You are here

Special Report: Wide-ranging Discussions in Stockholm

Edited on

09 October 2017
Read time: 2 minutes

Topics

On November 25th, 320 city specialists met in Stockholm for the 2009 URBACT Annual Conference. The agenda included discussing the progress made by URBACT projects, sharing challenges and debating key current issues. Here are some pictures to relive this exceptional day.



Proud, happy Sweden />In this picture, Catrin Mattsson welcomes URBACT partners on behalf of Maud Olofsson, Swedish Minister for Enterprise and Energy and Deputy Prime Minister. She recounted how proud and happy Sweden has been to preside over the European Union in recent months, how integrated urban development is important to her and how much action the country is taking in this area. She also mentioned how much Stockholm deserves its status as the <a  data-cke-saved-href=European Green Capital 2010, with a nod in the direction of all of URBACT's Swedish partners, which we met during our "Urban Journey to the Centre of Sweden".

Yes we can!


 /><br />This is a sentence heard several times over during the workshop that focused on innovation in small and medium-sized cities (one of the ten thematic workshops on the schedule). It is hard to sum up an hour and a half of rich, lively discussions in a few lines, but here are a few selected moments.<br /><br /> <br />Can small and medium-sized cities really influence creativity? <ul><li>Not really, according to one participant: critical mass is needed to play a real role, particularly on a European level.</li><li>Yes, according to Pere Massegu, from the city of <a  data-cke-saved-href=Manresa, in Spain. For him, "the knowledge economy is not about size. For example, computers are important for all businesses, whether they are in large or small cities."