Never a dull moment with ELIA

ELIA executive director Maria Hansen explains why the ELIA team are all revved up for projects and events in the upcoming months. After successful member visits to London and Manchester, and another trip planned for Évora, Portugal shortly, Maria never tires of the pleasure of catching up with old and new ELIA friends.

Everyone in the team is back from their summer break, and not a day too soon. It’s an exciting time at the office, as we revv up work on several new projects funded by the European Union and prepare for our big ELIA Biennial Conference, taking place in Helsinki in November. Nominations for the Representative Board elections are still coming in from the membership (your deadline is 26 September!), and everyone in the team is working hard to get ready for the many sessions we have on offer in the Biennial programme.

I just drafted the agenda for the General Assembly taking place on 26 November which will be the day of our elections in Helsinki. You can expect an invitation for this in mid-October. In the meantime, we have started preparations for our two signature events in 2023 – the ELIA Academy in Évora, Portugal in May 2023 and the ELIA Leadership Symposium in Manchester, UK in October 2023. If you are keen on teaching and learning and would like to contribute to an ELIA event, please keep your eyes peeled for emails from ELIA, because the call for ELIA Academy 2023 contributions will arrive in your inbox very soon.

I have the privilege this month, together with ELIA’s conference manager Janja Ferenc, to meet with the two steering groups for these signature events, on location in Évora and Manchester. Even though our heads are spinning from planning three major conferences at the same time, I am so grateful for the passionate involvement of all the colleagues who are contributing to this work. Perhaps, I am so thrilled about this, because I still enjoy meeting and collaborating our members so much – even with my 5-year anniversary with ELIA  approaching there is never a dull moment!

One of my favourite moments this month was with a member who is returning to ELIA after a short break and told us (during a video conference) that not only was the institution coming back, but that they were planning to ‘sweat the asset’ and get the most out of their membership through nominating themselves for the board, contributing to conferences, involving students and more. Indeed, ELIA membership is for everyone in the institution, and I am grateful to see that more members are starting to get a larger numbers of colleagues and students involved. Our Biennial institution package was created for this reason, and we'll be happy to welcome your teams to Helsinki! See you there.

 Read more about ELIA news and updates in our ELIA September Newsletter.

Photo: ELIA executive director Maria Hansen visiting Manchester School of Art campus, part of Manchester Metropolitan University.