The Find Your Greatness partners meeting in Hungary, Budafok, Budapest 22nd district (20-21 Apr 2022) was the first face-to-face meeting since the COVID-19 restrictions came to an end. Several partners joined online though and partook in the meeting in a virtual manner. Partners from Alba Iulia, the leader of the consortium, from Perugia, Voru, and Limerick, together with the lead expert, Janez Sirse, joined together in the capital of Hungary to work on the final phase of the project, respectively on the IAPs drafts and other important things related to the activities of the project.
The transnational meeting took place in a beautiful, newly renovated building in the heart of Budafok - Magdolna Courtyard, a place with a very interesting historical exhibition about the past and history of Budafok. A tour of the exhibition was prepared for the TnM participants as a kick-off introduction related to the venue of the meeting and to the local and cultural heritage.
During the meeting, the most important thematic and management issues were discussed, related to the implementation of the last phase of the project. Both the Vice-Mayor of the Budafok Municipality, Ms Anna Szepesfalvy, and Mr Marius Filimon, the Vice-Mayor of Alba Iulia, attended the meeting and encouraged the cities to further submit proposals and work together on EU projects, in order to strengthen the relationships between European cities and to change good practices, so useful for every administration.
On the first day, the 9th Thematic Meeting was coordinated by the lead expert, Janez Sirse. The aim of the meeting was to review the Integrated Action Plans (IAPs) of the 8 cities in the consortium. All final draft documents were discussed with the participants and evaluated together in terms of all requirements and visions, in line with the project targets. Janez Sirse, as the Lead Expert of the Find Your Greatness project, provided useful inputs for the finalization of the IAPs and partners got the chance to comment on the documents of other cities. This way, the knowledge transfer was facilitated, and lessons learned will be integrated into the final IAPs. Partners also shared their ideas on how to communicate and disseminate their final IAPs locally and at the project level at the final conference in Perugia, Italy.
On the second day, the Lead Partner`s representatives presented the stage of the project, project reporting, and financial management issues, together with the upcoming tasks. The project communication was also discussed, with an important focus on disseminating the project within different local events and within the URBACT City Festival in Paris, June 2022.
At the end of the meeting, FYG partners took a field visit to a local Wine cellar which was presented by the ULG coordinator of Budafok, Ms Eszter Katona. As a winemaker, she is also a key stakeholder in Budafok and shared some interesting details about tourism, winemaking, and branding with the project.
In conclusion, the in-person meeting in Budafok was a success, after two years of online events. All the partners look forward to meeting again in person in Candelaria, Spain, at the beginning of May 2022.
The FYG Budafok team
