The 12th Baltic Development Forum Summit held in Vilnius 1-2 June gathered ca. 600 participants. Questionnaire supported interviews were conducted with 65 persons. The evaluation further support the positive informal feedback that we have recieved from our sponsors, partners, members and attendees, regarding the Summit as a whole.
As the Summit was located to Vilnius, naturally the largest group (33%) of the participants originated from Lithuania. Thereafter Denmark was the largest group with 12%, Sweden with 9% and Finland with 8% of the participants. BDF's pan-baltic identity is confirmed by the geographical diversity of the participants.
The general feedback from the participants was very positive, “Excellent” and “Good”, was given by 81% of the respondents. This is a slight decrease compared to last year’s figures that compiled 83%.
An overwhelming 88% of the responses indicate that the agenda of the Summit covered the current political and economical situation in the region (82% in 2009).
As in previous years, the level of speakers and moderators was highly appreciated – 81% of the respondents gave a positive evaluation. However, the positive response is lower than in 2009 (86%) and has returned to the levels of 2008 (81%).
The main reason for participation in the Summit for 41% of the respondents’ was networking, while 14% attended for specific sessions, and 12%, for company presentation. The remaining 33% of respondents attended the Summit for other reasons (10%) or a mixture of all of the mentioned (23%).
The possibilities for networking were given a positive response by 78% (74% in 2009) of respondents with ”Excellent” by 23% (20% in 2009) and ”Good” by 55% (54% in 2009).
When rating the Networking Village activities, the response was more moderate with “Excellent” and “Good” making up 60% (54% in 2009), and 33% “Average” (32% in 2009).
Overall, 63% of respondents rated the informal part of the Summit as positive, 22% “Excellent” and 41% “Good”. However, the amount of “N/A” (22%) responses is a little bit unsettling if combined with the other not so positive responses – 37%.
The Baltic Development Forum will take into consideration all the responses and comments obtained through the questionnaires in planning the Summit in Poland in October 2011.
