Synthesis of the Making Change Happen questionnaire distributed in May 2007

Sorry for the late post about the questionnaire, summer time is now over and we're back on tracks to prepare the Festival. Here are the conclusions of the survey, we used them to prepare the schedule and activities in order to make them corresponding as much as possible with your expectations! Thank you very much for your help and your patience!

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As we explained you earlier on this blog, we prepared and distributed an anonymous survey in order to know more about people’s expectation and therefore to organize an event that would fit as much as possible with these expectations. Last May, the written questionnaires have been answered by 30 people, and we also interviewed people randomly to collect their opinion. If many of the answerers are students or scholars in Lund University, we also tried to reach other categories of the population (family members, inhabitants in Malmö, guests and lecturers of the LUCSUS seminars…) in order to make our test relevant and reliable and therefore to make people as much interested as possible with the proposed activities. We were expecting more complete questionnaires to come back in order to analyse them, but it often happened that the answers were unclear or incomplete, and many were not given back at all.
The majority of the people we interviewed were between 20 and 40 years-old, and we found a good numerical balance between women and men. When we defined the type of activities of the festival at the beginning of the questionnaire, it seemed that half of the answerers never went to any event like this and were interested in it. In total, 90% said they would be glad to come, especially with their family (40%) and friends (40%).
When we asked them when they would like the festival to happen, 80% answered that the weekend would be the best, and that it should include nightly activities as much as daily ones. We also proposed different possible duration of the event and half was in favour of 1 day, the other half in favour of 2 days. 60% were also in favour of an outdoor event.

→ Our decision to organize a Making Change Happen Festival on November 2nd in Stadshallen has been the result of many discussions concerning the answers of the survey and the options we were offered about the place and the time of the year. Friday November 2nd is the day that precedes Alla Helgons Dag (Saturday 3rd) which is often considered as a family time for celebrations and which takes place during the school holidays. We thought that such a day could be good to start the weekend and that it could therefore be the best in order to include as many people, from different ages, to the event.

Concerning the list of activities we proposed, major trends could be observed: people seemed mainly really interested in artistic, cultural/scientific and children-related activities. According to the comments we got, they were also eager to access information panels and workshops concerning fair-trade and ecological products, sustainable everyday-life practices …

→ The Making Change Happen Festival therefore seems to answer the expectations, since we propose a diverse choice of activities for young and older people, including access to scientific knowledge, entertaining activities and workshops, fair-trade and ecological food and products market…Some students of the LUMES programme are also willing to share and present their knowledge through exhibitions, presentations, discussions…

The issue concerning the entrance fees was one of the most important to ask in order to prepare our budget and activities. Although our expectations about the answers were not high, it occurred that around 65% are willing to pay between 10 and 30 Sek to enter the making Change Happen Festival! Some also advised us to organize different entrance-fees systems and separate the daily and nightly activities.

→ The possibility that seems the best for our purposes and the organization of our budget is to let the entrance free of charge/open fees (people can decide to pay what they want at the entrance of the place) during the daily time, and sell tickets for the concerts at night. If the price of these tickets still have to be discussed, we thought of making different offers such as children-students-family reductions. These tickets could be bought in advance or at night.

At last, 95% of the answerers are not disturbed by the fact that the organization of the festival is mainly made in English.

→ Our purpose is to welcome both English and Swedish-speaking people from different ages, origins and backgrounds. The goal of this event is to be opened to everyone and to present possible ways for people to understand and change their ways of thinking and habits in order to reach a more sustainable world and solidarity and peace between generations.

Logo

Hi everyone.
I know, we could update this blog more often, but everyone is on summer break, so...
Anyway, few weeks ago was born the logo of the festival. Here it is.

Showing progress towards our ambition

Hej Alla! Today is July 1st and we have totally 4 months left to our Making Change Happen Festival. As you all know we are on our summer break and all in different cities. However, our preparations still goes insofar as one is able. We have, from cultural exhibition contacts, heard or not even get a one reply. We have contacted Eko-Mode, where we thought would be wise and interesting to have an Ecologic Catwalk, but we haven't heard from them yet. Another ecological design demonstrator is a shop in Malmö, called Uma Bazaar. Unfortunately, they had to close their shop on östra förstadsgatan, but hopefully we are expecting to hear from Sara Rossling, the owner, pretty soon as she mentioned she is interested in the project. Latest news came from Do Redo, which is a about recycling-make new things out of old worn wool clothes and so(see the picture on the left, Do Redo Tokyo Workshop).
They regrettably, send an e-mail saying "Unfortunatley we are already booked to give a Do Redo workshop in Århus, Denmark on the 3rd of November (our day of travelling will be on the 2nd), so we have to turn your request down."
Anyhow, we will go with other alternatives and keep you updated of the participators to our festival, during the summer.
Thank you!

Summer time

Our second term in Lumes is over, and we all left for some well-deserved holidays.
However!
Time will go fast for sure, and the biggest part of the work will have to be done in August, when we come back to Lund. But working for the festival doesn't need any break, and we all keep on thinking about the different projects and their organization. We already have many contacts with representatives of Lunds Kommun and many schools and artists, and all the comments we got are really positive! What we wrote on the portfolio slowly but surely turns into something real and we are really excited about!

As explained in a previous post, the portfolio is available via the Google Group related to our project. Please contact us via the "comments" part below if you want us to send it to you via mail.
Annika is still in Sweden, she can be reached directly by phone, and you're of course welcome to send any mail to any of us if you have questions to ask or any comment to give!

Stadshallen

We all visited the place where the festival will happen last tuesday.
Stadshallen (this is the name) is located in down town, on Stortorget (the main square in Lund) and so, very-well located.
When we got insde, I think it was more than our expectations! This place is just perfect for the event we want to have. Two floors, a concert hall, a lot of litlle corners, open to the rest of the place but isolated enought to conduce different activities, exposition walls etc. Just what we need.

Everyone felt very good to finally have a better idea of where we are going to do this. I mean, we now have a better picture in our head of what it is going to be like, what can be done, what can't.

After, we all had lunch in the Cathedral Park to discuss about other issues.
The port-folio is almost ready and will already be presented next week. Annika, Yo and Zeynep got in touch with the person in charge of cultural events at Lund Commun and she seemed enthusiastic about the all idea.
On my side, I have been starting sending email to different schools with the help of Annika. So now, let's wait and hope for positive answers!

If you are interested at knowing more about the project, help us or have an access to our porte-folio because you are willing to sponsor us, please contact us: make-change-happen-in-lund@googlegroups.com

Porte-folio

So we had a meeting last tuesday.
Eveybody came up with what he/she was supposed to create for the porte-folio. To remind you, we are now creating a porte-folio presenting our project. Every details of what we want to do will be presented, accompanied of budgets. Because the objective of this porte-folio is, obviously, finding sponsors.

Marie created the basic layout (if i can call it like this). The final version should be done by next week hopefully.
If you are interested to get an electronic version, contact us. Our contact is on the right side of the blog.

Otherwise, everybody is still enthusiastic and optimistic. We did not get all the questionnaires back yet, but soon we will have the first estimations of this survey. Also, we are planning a lunch on Tuesday at Stadshallen, which will certainly be the main and cetral place of the festival, just to have an idea of what can and can't be done.

That's the news for the week. And don't forget: Changes are possible !!!!

Monday's meeting

It is nice to work with people who have different points of view, ways to think, backgrounds, maturity, skepitisism... It is what makes this project so interesting: diversity.

The yesterday meeting saw a new big step in the making of the festival.
First of all, we almost know for sure where and when the festival will take place. Stadshallen in Stortorget seems to be the most strategical place in Lund. Annika, who has contact over there, have asked when a date would be available. The latest we can get is in the beginning of November, which is kind of early compare to our mid-december plans. However, this is the only solution, and everybody finally agreed on Friday the 3rd of November.
THE ISSUE: MONEY. Now we have to find 8500 SEK (approx 900 euros) just for the rental of the hall. Usch as we say in Sweden.

That's how we got into the second point: the sponsoring.
Marie had the brilliant idea of creating a portfolio where the project would be described in details as well as a first frame for the budget. We need to look serious and trustable over potential sponsors. So, right now, we are all working on the creation of this document.

Also, the questionnaire has been printed out and the survey has started. We are hoping to get results by the end of the week so we can start focusing on details.

Aaron has also joined us. His idea is to create an institution that would give the abilities to all the university bodies related to environment to join altogether. The idea is to create a common website or mailing group where everyone could collaborate, and also where other people could get into what's going on in sustainability in Lund. For him, it is also good to take the opportunity of our project for a first collaboration of this institution, and see how it works.

So, everything is going good. We are facing, as expected, time and money issues, but it wouldn't be as fun if we were not, don't you think so?

Announcement: if by any luck you are part of a company or an organization from Lund or Skåne, and you are willing to sponsor our project, or help in any kind of way, please contact us at this adress: make-change-happen-in-lund@googlegroups.com

Thank you!

Questionnaire

(Please select your answer. The questions with * allow many answers)


Age: ……….. Gender: M F Location: ……………………..


1- Have you already gone to any cultural event like that? YES or NO

Did you enjoy it? YES or NO

Why? .................................................................................................................................

2- Should such a festival happen to Lund? YES or NO

3- If such an event happens in the next months, do you think now you would go? YES or NO

4- Would you come*: alone? ... with your family? ... with your friends?


5- When shall the festival occur?* During the week ... during the weekend
During the day ... during the night

How long shall it be? 1 day .. 2 days ... other ……………………….

6- Where shall the event happen?* Indoor (Stadshallen…) ... outdoor (Stortorget…)

7- Would you join any of these activities?

- Artistic events: concerts, exhibitions, theatre YES or NO

- Cultural-Scientific discussions, conferences, debates, workshops… YES or NO

- Activities for children and students, presentation, artistic activities YES or NO

- Political institutions’intervention, Lunds Kommun, associations… YES or NO

- Economic interventions, partners, sponsors… YES or NO

Do you think about something else you would like to see during this festival? .................................................................................................................................................

8- Would you accept to pay entrance fees? YES or NO

If yes, how much? SEK 5-10 ... SEK 11-20 ... SEK 21-30 ... other: ………………..

9- Would you be interesting in helping us in the organization of the event? YES or NO

If yes, how could you participate? ...........................................................................................

10- Do you agree with the use of English and Swedish as official languages? YES or NO

11- Do you have any other comment? ………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Thank you a lot for your participation!

The Organizing Team: Annika, Zeynep, Summer, Yo, Laurent and Marie-Hélène

What would you think...

...about joining a Make Change Happen Festival in the next months?

Let me introduce myself. My name is Marie-Hélène, i'm 23 years old, and as you might have guessed with my name, i'm French (from Paris). I've a Bachelor degree in Political Science, and i'm now enjoying my specialization master in environmental science and sustainable studies.

As Laurent wrote before, organizing a festival to promote sustainable development and solidarity to the people in Lund is an exciting thing to me.

I'm now in charge of preparing a questionnaire that we will spread around and use to ask questions to people in the streets of Lund. Its purpose is to answer as much as possible everyone's demand, and to help us focusing on the most interesting parts. There are so many issues we'll have to deal with, that a little help from people we don't know is more than welcome. We made a list of questions together during the last meeting concerning different topics: idea of the festival, what kind of activities are expected, shall it be free or not, are english and swedish good as official languages, and so on an so forth...
We were short in free time the last days, but it's time to go back to work and prepare something good.

As soon as the questions are definitively defined, i'll publish the questionnaire: you're more than welcome to answer the questions, it will be helping us a lot. Please use the comments to answer. It is of course anonymous, your information will only be used for our present purpose.
(btw, this is a serious work, try to answer as seriously as possible!)

Enjoy the sunny days!

Love, Marie Helene

Second meeting

This week-end has been very busy for all of us, as we have other classes going on. The final paper took us quite some times. Then, Sista April, 1st of May doing nothing... It has been hard to focus on the project. Anyway, we are all back on track.

I met Annika two days ago and she told me she met the person in charge of the place we want to organize the festival. Apparently, there is only three dates available in October. That seems very close, too close! And it seems also very expensive.
Marie is going to submit us the first draft of the questionnaire we are going to introduce to Lund population. A meeting is organized for tomorrow 12, we'll discuss all those things together, and try to refine the questionnaire maybe. But by next week, I hope we'll be tracking everyon in the streets.

So here we are, lack of time, lack of money it seems... Challenges are straight in front of us. And that's what is going to motivate us!