Florent
Bye bye Webcom – for a while
After 3,5 years, 1,417 stories written on La Une, 4,200 tweets, about 1,000 Facebook posts , 23 blogs and one Newshub, time has come for me to move on and see what beyond the wonderful, challenging and sexy world of Webcom. Am I going far away? No, not really. But still, it does feel strange to leave, even for a temporary replacement…
How I became Giulio’s hero
“Florent is my hero”. This exclamation, published on 2 July by my colleague Giulio on Facebook, went straight to my heart. What a professional and personal achievement for me… You’re jealous? I understand. But I’m not selfish, so here is how I became Giulio’s hero. May it inspire you!
The Creation (of a new paradigm for EP communication)
In the beginning was a word, and this word was from our Secretary General, and this word was the Secretary General. And the word was: “let there be light on the political side of the Parliament”.
Togo or not Togo…
This is a blog post I was supposed to write some time ago… But somehow I couldn't find the time to do it last week. Now I sit comfortably in my chair in lovely Strasbourg (yes, it's plenary once again), watching the Christmas market under the snow outside (or almost) and I can remember those [...]
Four gurus and six ideas to improve our web presence
With some other colleagues dealing with social media and the Parliament web presence, we went for a two-days trip to Paris to meet some geeks. Or, to be more precise, to meet web experts, public institutions webteams and web-journalists. A highly valuable school trip which gave some ideas about how we could further improve the [...]
Tunisia 2.0: reporting back from refugee camps at the Tunisian-Libyan border
I went to Tunisia this summer and this experience may be worth a blog… You may think I just went there for nice, relaxed holidays on the seaside in a 5-stars resort. You may also wonder about the choice of this destination provided the recent events and the instability in the region…
Is shaking hands with a Prime Minister worth it?
14 May, 13:55, in front of the Permanent representation of France in Brussels. Tens of people were queuing on the street to enter the room where French Prime minister François Fillon was expected to give a speech to European civil servants.
About the importance of being “outside”
Yes, I’m an insider, explaining the European Parliament from the inside. And yes, I do believe in the power people outside the institution can have. They may need us but, for sure, we need them as well.
The day I called 112
11 February is the European day of the 112, the emergency number that is working all over Europe. Because yes, accidents do not always happen to others and they also do not always happen in your home country… Let me tell you the experience I did with the 112, two or three years ago. Believe me, you should spread the word about this number!
New Year, new resolutions
Happy New Year everyone! I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions, to be honest, at least in my private life. But it could be a good idea to take some resolutions at work, and maybe even better to make them public. Let’s see if you, our readers, will remind them to me in a few months…
Strikes everywhere – also on our Facebook page?
What’s going on? France is on strike, Belgium was on strike, but also Facebook was on strike during this plenary week. Was there a way to predict that in advance? And do you have any explanations for that?
Is it about money, privacy settings or democracy?
I also belong to the lucky ones, as my colleague Evita said, who went to Barcelona for the Personal Democracy Forum one week ago. Steve already wrote about this event, the sense it makes for us to be present there, the creative atmosphere there was etc. I don’t want to repeat what has already been said, but just to share the schizophrenic dimension in which we work on Facebook.
Politics as a game
How is it to work in the European Parliament? I can experience it every day as a civil servant, but I’m pretty sure I will never do it as an MEP… Nevertheless, it’s now possible online! I found an online game organized by the Schuman foundation which proposes not only to be spectator of what happens in the hemicycle but to be a real actor defending his/her own opinions.
Some lessons learned with our (founding) father Jean Monnet
I read Jean Monnet’s memoirs during the summer… That could seem to be boring but his reflexions are still very accurate regarding the sens of the European integration and how we should process to get out of the crisis Europe is facing since years. Here are a few quotes which can be the starting point of more extensive reflexions.
Facebook: 4 reasons to hope and 7 reasons to keep going
Last Tuesday, we had a very interesting meeting with Richard Allan, the Facebook European boss for what is related to politics. I picked up some facts and statistics to give an overview of where we stand in the Facebook-galaxy.
Why I think social media are on the right way in the European Parliament
It’s always interesting to see who’s convinced by the use of social media for institutional communication purposes. We had a seminar with our whole directorate at the beginning of the week and it was very telling – not only because of what we said, but also because of the structure and organisation of it.
Don’t judge too quickly!
Is the era of men in grey suits governing the world coming to an end? I don’t think so, but some signs show that things are changing… Now, we should take care not to judge people too quickly on their external aspect. Here is a little experienced I made while doing an interview for the EP website.
Young, dynamic, creative? It’s time to join!
The rumours were louder and louder in the last weeks… And now it’s official. The new competition to enter the European institutions has been launched this week. I was in this situation about two years ago, I know how it is, how people feel… Let’s hope the competition will reach its aims: recruiting specialists and opening its door to people from all over Europe.
Statistics – a quick look on the backstage
Let’s have a (critical) view on our production on this blog… Is it enough? Is it equally distributed? Here are some statistics to help you make your own opinion.
How to get grey hairs in a few months
Separately, every uncertainty is not too difficult to manage, but all together, it becomes very quickly a huge mess.
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