Dissemination, Marketing and Networking Conference for Socrates Project Co-ordinators and Partners

Between Ideal and Fait Accompli

Feelings and opinions collected from the Conference participants

 One important aspect that could be seen in the evaluation material collected by the organizers was the widespread appreciation of the fortunate combination between these two major vectors: European projects with a linguistic component as producers of successful and high-quality products on the one hand, and the marketing strategies that might allow these products to achieve a high degree of sustainability, visibility and accessibility on the other hand. Most of the participants admitted to having perceived certain mentalities when it came to applying marketing principles to the products (language courses, language learning strategies and methodologies) developed within the framework of European financing for languages.

“I used to believe marketing experts regarded us with some sort of skepticism and I in turn was rather reluctant to their pragmatic manner of referring to the outputs of our projects. “Selling” is not a word teachers react well to, since  we’ve all developed a sense of possessiveness and belonging over the materials we produced – they reflect who we are as individuals, not just as representatives of a consortium”.

This statement (included in one of the feedback forms) is highly illustrative of the mentality that the DissMark I conference aimed to tackle – the reluctance of educators to perceive the results of their work as marketable products. According to the feedback we received, the overall perception of the participants was greatly influenced by the conference and the way in which the topic of valorisation was dealt with, in a manner that was less theoretical and abstract and more focused on concrete examples.

 In addition, the participants commented on the great degree of innovative dissemination channels they learnt about, such as:

• the open-source features collectively referred to as “web 2.0” or “social software”;
• the information related to the development of a successful web page suited to highlight the strengths of a project, as well as its relevance to the particular target groups it addresses;
• the growing worldwide interest in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and the acquisition of skills and competencies suitable to facilitate access to this new learning context;
• the evolution of traditional classroom learning towards innovative forms of “blended” learning that combine face-to-face with online and autonomous language exposure and learning.

 Furthermore, the plenaries and workshops centered on marketing issues highlighted the fact that increasing a project’s visibility and setting a price for some of its outputs does not come as an undermining factor to its acknowledgement in terms of quality and accessibility. On the contrary, the general perception is that whatever is free is not necessarily of good quality, and the former and current project coordinators were presented with coherent, relevant information as to what they could do to turn this into an advantage in their own work.

“I think the main thing to do is be open – and stop flinching when someone thinks about actually selling the stuff me make – it’s a mark of quality and not an insult of some sort. This was a good lesson. I’ll keep it in mind for my next project”, one participant commented.

On the whole, DissMark I was an event whose true impact at both individual and community level will only become evident after the participants have had enough time to explore the newly discovered opportunities and directions of development, try out their relevance and integrate them within their own individual and institutional contexts. It was a success from many points of view and a lesson learnt in what concerns blending marketing and project dissemination strategies together into a successful mix.

“It was an excellent networking opportunity. I wasn’t aware there were so many other successful projects out there. I made some good contacts and I’m looking forward to following up with them in the near future”.

 “I believe we’ve all had a lot to learn from DissMark. There were so many new ideas, I hope I’ll have a chance to explore all the possibilities”.