Central & Eastern European Energy Efficiency Forum

C4E 2020 Forum has now been postponed to 2021.

4E FORUM 2020 IN ROMANIA

C4E FORUM 2020 TO TAKE PLACE IN POIANA BRASOV, ROMANIA ON 21-24 APRIL 2021.

Although there have been some positive developments, the different timelines and strategies of gradual withdrawal of COVID pandemic prevention measures adopted by individual European countries build a high level of uncertainty in the coming period making the organization of a successful, in-person event almost impossible for this year, so we decided for the same place and a new date in 2021 – the new date of the C4E Forum is 21-24 April, 2021

We considered various alternative formats for the 2020 edition and identified a few opportunities, but we strongly believe that C4E Forum has to be an in-person event as it always served as community-building forum. Its mission of social nearing that brings together different stakeholders and diverse perspectives is hard to achieve in online formats and social distancing conditions.

We will announce soon more opportunities for the energy efficiency community to meet and discuss important topics in an online webinar in October 2020. Check out the updated information on the registration. 

We are looking forward to seeing you, online in mid October, 2020 and in person on April 21, 2021 in Poiana Brașov.

See the venue.

Check general programme outline.  Find out what hot topics will be discussed at the Plenaries. 

Read more on the topics to be discussed at the Panel Sessions. 

Get the information on participation and register. 

THE STORY OF THE C4E FORUM

You may be asking: “Did we really need another energy efficiency conference?” But we wanted to be different. We wanted the C4E Forum to be not your average conference: 

  • Most conferences are focused on advanced Western European countries, whose policies are not always relevant and applicable in the CEE context.
  • Some conferences tend to be too academic and produce only general conclusions. We wanted something very practical, which policy professional could really use in their daily work.
  • Most of all, we wanted to help build a vibrant Central and Eastern Europe’s energy efficiency community which continues working together beyond the event itself. So we pay lot of attention to informal networking. 

So did it work? We think it did. Twice already, in fact, and our participants are telling us that 84% of them will probably come back next time again!

The first edition of C4E Forum 2016 took place in Balchik at the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria in an informal setting and attracted a mix of 180 participants from governments, the public sector, NGOs, civil society and business. The second edition took place in June 2018 in Serock, Poland and brought together 210 participants (17% up). Read on to find out more about it.

THINGS THAT MAKE THE C4E FORUM STAND OUT

We have our idea about what makes C4E Forum special, but instead we asked our participants what makes it stand out for them and they told us following 4 things (67-70% of them agreed with the following statements):

  1. “The mix of different stakeholders and diverse perspectives is very rich”
    Too often public, private and civic sectors keep to themselves and don’t talk to each other enough. We are trying to include everybody in the discussion: governments, businesses, NGOs, think-tanks, you name it.
  2. “It has unique focus on the CEE region”
    Most events like this tend to be West-centric. C4E Forum 2018 had more than 75% of participants from the CEE region and heavy CEE focus as a result.
  3. “It gives me great informal environment to build my network”
    We know that it’s not just about work and we put great effort in selecting and appropriate venue for that. In 2018 we had a live band at the closing party (again), karaoke competition and great DIY sessions including river kayaking and biking.
  4. “It is interactive, not just full of frontal presentations”
    One of the signature features of C4E Forum is heavy emphasis on smaller parallel sessions and break-out group work, because people tell us that works best for their networking. As a result, C4E Forum participants made on average 9 new contacts.

As organizers, we also pay special attention to the following principles:

  • Time efficiency: We condense everything into half a week – just enough to immerse, but not taking the whole week of fyour busy agenda
  • Gender balance: It’s 21st century. Both genders move the energy efficiency agenda forward and C4E Forum tries to reflect that. In 2018 we set a record almost perfect balance of 49.5% women and 50.5% men.
  • Affordability: C4E Forum is a non-profit event. We make great effort to keep the all-inclusive fee as low as possible, offer a reduced fee for public sector and NGOs and we try to provide at least some fee waivers to government officials who have difficulty getting funding.