Training a new generation of feminist activists

The UK Guardian reports that a 500-person “Feminista summer school” just wrapped up. It was “a two-day event aimed at mobilising feminist activists and training them in the art of campaigning and direct action.” The article explains:

With new groups, new campaigns and a set of decades-old beliefs being repackaged for the 21st century, leading figures such as Kat Banyard are claiming a “massive resurgence” in feminism. If anyone felt intimidated by the “monumental shifts” needed, Banyard, author of The Equality Illusion, told the audience, they needed to look no further than at the mountains moved by their antecedents. “Feminism is nothing but audacious,” she said. “It can be done.”

I would love to hear more from any of the young activists involved in the summer school. Did it feel relevant, effective, fun? Would you recommend this model for feminists in other parts of the world?

And for everyone, do you think activism is best fostered in these kinds of structured, short-term environments? Or is it better to leave these kinds of skills to grassroots organizations, like the massive and highly-impressive SlutWalk movement, or to formalize it in some way?