Lights on Alba Iulia`s participation in Find Your Greatness APN

1. Key strategic development challenges of the city
The main challenge of the city is to attract foreign investors capable of contributing to a more sustainable development of the city. The workforce at the city level could be a challenge though, for any investor who wants to establish in Alba Iulia. That is why the dedicated programmes for developing new skills for the workforce must come first. The universities in the city, NGOs, and the administration are making sustained efforts to reduce the gaps and to train the workforce towards activities that are requested nowadays by the investors. 

2. Strategic brand positioning
Alba Iulia was the first city in Romania to launch a professional brand, a branding manual, and a marketing strategy. In 2010, with the first works that transformed the citadel, the city chose an original way to assert its identity, challenging the general public to answer questions such as: who are we, what best describes us, what is worth promoting? The brand inspiringly combined the answers to all the questions and was „forged through creativity” to become a great and professional city branding, demonstrating since then the fact that the co-creation approach is the best way to create something durable.

3. Objectives of IAP
The main objective of the IAP resonates with the initiative of the city to transform itself into a smart city. The IAP has the role to envision for the municipality the key actions that have to be followed in order for the city to become a dynamic urban organism capable to benefit from the new urban trend in modernization and transformation: the smart city transformation. The specific objectives are Alba Iulia – a more attractive, accessible, and coherent city for tourists; Alba Iulia – a more attractive city for investors; Alba Iulia – a more visible smart city; Alba Iulia – a business destination.

4. Main actions of IAP
The development vision for Alba Iulia outlines a branded, inclusive, open, and smart city. Alba Iulia aims to become a territory where strategic urban management facilitates growth, and improves living standards and competitiveness. Therefore, the main actions are: Creating the Alba Iulia Brand Management team; Increasing the attractiveness of Alba Iulia using smart digital tools and ICT and partnerships in order to attract investors by 2024; Creating the Alba Iulia IMC plan; Launching the „Startup Fortress” project.

5. The role and activities of ULG in co-creating IAP
ULG members were the main co-creation group of the IAP. More than 15 meetings, both in physical format (when the situation allowed), but also online, in the form of working meetings or conferences, interviews were organized. For the promotion campaign, in the marketing field, and for the economic development, an online tool was also used – a web-based platform to invite and connect ULG Core and ULG members with foreign investors – https://investinalbaiulia.city.

6. The benefits of participating in APN FyG 
By participating in the FYG APN, Alba Iulia learned a lot from the 7 partners in terms of branding, branding implementation, and smart city development. From the URBACT team involved, Alba Iulia learned the strategic approach to using EU funds in the co-creation process of the city; from Limerick, Alba Iulia learn the smart city way of development, from Braganca - the social experience for active nomad digital people; from Budafok - how to create a wine city brand; from Wroclaw - how to rediscover hidden treasures of the city and to rebrand them; from Candelaria - how to engage the spirit of the community; from Voru - how to work with youngsters in terms of promoting the city; and from Perugia - how to put old spaces from the city into value and to create the city brand using the stories of these spaces. 

Learn more about Alba Iulia from FYG Final digital product: https://issuu.com/findyourgreatness/docs/find_your_greatness_e-book