Our Activities

The HerO Final Conference took place in the Lead Partner city on 13 and 14 April 2011. More than 80 participants from more than ten European countries came to Regensburg to discuss the project results.

At the beginning of the HerO network activities, the European Commission has awared HerO the ‘Fast Track Label’, a specific instrument of the ‘Regions for Economic Change’ initiative which aims to get the cities and the Managing
Authorities of the European Cohesion Policy’s Operational Programmes working together to enhance the impact exchange activities have on local level. The early launch of the HerO partner’s Local Action Plans facilitates the implementation of concrete measures before the end of the project period.

On 17th-19th November 2010 the HerO partners and representatives of their associated Managing Authorities met in Naples for their last Expert Workshop. The focus of the conference was this time on ‘multifunctional old town areas
- balancing the needs of different stakeholder groups in historic city centres’.

On September 8-10 the HerO partners met in the Polish partner city Lublin to discuss about cultural activities in historic cities and their role within the local integrated strategies of management. Apart from the renovation of historic buildings and the preservation of the historic urban landscape as a whole, this conference placed emphasis on the ‘soft’ cultural and social initiatives, which keep historic cities alive and make them attractive places to live, work and invest in.

The network HerO's 1st Expert Workshop took place in Vilnius, Lithuania on 10-11 May 2010. The conference was dedicated to the theme ‘the visual integrity of historic urban landscapes’. Emphasis has been placed on the following subtopics which have been identified by the HerO partners as being the most relevant:

- Integration of new architecture into the historic cityscape, respecting the historic and spatial characteristics of its setting

- Instruments to protect visual view perspectives, silhouettes, townscape characteristics and panoramas, which strongly contribute to the distinctiveness of the historic urban landscape

- Proper integration of advertisement and commercial signs in public space, without harming the visual integrity of the historic urban landscape

The HerO Mid-Term-Conference took place in Valletta, Malta on 9-10 November 2009. It was the 4th Thematic Seminar during Phase II of the network HerO - Heritage as Opportunity. Building up on the results of the meetings in Poitiers, Graz and Liverpool, the meeting aimed to foster the exchange among the project partners in regards to the elaboration process of “Cultural Heritage Integrated Management Plans” (CHIMPs) on local level in the partner cities.

The Project Meeting in Liverpool on 16-17 July 2009 was the 3rd Thematic Seminar during Phase II of the network HerO - Heritage as Opportunity. Building up on the results of the meetings in Poitiers and Graz, this conference aimed to foster the exchange among the project partners in view of supporting the elaboration processes of the Cultural Heritage Integrated Management Plans (CHIMPs) on local level in the partner cities.

More than 30 participants attended the HerO project meeting in Graz, which took place on 19 and 20 March 2009. Interesting tours of the historic city centre of Graz allowed the HerO partners to learn about Graz’ rich cultural heritage values and presentations by the hosting city gave us insight into the site’s management.

Representatives of the nine HerO partner cities met in Poitiers for the launching conference, which took place in the local conference centre from 4-5 December 2008. „It is a great pleasure for me to host this important project meeting here in Poitiers” said Poiters’ mayor Alain Claeys and warmly welcomed his international guests “We are very happy that the City of Poitiers has been chosen to become a partner to this promising city network and we look forward to a fruitful exchange with other historic towns in Europe.

A second preparatory meeting with all partners took place in Regensburg on 19th September 2008 in order to conclude the achievements of the network's development phase and to finalize the preparations for the upcoming 30-months implementation phase.

The HerO Kick-Off-Meeting was the very first get-together of all network partners and took place on 30th June and 1st July 2008 in the Lead Partner city Regensburg.