Connecting with Global Shapers from around the world for celebrating, inspiration and sharing.
Shaper Europe was held in Bilbao between 3-5 November 2023 by the Global Shapers Bilbao hub across prestigious venues around Bilbao. Being the first in-person Global Shapers meet up in Europe since 2019 (due to Covid-19), there was a lot of energy amongst the 245 shapers in attendance who shared insights, experiences and inspirations.
About Shaper events
Shape Europe is one of four events across the world which hosts cohorts from the 10,272 shapers network, from 505 hubs and 152 countries. To appreciate the scale of this endeavour, Shaper Europe had 42 countries and 110 hubs represented at the opening ceremony at the Guggenheim Museum to the closing plenary at the vibrant Stadium of San Mamés. Bilbao Hub worked in coordination with Valencia and Barcelona Hub as well as sponsorship from Provincial Council of Bizkai, Basque Government and Bilbao council.
I’d like to share my experiences of attending Shaper Europe, and reflect on how it has shaped (excuse the pun) my outlook moving forward within the Global Shapers community.
Bilbao hub set the theme of the event as Harreman: uniting community and territory, which aims to develop vision and action for young people to lead a positive impact on communities near and far. As part of this process, the event was about what you give and receive, and I will use this lens to explain what I received and gave during the Shape Europe.
Friday began with both an industrial and medieval based group tour of the city facilitated by local shapers. During the medieval tour, I learnt about Bilbao’s history and unique culture.
In the evening we had the opening ceremony at the incredibly bold and grand Guggenheim Museum and were honoured by a full philharmonic orchestra piece and welcoming speeches from shapers and event sponsors. The energy was high as shapers joined their allocated group (kuadrilla) in anticipation for the next day’s group activities.
On Saturday, I attended workshops on how to deal with organizational challenges within hubs, such as engagement, recruitment and working with local stakeholders. Around 12 hubs were represented and shapers shared their struggles and insights. I also attended a session on how to enable inclusivity in Global Shapers communities, and I gained many insights, such as working with underrepresented groups in Manchester to diversify our recruitment efforts. After the sessions, there was a project showcase, in which shapers could collaborate on their impact projects and share best practice. Hannah Ballard showcased our hub’s Climate Conversations project in partnership with Sustainable Change Studio and made many meaningful connections – watch this space for the launch of this exciting project!
On Sunday, we had a Mural painting to keep the energy going and the closing ceremony at the vibrant Stadium of San Mamés. At this point, shapers from Bilbao hub shared their journey to organizing this weekend event as a voluntary organization. It was inspiring to hear how they overcame the logistical and emotional strain of organizing such a huge event, and how being friends first made it possible, a lesson I’d like to continue to work with fellow shapers to build into the culture of Manchester Hub.
Closing thoughts
The Global Shaper active members and alumni are an incredibly diverse and talented community, which have already delivered 2,500 projects, volunteered 10,000 hours and mobilised 12 million stakeholders to date!
Personally meeting with shapers around the world to learn about their journey and impact projects was an inspiring experience that has filled me with energy and enthusiasm for the future of Global Shapers Manchester Hub.
Shape Europe provided a space for shapers to feel connected and supported in their respective journeys. This approach was crucial as I found that imposter syndrome is prevalent amongst many shapers taking on leadership roles for the first time (it’s certainly how I felt when I first joined) and having such a supportive network and space to reflect provided valuable perspective.
We feel imposter syndrome when we focus on outcomes rather than the journey, which is exacerbated when we don’t feel personally connected to our community.
For this reason, I’ve learnt that shapers have to be friends first, which may seem obvious but can be missed in a hub’s culture (especially considering the effect of Covid-19), and is often correlated to a drop off in engagement. This is important as we can only be as productive as our wellbeing allows, and we can only know someone as much as we know their circumstances and mindset, which is time worth taking to develop meaningful relationships.
Within Manchester Hub, I’ve learnt to appreciate that a shaper’s time is limited as they often take on several other commitments, and so our use of google drive to provide shared guidance and working documents is key to making it easier for shapers to coordinate their efforts. Shape Europe has reminded me that all shapers also have access to a global network of specialists, research and resources to support them in building the impact of their hub, which should be accessed when creating a project or working on an existing one. As well as this, meeting in person regularly and having online workshops is an effective way.
The future of Global Shapers Manchester hub
Many members of our hub’s members will become Alumni next year, creating an exciting opportunity to bring a new wave of shapers to lead the hub and create impact in Manchester and the wider Global Shapers community. We are currently running a recruitment campaign and have received over 30 expressions of interest (which isn’t bad for a short campaign!). Along with fellow shapers, I will be applying these lessons into the recruitment and onboarding journey we will be delivering over the next few months, and I look forward to supporting the new shapers that will be the future co-curators of Global Shapers Manchester.
I also look forward to connecting with the UK hubs through social and best practice sessions, as we gain strength in our numbers when we work together!
Thanks to Rocío Cámara Farré, Roberta Vicente and all shapers who made the event happen at Global Shapers Bilbao Global Shapers Barcelona Global Shapers Valencia.
All the inspiring shapers I connected with Anh Nguyen Michael Brooks Reese Wong Faisal Alshehri Dario Mirossi Juan David Ramírez Jaramillo, Annabelle O’Donnell Andreas Lo Sabina Mihailescu Sugam Ghimire Seval Çelebi Anna Vidiņa Nada Mohamed Clarissa Anjani Artun Yıldız Melis TÜRKER and many more!
Global Shapers Manchester 