We finally got together! The first openVM partner meeting was held on 27-28 November 2017 in Berlin, Germany. The first host was Beuth University of Applied Sciences (the coordinating organisation). All partner have been very glad to finally meet each other in person after the first two months of the project initial work has been already accomplished via digital media.

The project coordinator (Ilona Buchem) welcomed the openVM partners and described how the project came into being (e. g. the idea of the project, how partners were selected and invited). Then each partner and output leader presented their organisation and tasks in the project, drafting out the goals, the progress, the current and future activities of the output the lead and contribute to. 

The introduction part on day 1 was followed by the administration part (e. g. common guidelines for working together, contract and obligations), the quality assurance part (e. g. common quality standards, steps of working together on outputs), and the planing part (e. g. upcoming milestones, work in progress, planing joint work). It was very helpful to set the common ground on day 1 for a successful collaboration in the project.

Day 2 started with a hand-on activity in small groups. The goal and process for group work was prepared by each output leader in coordination with partners. We worked in 3 focus groups: Group 1 “technical aspects”, group 2 “content aspects” and group 3 “assessment, gamification & credentials”. The result of the group work was the joint bullet point action plan combining all outputs.

The meeting ended with the reflection and planing of the next steps until May 2018.

We are all looking towards the next partner meeting in Rome, Italy in May 2018!