In total 26 participants from 17 countries arrived in Split, Croatia, before the Easter break to celebrate the training school organized by WG3 on the 13th and 14th of April 2025.
The topic of the training school was stakeholder engagement on positive animal welfare. The objective of the training school was to equip LIFTers with the skills necessary for the anticipated work in WG3, which are related to understanding stakeholder’s perspective, motivating stakeholder’s engagement, survey design, and last but not least, effective communication. Therefore, the training school consisted of four sessions:
- Stakeholder’s perspective
- Effective communication
- Methodology on consultation
- Stakeholder engagement
Each session was followed by Q&A for the speakers and a group activity to practice what we’ve just learned.
For the first session, stakeholder’s perspective, five representatives were invited, including producer (Damir Rimac, Sano – Modern Animal Nutrition Ltd), certification body (Marc Cooper, RSPCA), NGO (Sabine Hartmann, Four Paws), competent authority (Antje Schubbert, EURCAW-Pigs), and consumer (Eleonora Nannoni, University of Bologna). Each of them received a list of questions in advance from the organizers, which were related to their perspectives on PAW, what added value it brings to PAW, how they can promote PAW in their work activities, and what kind of expectations they have on PAW.
For the following sessions, Agnès Tiret from INRAE, Caspar Krampe from Wageningen University, and Nicolas DiLorenzo from University of Florida were invited to share their experiences on their respective topics. To begin, Agnès Tiret showed us some examples of the Calvin Klein product campaigns from her previous work experience and explained how industries successfully disseminate their ideas to the general public through different commercials. Secondly, Caspar Krampe demonstrated his extensive experience with using different methodologies to consult with stakeholders, including mapping (i.e., who is your targeted stakeholder), qualitative methods (e.g., interviews and focus groups), quantitative methods (e.g., statistics and surveys), mixed models (e.g., living lab), and lastly, gamification (e.g., extended realities and serious games). Finally, Nicolas DiLorenzo summarized his rich experience working in research and extension into seven key take-home messages with stories, acknowledging that it is not always easy to work together with farmers and especially when the topic is about animal welfare.
The training school was wrapped up in a traditional Croatian restaurant, Konoba, for the last get-together dinner before we see each other in person again!
