Feedback on The Mid Term Review Meeting in Nyírbátor, Hungary

All partners of the Re-Grow City Transfer Network came together for the first time since they met 12 months ago in January 2019 in Alukse to mark the beginning of the transfer actions. Over the past year partners worked in two thematic groups, one focusing on the transfer of the pop-up shop practice and the other on the establishment of an NGO platform.

In January 2020 Re-growCity participants met in Nyírbátor to discuss the previous year and to make plans for the next year. Summarized in one short sentence, our first year went well and we are quite happy with the outputs. Furthermore we created a first draft of a mayoral declaration for the future development of the project. It will be presented and signed during our show case meeting in June 2020 in Altena. The organization of this meeting was another bullet point on our agenda as we had to talk about the way we like to present our final outputs. One highlight was a workshop dealing with place making by Béla. But before writing another detailed report, we asked participants to sum up their experience of meeting, working and having fun together. Below are their responses:

“The ‘Second full partnership meeting’ in Nyírbátor has been an awesome and useful partnership experience for our team. The agenda provided a series of interesting work groups and parallel work sessions that brought to light deep discussions and ideas. For me every meeting is relevant because of the opportunity to exchange professional knowledge, different points of view and –never banal- meet new people and cultures (also in a funny way… in this sense, Pàlinka and Latvian music helped). It’s always great to work in transnational networks and to learn from others (both for the implementation of pop-ups and NGOs). The short workshop about the ‘Placemaking’ has been an extra-opportunity to acquire new knowledge (that we applied and that we are are going to apply again in our town). The next step for the implementation of this phase of the project is to open our first pop-up shop in the Old Town in February and to contemplate parallel actions to support it (events, etc.).” Stefania Bendato, Project Manager of Isernia, Italy

“It is really important that we have meetings like that since it is the best way to exchange ideas, finding innovative solutions and connect with other cities. I found it very useful to get a possibility to talk with other ULG coordinators and situations in their cities. I gained a lot of new knowledge how to work with ULG and got a lot of new ideas which I can implement in our town. Our next step is now to transfer all the knowledge which will help us to fully transfer goog practice from Altena. Together we can do everything! Tina Lisac, Project Manager of Idrija, Slovenia

“This Midterm meeting was truly a reflection on the process of the good-practice transfer we´ve been experiencing! The time was right and the opportunity and value of the work will surely have a positive consequence on partner cities. From the ULG Coordinators private discussion and experience exchange to the seminar on ‘Placemaking’, all event was intensively productive and fun to be in. Such a friendly group of participants make the time spent in Nyírbátor worthwhile and rememberable! Complex processes as these, tend to bring us, participants, closer together, sharing experiences, successes and difficulties. Getting to know more about NGO platforms work package, ‘Placemaking’ structure and techniques, and becoming conscious of other's experience on problems similar to ours, is our major gain. For Melgaço the future path is marked! Endure the occupation of empty permisses with the upcoming business now opening in Pop-Up Shops, and assume this new methodology of tackling urban problems as a truly useful tool for local civil and municipal agents.” José António Lopes, Architect and Project Manager of Melgaço, Portugal

"For us, it was both a challenge and a privilege to host the meeting, the first of its kind in Nyírbátor. The fact that this project is supported by so many mayors and will produce an important policy paper on a European level truly makes our participation worthwhile – it was refreshing to discuss the draft based on the partners’ differing viewpoints in a lively, but still collaborative and respectful way (which is so often neglected in todays’ political landscape). The workshop on placemaking ‘armed’ us with tools that will last much longer than the project and can help turning small cities into tight-knit communities. Seeing the progress of the partners has given us even more motivation to push forward with the idea of pop-up shops and circulate the practice now not just among us, ‘insiders’, but the local citizens, too." Nikoletta Lupó, Project Manager of Nyírbátor, Hungary

“In my opinion, mid-term review was relevant because we noticed that the roller coaster feeling we've had during first year of the project, in special working with the ULG, is moving forward in the way we wanted. Best output from Nyírbátor is in the local point of view realizing that we have done the hard job with civil society and that know we have to make the last push to get on it. I'd also say that the network group is becoming a family and it's also a motivation for the managers of the project. I specially realized that there's not a magic rule: all of it is about knowledge we share and when it hits our context it becomes in different ideas that are useful or not. The first year of the project worked to activate ULG as a group that gave birth to the NGO platform, but also many other actions and positive impact. In future the main priority is to focus on the NGO platform team and transfer command to a powerful group of people in the place.” Jordi Serra, Project Manager of Manresa, Spain

“Two days in Nyírbátor were an experience to remember. So many different people, from different professional posts and different countries got together to work on the same subject, exchanging ideas, agreeing, disagreeing and finally ending up having fun at the pop-up pub of the town! An important meeting, as all participants expressed their ideas, discussed their vision of re-growing their cities and had their plans presented by a partner. What could possibly be more interesting than listening to ULG members' points of view or Getting informed about placemaking and the issues of both projects actions, pop-up and volunteer platforms and discovering that we are all working to improve our cities? Planning to "transform" an abandoned square into a lively place for all residents and set up a ULG network, independed enough to work things out is our future goal now.” Dimitra Kotsi, Project manager of Igoumenitsa, Greek

“Two days in Nyírbátor was an experience to remember. So many different people with different professional backgrounds got together to work on the same subject, exchanging ideas, agreeing, disagreeing and finally ending up having fun at the pop-up pub of the town! This pop-up pub was the best surprise for us in Nyírbátor mainly because it was located on the property of school and local municipality partly subsidized its renovation. In addition, working hours for pub were kind of funny. The best output was to get more confident about the main goals for this project and to gain better understanding about NGO section. We learned more about place making activities and for me that was the best workshop during these two days in Hungary – an experience to bring back home. We have two main goals to think about when returning back home - Planning to "transform" an abandoned square into a lively place for all residents and set up a ULG network, independed enough to work things out. Moreover, of course, continue with other pop-up activities (markets, shops, recreational center etc.).” Sanita Pāsa, Social media manager of Aluksne, Latvia

“Our first full network meeting after one year was a chance to share cities’ development and get up to date with work and private life of partners. Thanks to different methods and some extra time we were able to gain new knowledge, organize our project management and talk about our show case meeting in June. But not only our effective work sessions, but also the after work time was well organized and a great entertainment. Altena will now start to work on our show case meeting which includes another Pop-up Shops week in town. Therefore we like to use some ideas of our partners to improve our strategy as well.” Gundula Schulze, Financial manager of Altena, Germany

As promised here is the information about our final outputs:

On 18^th until 20^th of June 2020 the Network will meet in Altena to present the cities, final outputs and to share gained knowledge with other shrinking cities and interested persons. The meeting will not only take place in one boring building build up for events like this, but in one of our two castles and in Pop-Up shops which will be activated and filled with life by partners to promote their cities. Additionally local people will have an opportunity to open Pop-Ups as well. These three days will include different entertainment, music, workshops and discussions to create a harmonious gathering of European URBACT and shrinking small town Altena. Soon we will present the program for the 3 days!