What's On

Report for us from Budapest, 21- 24 February 2013

Editor in charge: Valeria Nicoletti/ eutopia@cafebabel.com

7 EU cities: 7 monthly special 'city' editions in 2013

We're continuing our series of monthly reporting missions to a different city in our Europe-wide network, in 2013 with the launch of EUtopia on the ground, a special focus on the future of our European continent.

STEP ONE: WHAT IS EUTOPIA?

You tell us! This monthly editorial series aims to raise consciousness on the issues of the future and fantasy in Europe in times of a major identity crisis.

TO DO WHAT:

- Valorising local, young projects, ideas, stories, initiatives and angles that have emerged from preoccupations challenging our future and fantasy.

- Be ‘on the ground’ and make us feel you’ve been hanging out and working in Budapest.

- Use more 'gonzo' journalism than 'institutional' journalism - be creative, be personal, whilst staying journalistic-minded with the facts and statistics, the sources and interviewees.

- Spend time with locals, describe what you saw/ felt/ learned from them.

- Be critical - ‘EU’ isn’t an ideology for cafebabel.com.

Don’t come unprepared, so we can make some noise whilst we are in town.

It’s your article proposals that will get you noticed for this mission: so be creative, do some research before applying, flog your idea donkeys to me.

STEP THREE: LOGISTICS

- Book your own flights/ trains to Budapest.

- A sum of up to 280 euros is reimbursed by cafebabel.com (provided receipts are kept) upon return from the trip and receipt of the article.

- Other travel and food expenses are reimbursed (for more information see with our project manager Emeline/ e.mauduit@cafebabel.com). The team is hosted by our warm locals (read cafebabel Budapest's blog here), or at a hostel.

EDITORIAL

The editor in charge at Paris HQ, who will be leading the mission in Budapest (read their cityblog, budapest.cafebabel.com), will supervise you in defining the angle of your article and making preparations for interviews at least three weeks before the trip is due to commence.

BUT

... It is up to you to do your own research before leaving for the project, to find interesting and book interviewees and ideas 'on the ground'. Do not be afraid to come prepared.

DEADLINES

The written piece is due in strictly one week later, when the relevant linguistic editor from the central Paris office will edit your piece.

It will then be translated by our volunteer networks, and published in six languages within the following month.

STEP FOUR: APPLY

- With your CV, three-line EUtopia article proposals, newsworthy links, reference to the crisis of ideas and identity in Europe, ideas of interviewees...

Be original! Be non-consensual! Please do not write to us with anything less - or your application will not be considered. We look forward to working with you!

Contact: Valeria Nicoletti, eutopia@cafebabel.com

(Image: (cc) panoramas/ flickr) 

This project is funded with support from the European Commission via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Hippocrène Foundation and the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation for the Progress of Humankind.

Cafebabel.com is a partner of the NISI MASA event "GENERATOR - Youth Audiovisual Forum", that will take place at the end of January in Strasbourg.

Between January 25-27, 2013 NISI MASA is organizing GENERATOR - Youth Audiovisual Forum in Strasbourg, in partnership with cafebabel.com. At this occasion, around 120 participants aged between 18 and 35 will not only be debating the future of audiovisual culture in Europe along with experts and policy makers, but will also take part in a number of daily workshops.

Plenty of different activities are already planned!

• A Kino Kabaret, where 40 adrenaline-driven filmmakers, will be on a movie making frenzy.
• A scriptwriting marathon where participants will be guided in bringing their ideas closer to the screen by learning about cinematographic story telling through an intense submersion into the world of inspiration, confrontation and going crazy.
• A film-criticism workshop, where an experienced team that has been involved in organizing the many Nisimazine workshops will be there to give the participants a crash practical course.
• A workshop on genre films moderated by 7 Tape Productions, who will talk about the ways to start a genre based film project, concretely a horror movie – from casting to directing.
• Culture management trainings provided by experienced trainers from our member associations.


There will also be debates and panels with European audiovisual professionals, experts and policy makers. The NISI MASA member associations will screen films resulted in their previous projects and they will present what they are planning next during a project fair.

It was high time that I finally send you, dear 'babelians', my goodbye letter. As you probably are well aware by now, cafebabel.com is not just any online magazine, but a world of its own, characterised by extreme dynamism and close relationships linking the editors from the Paris office with all of the contributors spread all around Europe (and beyond).

Therefore, it is you, dear translators, authors, bloggers, photographers, video-makers as well as local team members and fixers (who have helped me get through two 'on-the-ground' mission projects (Multikulti Seville and Orient Express Reporter II in Zagreb), and enthusiasts of our community, that I would like to thank for the unforgettable 11 months that I have spent at cafebabel.com as editor-in-chief of the Polish linguistic version.

I will not name those, whom I owe most, since there are simply too many of you who have rendered my work enriching. I have had the pleasure of meeting some of you during events organised by cafebabel.com in Strasbourg ('Shake Up Europe') and Brussels ('Babel Ackademy'). Your ideas, energy and most of all, positive attitude towards our common project, made me realise that I have spent almost a year of my life working for a wonderful, and most importantly – necessary cause.

Let's get things straight. Besides the hard work, working for cafebabel.com was also fun. I would not remember it as such, if it was not for the special 'atmosphere' in the office at Paris HQ, created by my colleagues. Many thanks to Katharina for being an editorial coordinator many of you would certainly like to have (and for challenging all of the stereotypes about Germans you could possibly imagine), Nabeelah (the embodiment of 'funky') – for not growing weary of my pseudo-American accent (and constantly replacing 'fall' with 'autumn') among others, Matthieu – for not losing hope that one day we will all have perfect French pronunciation, Jacopo – for cheering me up on grey autumn days with Italian jokes, and Jorge – for introducing loads of 'fun, fun, fun!' in the office and understanding my admiration for the 'Spanish Boy George' – 'Alaska'.

I shall not forget Cristina (former Spanish editor) – highly appreciated for her scanty criticism, Nicola (former Italian editor) – the stereotypically 'Mediterranean' chap (hope he won't mind). Thanks to our former interns – especially Annie and Falk. You're great people, and you certainly made my days at cafebabel brighter. I would also not have enjoyed my daily work as much, if it were not for our very peculiar (and oh boy… how 'bold') project manager, the Romanian gonzo journalist Ovidiu, Adrien (although I believe that I made the life of our previous webmaster – Cedric - much more difficult), and the never-to-be-underestimated Juliette, for making sure that our office really functions like a 'proper' office. Thanks to Alexandre for giving me the chance to join the cafebabel community.

I wish cafebabel all of the best – especially to the new Polish editor, my namesake and successor, Agata Grzaba. May the community keep growing, and never lose its critical approach to the European reality.

Agata Jaskot, Brussels, October 2012