Baltic Sea Info Tour/Evaluation

positive impressions

 * SPb: actions seemed to be quite successful + we had at least some successes
 * nice company + getting to know activists
 * Hki: schedule was clear and worked a kind of well
 * SPb: presentation of nuclear waste was good, also the presentations about Belarus and the new Leningrad NPP
 * Hki: connection to urgent issue (vote in the parliament) helped to reach many people and to cooperate with many local groups
 * SPb: there was a nice group of people, even if it was not too many, there were more than I ecpected
 * SPb: action was good and we filled our time with good activities
 * I like how things have been going. Of course, we have had to deal with unexpected things and slighty change some plans, but it's normal.
 * I like the people, they really know what they're doing and the atmosphere has been good so far.

negative impressions

 * SPb: not really contact to Russian people + not really possibilities for networking
 * hard to coordinate in SPb
 * not so many participants, or just for a short time on the tour
 * SPb: schedule was not clear as well as places were not clear
 * SPb: abnormally hot weather!
 * Visa difficulties
 * SPb: exact number of people joining was not clear until the very beginning of the infotour stop
 * SPb: it became much more informal when it turned out that there wouldn't be too many foreigners joining the stop
 * only a few journalists showed up at the press conference
 * materials in English wasn't too helpful in Russia, because people here do hardly understand it...
 * SPb: connection to the immediate threat of something was missing (would have helped to mobilize more people)
 * SPb: the problem is that there are not so many anti-nuclear activists; and the few NGOs critisizing nuclear power work on other fields or with other methods
 * SPb: language barrier
 * SPb: not many new contacts made for the international network
 * SPb: schedule should have been discussed and clarified at the beginning, but people didn't take time for that
 * SPb: buying vegan food was difficult and much more difficult to get gluten free food
 * not enough participants for the infotour in general; local activists joining the local stops couldn't get involved more in joining the infotour
 * individual promotion of the infotour wasn't done by most of the people involved in the infotour
 * SPb: working days dates were bad (for local activists to join)
 * hardly any support for organizational tasks during the tour in Loviisa and Hki (reports, media release, financial stuff) – at the same time one person had to answer all email requests for the tour and to do other organizational tasks that only he could do -> too much work for one person! (additionally some people pushed with expectations about doing more stuff that not necessarily needed to be done by this one person)
 * networking meetings were not very effective by now
 * Helsinki: I was surprised in Tuska festival when I found out that Helsinki stop organizers haven't spoken about our info place with the festival organizers. I would have spoken straight to them and asked for a place for the info stand inside the festival territory. That's my personal opinion because I've worked with event/ festival organization and know that it's a better way. Organizers are responsible for many things, they're usually stressed so... the don't like unexpected surprises.
 * Riga: The main problem was that I'm the only one who is organizing Riga stop and I'm responsible for everything: accomodation, schedule, food, permissions, etc. Promotion - I didn't see special problems. I use Internet to promote something so I didn't do something unusual.

improving ideas

 * common places to stay, sleep and/or meet
 * more promotion for the tour
 * better information about the schedule
 * have time for exploring the city and for yourself
 * visa issues should be prepared better
 * more people should join
 * experts to be announced for the press conference make more impression and would get journalists more interested (e.g. economy expert, because media is more interested in those money issues)
 * more promotion also in Russian language
 * camp outside St. Petersburg near to Leningrad NPP and learn from the experience of the SPb stop
 * SPb: there should be a real networking gathering with Russian activists joining it
 * make really clear the food situation and other questions for the preparation of a infotour stop
 * more help with tasks during the tour by the participants:
 * writing short reports immediately about certain activities
 * putting reports and images to the website
 * writing press releases, flyer text or articles for further usage
 * help with organizing the receipts
 * copying images of the infotour to a central computer for documentation
 * searching for media coverage and put results to the website
 * taking over responsibility for gathering information on certain nuclear facilities around the Baltic Sea for the brochure
 * more communication between participants/organizers.
 * in future, maybe we could send main topics and issues to each person before Skype conference so everyone can prepare answers. Also conferences could be smaller - not more than 5 ppl.
 * face-to-face communication is very important: preparation meetings, other events where we can meet each other.