What is the C4E Forum?

 

C4E Forum 2020 in Romania 

 

SAVE THE DATE: 3-6 June 2020 – C4E Forum is back! This time in Poiana Brasov, Romania.

The 3rd edition of the unique community-building and networking event on energy efficiency in Central and Eastern Europe – The Central & Eastern European Energy Efficiency Forum (C4E Forum) will take place between 3rd – 6th of June 2020, in one of the most beautiful and peaceful mountain resorts in Romania, called Poiana Brasov.

 

You can check new information about C4E Forum2020 here. 

 

The story of the C4E Forum

You may be asking: "Did we really need another energy efficiency conference?" But we wanted to be different. We wanted the C4E Forum to be not your average conference: 

• Most conferences are focused on advanced Western European countries, whose policies are not always relevant and applicable in the CEE context.
• Some conferences tend to be too academic and produce only general conclusions. We wanted something very practical, which policy professional could really use in their daily work.
• Most of all, we wanted to help build a vibrant Central and Eastern Europe’s energy efficiency community which continues working together beyond the event itself. So we pay lot of attention to informal networking. 

So did it work? We think it did. Twice already, in fact, and our participants are telling us that 84% of them will probably come back next time again!

The first edition of C4E Forum 2016 took place in Balchik at the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria in an informal setting and attracted a mix of 180 participants from governments, the public sector, NGOs, civil society and business. The second edition took place in June 2018 in Serock, Poland and brought together 210 participants (17% up). Read on to find out more about it.

Things that make the C4E Forum stand out

We have our idea about what makes C4E Forum special, but instead we asked our participants what makes it stand out for them and they told us following 4 things (67-70% of them agreed with the following statements):

1. "The mix of different stakeholders and diverse perspectives is very rich"
   Too often public, private and civic sectors keep to themselves and don't talk to each other enough. We are trying to include everybody in the discussion: governments, businesses, NGOs, think-tanks, you name it.
2. "It has unique focus on the CEE region"
   Most events like this tend to be West-centric. C4E Forum 2018 had more than 75% of participants from the CEE region and heavy CEE focus as a result.
3. "It gives me great informal environment to build my network"
   We know that it's not just about work and we put great effort in selecting and appropriate venue for that. In 2018 we had a live band at the closing party (again), karaoke competition and great DIY sessions including river kayaking and biking.
4. "It is interactive, not just full of frontal presentations"
   One of the signature features of C4E Forum is heavy emphasis on smaller parallel sessions and break-out group work, because people tell us that works best for their networking. As a result, C4E Forum participants made on average 9 new contacts.

As organizers, we also pay special attention to the following principles:

• Time efficiency: We condense everything into half a week – just enough to immerse, but not taking the whole week of fyour busy agenda
• Gender balance: It's 21st century. Both genders move the energy efficiency agenda forward and C4E Forum tries to reflect that. In 2018 we set a record almost perfect balance of 49.5% women and 50.5% men.
• Affordability: C4E Forum is a non-profit event. We make great effort to keep the all-inclusive fee as low as possible, offer a reduced fee for public sector and NGOs and we try to provide at least some fee waivers to government officials who have difficulty getting funding.

C4E Forum 2018: how did it go?

Thank you to all who participated in C4E Forum 2018. The second edition of C4E Forum took place in Narvil Resort in Serock, Poland on 13-16 June. Special thanks to everyone for excellent engagement during plenary and panel sessions as well as during workshops. New ideas were spread and new connections were made and that is what C4E Forum is all about.

• Find out who were our participants in 2018 (compared to 2016).
• Have a look at what feedback by the participants of both editions we received on the two events.
• Some participants told us in a video messages that they liked the C4E Forum and they will be back.
• Check out photos from C4E Forum 2018
• See which articles were published in various outlets after C4E Forum
• Sign up for email updates to stay in touch.