EDS Policy Director, Andraž Kastelic, took part as a trainee at a Campaign Skills Training for Young Political Activists from East Central and Southeastern Europe from November 18th to 22nd 2010. Training was organized by International Republican Institute (IRI) in the hearth of Balkans, Prishtina, Kosovo. Participants learned all about organizing a campaign, including using public opinion for campaigns, organizing campaign and effective message development.
Training opened with a presentation by IRI trainer and campaign strategist Bálint Porcsalm, who gave young activists an overview of campaign strategy and plan including identifying strengths, weaknesses and opportunities, setting objectives, about direct voter contact, grassroots activities, using or maintaining of voter database and the role of technology in campaigns.
In the next couple of days director of Press and Public Affairs from the Office of Deputy Governor of Styria Ronald Rödl and consultant Meüs van der Poel from Eduardo Frei Foundation (EFF) shared their broad knowledge and rich experiences to about thirty young political activists from Europe.
Young audience learned about effective caimpaingn message development, crisis communication and the response to the negative campaigning, public opinion research in a political environment, use of focus groups, demographic research and targeting.
Besides above mentioned, Jan Surotchak, Resident Director of IRI for Europe presented campaigning and results of US Mid-Term Elections in November 2010. After following discussion joung awdince got a full overview of US Mid-Term elections and reasons for recent political shift overseas.
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