The 23rd edition of the European Regions Week, the biggest annual Brussels-based event on which cities and regions have the opportunity to showcase their latest developments, took place this October and one of the proud exhibitors there was the URBACT Action Planning Network “METACITY”. The 10 network partners demonstrated some of their achievements in the area of creating the cities of tomorrow and proved everyone how digital tools can make small cities look big.
Over 200 sessions with more than 300 speakers and 6500 participants from all over Europe and beyond, such are the big figures of the impressive event that took place from 13 to 15 October and attracted to Brussels policy makers, practitioners, project partners and stakeholders in regional development and urban planning. This year edition of the European Regions Week has remained faithful to its tradition, continuing to be big, crowded and full of novelties as ever. But amongst all this buzz there was one stand that certainly didn’t go unnoticed with a constant flow of interested visitors testing the VR tools in display, and this was the one from METACITY.
With the Action Planning Network approaching its closure due end of December, with all testing actions now done and the integrated action plans for the future digitalization of the 10 partner cities well in the making, October was the perfect time to start showing final results. And what better place to do that than the European Regions Week with the presence of a crowd of several thousands of fellow urban planners, European, national and regional authorities in charge of funding programmes, investors and interested citizens? The METACITY participation in the event started to be discussed at the start of the Planning Stage and was finally agreed earlier this year. The next step was then to apply for a stand, and amongst fierce competition for the available space, with only 1 out of 3 applications being retained, the network was successful and received the news that it could showcase its results in this massive event. As always in these cases, the happiness of being selected is quickly replaced by the anxiety of preparation and that was the feeling faced by the partners as they had to speed up on the deployment of their testing actions and starting documenting, in video and in demonstrable products, what was done and is being planned for bringing their cities into the next wave of digitalization.
But after a busy summer break in early October everything was ready, and partners met in Brussels for a network meeting just before the opening of the event to share their products and videos and get their fellow network members feedback before going public with their results. After this successful essay, everyone was at their place on the first day when visitors started to jump at the stand to put on the VR glasses at disposal and discover the natural wonders of Razlog, the history of Arta or the urban projects being developed at Härnösand, almost as if they were there. For a lot of visitors this was their first contact ever with Virtual Reality, and its application to urban planning, allowing to “see” future buildings or land projects before construction actually starts or is even licensed, and this way step into an engaged and informed open discussion on new developments, has been highly praised by all that passed through the stand. Also, the digital developments pictured in the videos in exhibition at the stand, such as the Fundão digital strategy to attract more foreign residents, the Nevers investment in digital facilities, the Nykarleby open discussion fora, Újbuda sessions on ethical use of internet and Mostar, Písek and Campobasso use of Digital Twins, have geared many questions and interest from the attendees. As mentioned in the slogan chosen by the METACITY network for this event, “big cities are the ones that make their citizens feel big” and that feeling has most certainly been present all through the event, showing that METACITY partners have achieved a lot during the 20 months of the implementation stage and they have all the rights to be proud of their results and of the interest they raise amongst the numerous stand visitors – if you got it, flaunt it!
While a lot of local results have been already achieved by METACITY partners, the network joint participation in the European Regions Week, as a single team, has been on itself one of the major final results of the project. Starting with the collective decision to participate made in a true partnership spirit, to the selection of the network application for a stand in a very competitive process that validated the relevance of the network topic, and culminating in the high interest and engagement raised from attendees on the displayed actions and tools, the METACITY participation has been a very visible success that has raised the profile of the network. This participation has once more demonstrated that the use of new digital tools to enhance citizen engagement, participation and relationships with city authorities is an absolute must for all cities, big or small, and the path to go for more citizen-friendly and sustainable cities in Europe.