On the 11th and 12th of May, the knowledge institutions of the NLAB4CIT-projects (Open Lab Athens, UNITO and Howest) came to Roeselare and Kortrijk to visit the Belgian partners. This partner meeting was organised by the city of Roeselare and Howest.
We kicked off with a presentation about the laboratory of local citizen participation in Flanders. In the afternoon, we visited a skatepark that was co-designed with the local youth officer and the skateboard community of Roeselare. The city even has provided a skate-container with lots of goods and services: free water, basic first aid, skateboards and protection, a fridge and a microwafe, free sunscreen,… The local youth is given ownership of the container and the skatepark. The youth officer allows the young people to make their own choices, draws up agreements, creates responsibility for the youngsters, evaluates on a regular basis and gives and accepts feedback. The youngsters seem very engaged in Roeselare. They will also be included in the pilot project for NLAB4CIT!
In the morning of the 12th of may, we visited the beautiful campus of Howest in Kortrijk. In this futuristic setting, time was foreseen for a coordinating meeting between the partners: what are their questions, possible stakeholders, possible technologies, next steps,…
After that, we received presentations from Howest about three applications of blockchain technology, varying from mobility to sports. This was followed by a presentation of the FairVille city-app. Fairville offers a digital platform consisting of incentive programs to strengthen community engagement and local loyalty.
In the afternoon, we visited the Digital Arts and Entertainment site of Howest. Several technologies were presented and showcased, including VR and procedural 3D. There is a growing inspiration to apply these technologies in the pilot projects!
