SPM weekend in Brussels

Finally that weekend arrived, and almost the whole ACA board could gather again as a family, but this time the family was bigger! We were accompanied by CD members, local Board members, Chair and ACA-members.

Some planes and train from whole Europe had the same destination: Brussels. Once there some of us went to the supermarket and bought food and more food to survive during the next three days. The amount of it was showing that it was weekend an maybe we were not going to be able to find an open supermarket anymore… but it was actually that we were not going to be able to go out of the CD house anymore!

More and more people arrived and dinner was ready. We used that moment to talk to each other and get to know the new ones, as well as to introduce the concept of the SPM and the previous ideas of the Academy Board to the others.

That night went on with different chats in the basement with the CD members that wanted to forget a bit about their non-stop working day.

Next day, even if it was Saturday, it was a hard working day, so we woke up at 8am. At 9 we were already in the social room and the discussions, SWOT analysis, post-its, beamer projections, flipcharts, skype connections, and others came back to life.

The working day was supposed to be finished around 7pm, but we seems to enjoy so much that we decided to stop only for lunch and later on continue with it until late 10. The day was incredible productive, but also mind-tiring! That’s why as a good Saturday night we were enjoying our social part around the house. And yes, I mention around the house because it was not a party in the kitchen for example, people was around chatting and having some drinks.

The second working day was, I could say, even more productive as we could already work on something that we all now had in mind. It was actually the day to look for methods, so we had to be creative alter previous night, and I can say that we succeed!

The SPM was officially finished and after some group hugs to those leaving, we decided to go for a kebab in order to take some fresh air, and clear our mind up! But we ate it back in the house so as some of us were willing to have some more fresh air, decided to taste the Sunday night life of Brussels for some more hours.

Personally, it was really intensive and productive and I have the feeling that I really learned a lot, being it my first Strategic Planning and that I totally came back home with a clear idea about it. If you want to know more about the outcomes and follow the discussion visit the forum.

Now… it’s time to focus on implementation. Hope to see you around!