The conference structure shall be based on the following modules:
For conference participants:
Lecture session
- Interactive session
- Poster session (exhibition)
- Integration session
For local communities (children):
- Workshop session
- Lecture session
Lecture session shall be composed of lecture modules for target groups and dedicated to subthemes on sustainable development of urban areas in line with the following pattern:
- Introduction to the issue in question
- Series of lectures by selected experts in specific domains
- Panel debates with experts and representatives of the target groups
- Summary
Workshop session
Parallel to the lecture session there will be a workshop session for about 30 children, age 7-13, from a local primary school. The program includes tailor-made, ecology-profiled games and plays, moderated by a specialized teacher/coach. We want to build together urban space, supported by art projects, eco-games, eco-walks etc. – all in the spirit of educational fun.
On Day 1, children will solve eco-tasks in the form of educational games and plays and will try to find specific solutions to planning assignments by playing three different roles (corresponding to project target groups):
- I am the one who decides – a child as a representative of a public administration decision-maker answers a question: What would I decide if it was up to me?
- I am the one who builds – a child as an investor/entrepreneur answers a question: What would I build if it was up to me?
- I am the one who designs – a child as an architect/urban planner answers a question: What would I design if it was up to me?
The outcomes of eco-exercises for children shall be presented to the adult audience in the form of a display, being one of elements of a poster session on Day 2.
Poster session
Poster session is connected with the main thematic line of the conference and will match the lecture session. It will also serve as a ground for free and open discussion among conference participants. The session shall be in the form of a display of best practices from Europe on sustainable development solutions, linked to the conference topics. Best practices shall be thoroughly documented and presented not only in the form of movies and on posters but also on the project website and in the final publication. Interviews with experts shall be video-recorded and presented in their full version in the project website and also on DVD that will be attached to the final post-conference publication (Project final output). The poster session shall also be complemented with children’s works produced on Day 1 during the workshop session.
Interactive session
The second day of the conference shall be dedicated to the interactive session for target groups and it will be composed of the following elements:
- Introduction. A specific topic-related task shall be presented to be solved by various target groups.
- Presentation of best practices from Europe (linked to the topic of a given conference) as a stimulus for holistic solutions.
- Children’s poster session. Follow-up of the poster session complemented with integration examples hammered out on the basis of similar tasks by the youngest conference participants on Day 1. Children’s viewpoint (free from any environmental bias) will show easier and straightforward approach to the jobs undertaken on day 1. The children’s poster session will give adults a chance to keep an accurate distance from their own attitude and self-centered goals.
- Task triangles – “If I were in your shoes”. Task groups shall be created composed of nine representatives of target groups: 3 public administration officials, 3 investors or entrepreneurs and 3 architects or urban planners. The task groups will be challenged with a task to analyze interdependence, complexity and conflict of interests as well as to define their own goals.
- Reversed roles – a key element of the session. Its aim is to identify different goals and reach an agreement as well as to define common conclusions. A crucial part of the “If I were in your shoes” game shall be double change of roles in order to understand contradictory interests of the adversaries. Therefore, an architect will switch role with an investor/entrepreneur and then with a public official and each time will have to look at a given task from a different perspective, defend taken viewpoints and thus to make an optimal action plan. The session shall be moderated by the speakers.
- Drawing up a common strategy for future actions shall make an output of the interactive session.
- Sum-up. Reversed roles of target groups will help to draw up final conclusions and will serve as a best-practice base for the final project publication. The solutions worked out during the session will let the target groups copy similar patterns in their daily professional practice.
All sessions (lecture, workshop, interactive, poster and integration) together with interviews, comments and other conference-related events shall be documented not only in the text form but also as video films and photographs (special attention shall be placed on regulations on publicity release, in particular with reference to children).
Before each conference suitable thematic partners shall be selected who will contribute to high factual value and prestige of the project.
Each thematic conference shall be diligently documented in a form that will be used for the final publication on cooperation of various target groups in implementing sustainable development principles.
Conference proceedings shall include:
- Edited lectures and presentations from each conference
- Summarized conclusions from each panel debate
- Recommendations for further promotional activities of the project outputs
- Documented other conference-related events.
Conference proceedings
Conference lectures shall be video-recorded, which will contribute to further knowledge spread. On the basis of registered presentations, video-blogs shall be put up and made available on the project website. Proceedings shall be edited and published under the title ECOLOGY CONSTRUCTIVELY together with a DVD attached thereto. DVD will include also additional educational and promotional materials. It will serve as a summary of all presentations and speeches, acquired knowledge and conclusions, thus it will provide a compendium of sustainable development of urban areas. In terms of the merit, it will also be complemented with proposed solutions to various challenges hammered out during the interactive and workshop sessions as well as examples of compromises reached by the target groups: public administration officials, entrepreneurs, investors, architects and urban planners. The book will be published in 2000 copies and distributed to public administration units, professional associations of investors and entrepreneurs, chambers of architects and urban planners, significant institutions and other relevant addressees.
The publication shall be translated into the English language, which will help us to reach European institutions (European Parliament, European Commission, Committee of Regions) and other recipients interested in the field. The English version shall be available only in the electronic form.
