by Sabine Hausmann
How to communicate the activities of an URBACT network? Its goals? Its purpose? To an audience that has never heard of URBACT? How do you communicate a complex issue such as the revitalisation of vacant ruinous buildings? Especially if you don't have such effective figures of sympathy as adorable bees at your disposal? And how do you do this not only for your own town, but, for all the partner cities of the network?
We thought that we needed an external occasion to carry out a joint action in all partner cities. Therefor we found the “World Cities Day” in the UN calendar on 31.10. and decided to seize this day. Now we still needed an idea of what we wanted to organize on this day. A guided tour through an empty building? A press conference? A tour of the district? An information event for the inhabitants?
Getting the partners on board
During the network meeting in Constanta we informed the partner cities about the plan to carry out an effective publicity action on the “World Cities Day”. We wanted to create some momentum and public awareness of the problem of vacant and derelict buildings and flats in our cities and the solutions we develop in the network. The idea was quite straight forward:
- Put up a banner on at least one “iconic” building the partners are working on.
- On 31 October, invite a representative of the city and the press to meet on site (and have an idea what to talk about).
- Do a (press) interview (or something comparable) and document it (video, press article).
- Publish it or have it published.
- Send the publications to c.o.[at]stadtwohnen-chemnitz.de and if possible send at least a picture until 16:00 so we can promote the event on network level (twitter, newsletter etc.).
For the banner we supplied a template that was taken from a planned poster campaign in Chemnitz after we had settled the international usage rights with the copyright holder.
The first reactions of the partners “were pure enthusiasm” („Woaw, this is something you are asking!” - in a disbelieving tone). After further consideration, the reactions changed to: “You can say that you have the power to make us move”. A small obstacle was added by the fact that in Germany the 31.10. is a public holiday. So we carried out the action in Chemnitz already on 30.10.
The different ideas and actions of the network cities
Chemnitz
We had invited the press to a characteristic building on a busy street. The “Agency StadtWohnen Chemnitz” had succeeded in convincing the previous owner to sell this house to a housing developer. We had a very large banner attached to the house. On site were Börries Butenop, Head of Urban Planning Department, a representative of the developer, the coordinator of the ULG in Chemnitz, Dr. Frank Feuerbach and we as the Agency StadtWohnen Chemnitz. From the local press came a journalist from the largest daily local newspaper as well as a radio reporter.
Rybnik
In Rybnik, too, the press was invited to a building, which is an important project for the city and which will be renovated in an innovative process over the next few years. A truly huge banner in the same design covered the building. Four journalists interviewed the Vice Mayor Piotr Maslowski, and Artur Gliwicki, ALT/BAU project coordinator in Rybnik and director of the municipal housing association. On this day, the URBACT Rybnik Facebookpage. was launched.
Constanta
The URBACT team in the city administration of Constanta initiated a photo competition in which the participants were asked to photograph architectural details of vacant historic buildings in the city centre. The best ones were published in a calendar. On 31.10. staff of the city administration, members of the ULG and a group of architecture students, who had recorded and documented the empty and dilapidated buildings in Constanta, gathered in front of a banner decorated building in a central location. A group picture was taken and posted on Twitter.
Seraing
The URBACT Team from Seraing produced a video about the challenges in Seraing's further development and the city´s goals in the ALT/BAU Transfer Network. The video introduces the URBACT team in Seraing and the future headquarters of the future „Seraing housing agency“. This was completely covered by a really, really huge banner that will remain until the building is renovated.
Turin
Urban Lab Torino also celebrated the “World Cities Day”. Antonino Iaria, town councillor of Turin in charge of city planning visited Urban Lab Torino. The city administration is working at the revision and the update of the city masterplan. For Urban Lab, being part of the URBACT ALT/BAU Transfer Network it was and is a great opportunity to share experiences and find solutions and effective tools in order to facilitate the reuse of vacant properties in collaboration between the many stakeholders working in the field.
The results of the public relations work on the occasion of the “World Cities Day”
- a page-sized article in the largest daily newspaper in Chemnitz
- the launch of a facebook page for URBACT Rybnik
- the publication of a video on Seraing's plans on the network
- the creation of four large banners with information about the URBACT ALT/BAU Transfer Network
- 11 twitter entries and 11 retweets
- an article in the network newsletter
- good experiences (also about own capabilities) by all participants
- learning effects for the future
Conclusion:
- An external event and a concrete, visible result are perfectly suited for public relations.
- A competition is a good way to involve people.
- Talk about network-wide ideas with all participants at an early stage. That applies also to your own city and organization. The earlier those involved know about it and what role they should play in it, the better.
- Just do it! Sometimes time pressure brings surprising results.
