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WB leader meeting venue changed due to ashcloud |
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Written by Erik van den Elsen
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The Working Block leader meeting that was scheduled to take place on the Greek island of Spetses from April 19-21, had to be cancelled due to the ash cloud that was pumped into the atmosphere by the Icelandic Hekla volcano.
Due to the ashcloud, almost the complete European air fleet was grounded the days leading up to the WB meeting. Therefore the DESIRE coordination team decided that it would be better to cancel the meeting, since not all participants would be able to join.
Instead of the physical meeting in Greece, an online meeting was organised on thursday, April 22, using Skype and Mikogo software. Skype was used for the audio connection, while Mikogo was used for sharing desktops of the connected partners. This enabled everyone to view each others presentations. In this way, participants from Greece, Great Britain, Switzerland, France and the Netherlands held a shortened (4 hours) but fruitfull meeting, where the key topics could be discussed.
Meeting this way was received quite well by the participants, so it might be a good idea to do this more often.
 the Dutch participants (ITC, ALTERRA & ISRIC) in a meeting room at Alterra, connected to the other DESIRE partners in Greece, Great Brittain, Switzerland and France through Skype and Mikogo |
Fragile arid and semi-arid ecosystems are in urgent need of integrated
conservation approaches that can prevent and reduce widespread degradation.
