Attractiveness. City´s internationalisation pathway to smart growth

How cities are marketed as business and innovation ecosystems? This was the main theme of the URBACT IN FOCUS Transnational Workshop held in Grenoble from February 7 to 9, 2018, where we had the opportunity to discuss on marketing the city as a business location, with a central question to discuss: How to take advantage from the concept of smart specialisation to improve and give more direction when branding and communicating the city as a business environment and innovation ecosystem.

Transnational Meeting in the Kortrijk region: Conservation through development

From the 12th to the 15th of February of 2018 the network INT-HERIT had a meeting in Belgium where the partners had the opportunity to work together and develop a new work methodology. Please keep reading and see the content of some working sessions. At the end of the text you can also watch and follow an interactive debate about cultural heritage.

Palermo - Integrated Action Plan

After decades of stillness, Palermo is a city undergoing massive changes thanks to new urban policies aimed at providing more efficient public services, especially in the field of urban mobility. This transition phase implies a big challenge both for citizens and public administration in order to adapt to new habits, new procedures and to the use of new web devices. The Integrated Action Plan (IAP) intervenes in this context by proposing solutions able to improve the city’s social media governance meant as a key factor in driving both citizens and public administration towards a more sustainable city.

Palermo - Integrated Action Plan

After decades of stillness, Palermo is a city undergoing massive changes thanks to new urban policies aimed at providing more efficient public services, especially in the field of urban mobility. This transition phase implies a big challenge both for citizens and public administration in order to adapt to new habits, new procedures and to the use of new web devices. The Integrated Action Plan (IAP) intervenes in this context by proposing solutions able to improve the city’s social media governance meant as a key factor in driving both citizens and public administration towards a more sustainable city.

IMPACT FINANCE FOR SOCIAL INNOVATION

Last transnational meeting of BoostINNO in Milan was focused on social impact. On 24th January roundtable on Impact finance for social innovation was organised with experts and representatives from various financial institutions.

Paris-Semaest Integrated Action Plan

SEMAEST is Paris Municipality’s semi-public operator in charge of commercial revitalization. This medium-size company (50 employees) manages 465 tenants and does its best to implant quality and innovative shops. As ecommerce was becoming a worrying competition, SEMAEST created in 2015 a new program to help small independent shops use digital tools, in order to become more attractive and successful: this is the Connected Stores program (or CoSto).

Urbact Interactive Cities Transnational Meeting Murcia – Part Two

The article picks up where we left off in the previous article, which you can read here: Urbact Interactive Cities Transnational Meeting Murcia – Part One

Day two – morning

The Workshop on Teambuilding and Optimizing Human Resources was followed by a second workshop, presented to us by Nacho Tomás, Managing Director of N7 (digital communication and marketing) approaching the digital communication and digital communication tools form the public administration’s point of view, targeting citizens as receivers and end-users of the “message” being launched, and taking into account the desirability of reciprocity and dialogue.

Urbact Interactive Cities Transnational Meeting Murcia – Part One

The Murcia Team had the immense pleasure of hosting the previous to last partner meeting of the Urbact Interactive Cities Network in our city from the 24^th until the 26^th of January 2018, a vibrant mixture of working sessions, expert interventions, site-visits and workshops throughout the three-day-programme.

Murcia with ≈450K inhabitants is the 7th largest city of Spain, capital of the Murcia Region and located in the southeast of the Iberia peninsula. The City has all modern facilities one can expect from a regional capital, and the economy is primarily based on services, (residential) tourism being important, and agriculture (exporting all over Europe, examples include fruit, vegetables and wine).

How Glasgow is using URBinclusion to drive its Thriving Place, Govanhill

By Marie McLelland - Glasgow Project Co-ordinator                

URBinclusion is challenging Glasgow in a new way. It is giving us the space to explore how we implement existing plans and strategies and how we overcome the challenges we face. While this is something we may have done for some time, we now need to articulate, measure and monitor how we do it.

Spaces for smart specialisation: spaces and places where smart specialisation takes shape

The urban economy is changing, and so are the locational needs for companies and workers. How can cities cope with this? URBACT IN FOCUS partners reflected on the development of new workspaces and places, in the context of smart specialisation strategies of cities and regions during the Transnational Workshop held in Bordeaux from 22-24 November 2017.