By Mike Wilson
Journalists are always looking for a story. But on April 17, 2010, the story found us.
The Belgian Agricultural Journalists Guild had been working for years to prepare a first-class IFAJ congress, to be held in Ostend, Belgium, April 17-21. About 170 guests were scheduled to arrive from all over the world. But a day before the Congress began, all of Europe was grounded due to a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland. I was able to make it to Ostend just a few hours before the airports officially closed.
We began to get emails streaming into Ostend from stranded journalists in airports all over the world. And it soon became clear that flights wouldn’t be leaving any time soon, causing many of them to cancel altogether and return home.
Now, that might have put a damper on the Congress, but it ended up being one of the best IFAJ events I ever attended. Why? Despite the air cancellations everyone kept a positive attitude, which started at the top and filtered down through the participants. Congress organizers Jef Verhaeren and Jacques Van Outryve stayed enthusiastic throughout the event – keeping their energy and spirits high as they organized people and shared their inside knowledge of Belgian agriculture. The same can be said for all our hard-working Belgian colleagues who helped with tours, events and photography or video work. It was uplifting, to say the least.
Determination
Another reason why this Congress turned out to be so special is the number of people who found other ways to get there after flights were cancelled. We heard from people all over Europe who spent 10, 15, or 20 hours on ferries, trains, or in their cars with other colleagues, just to get to the Congress – even if for one day. Out of 170 people, only about 30 ended up having to cancel. Talk about determination!
Some of the participants spent a very long day on their tours, coming back to the hotel after midnight, only to get up at the crack of dawn to make a mini tour the next morning. Jacques noted that some Finnish journalists spent 24 hours in transit (ferry, car, train) to make it to just one day of the congress, then turned around and went home. “You cannot stop a journalist!” he would say emphatically, and his words became my personal theme for the week.
This Congress was memorable for other reasons. The Belgians helped organize an exchange with journalists from developing countries, primarily Africa and Latin America. This “Master Class” was a chance to exchange information and ideas with journalists from countries like Guinea, Burkina Faso and Democratic Republic of Congo. It so inspired the IFAJ Executive Committee that we are now at work trying to set up a similar event at next year’s Congress.
In a brief after-Congress celebration, a few of us gathered to talk about why this event was such a success. First, it was well organized. Even though each tour was packed, everything ran on time. Plus, we had a lot of good food, culture and music – even a history lesson, as we visited farms where WWI bombs are still being unearthed.
But the greatest factor was Jacques and Jef’s knowledge of Belgian agriculture, Brussels, European farm policy, and their many years of experience as journalists. These guys know a story when they see one. Our participants had ample opportunities to get interviews and photos during our brief time in their country. The entire experience was a working journalists’ dream.
If you have a chance to organize a Congress, take a cue from the Belgians. Make sure you have hard-nosed journalists helping you organize tours and visits.
And try to schedule it for a time when the volcanoes are silent!