the name of their organisation (se the attached Support form).

Whenever convenient for you  (the sooner the better, then your outcome will be displayed longer during the forum) hand in the Outcome form and the Support forms with collected names to the closest ESF room coordinator or volunteer, or at the ESF media-center. A copy of the forms will be sent to you by mail, and the outcome will be displayed together with the Support forms in Baltiska hallen. Check that your outcome is displayed in Baltiska hallen and prepare for promoting it during the closing session in Amiralen on Sunday 21st at 14pm  - practical preparation starts  from 1 pm. Be on time! (see below ).

Visibility of outcomes during the forum days

The NOC will use all our means to facilitate the promotion and visibility of your outcomes. Outcomes registered online will easily be accessible on the ESF website. During the forum days outcomes and new initiatives will be displayed and announced as they are registered and handed in. For this there will be at least one special outcome display point with special poster boards in Baltiska hallen, and possibly in another place. The outcomes will be displayed according to the thematic structure of the program and Support forms will be put next to each of them.

Apart from the service from the outcome team to display all registered outcomes you are of course both encouraged and welcome to add documents, information on the share of poster board that will be available for your outcome and to personalize your outcome presentations in Baltiska hallen (depending availability of display space) and in Amiralen during the closing session where more surface will be available (see below).

ESF 2008 clossing session – focused on outcomes and new initiatives

The ESF closing session in Amiralen/Stora scenen on Sunday September 21, 1.30 – 4.00 pm will be exclusively devoted to outcomes and new initiatives. All outcomes handed in or registered on the website in the name of organisations will be displayed during the closing session – and you may also register and display new outcomes on site (the deadline however for our service to display outcomes registered online will be at Sunday noon, after this, please bring your outcome on site).

The closing event of the 2008 ESF in Malmö 2008 is in other words framed and structured to focus on the results and the future struggles after the ESF. We want to highlight all important outcomes of all discussions and meetings which have been going on during this ESF. And we want YOU as participant and participating organization to be the messenger of this event. This is a great opportunity to promote your own outcomes and initiatives as well as to contact with all the people and proposals linked to the hundreds of other activities which you have not been able to attend!

If you are presenting an outcome you are welcome to come to Amiralen from 1 pm and meet the outcome team there to spot you poster board or table and personalize it, and find your final location according to the theme your outcome relates to.

The closing event starts at 1.30 pm at Stora scenen in Folkets park. The Nordic Organizing Committee will introduce the event and present statistics about the 2008 ESF in Malmö and the collected outcomes and initiatives.

From 2 - 3.30 pm the main session of the event will take place in Amiralen, nearby to Stora scenen, For 1,5 hours there will be space for open discussions among ESF participants, while all outcomes are presented along the ten themes of the ESF program. Participants can easily move around, discuss, and join outcomes, new initiatives, calls for actions, mobilizations, petitions, campaigns and so on.

At 3.30 - 4 pm the closing event and the whole ESF will formally be put to an end, again at Stora scenen, by two messages looking into the future – one from the Mehmet Soganci (TMMOB and the Turkey Social Forum), presenting the next ESF in Istanbul 2010, one from Moeama Miranda (Ibase and the Brazilian Organizing Committee), presenting the next World Social Forum in Amazonas in 2009.

Right before the closing session the Assembly of Social Movements (ASM) will also take place in Amiralen, from 11.30-13.30. It is our hope that this “assembly of assemblies”, which has been organized since the beginning of the ESF and the World Social Forum, with the aim to create a space where its participants can link different initiatives, calls for actions and mobilizations from different sectors, make priorities and take joint decisions about future actions, will also benefit from our NOC efforts to highlight and facilitate the promotion off all outcomes and new initiatives steaming from the 2008 ESF in Malmö!

After Malmö – Let’s create dynamics around all new initiatives and outcomes 

All registered outcomes and new initiatives that have been filled on the web by their promoters  will be reachable on the webpage after the forum. Outcome presenters also have the possibility to create to create OpenESF projects around their projects for further mobilization and development.

All together we hope that all this will be a valuable source for inspiration and enhanced communication in order to proceed with the struggle for another world! Please take use of this opportunity and help us to achieve this goal!

Under This is how it's done you find further instructions on how to register and promote your outcomes, initiatives and proposals. You will also find all the necessary information in the printed ESF program leflett.

In solidarity,
Nordic Organizing Committee, program- and outcome group