Savonlinna Development Services Ltd. hosted its LSG kick-off-meeting in the town hall of Savonlinna on January 31st.
The invitation was sent to more than 30 potential stakeholders, but 7 stakeholders participated the meeting. Few stakeholders informed that they cannot take part in the event, but they are nevertheless interested in Local Flavours. The stakeholder groups attending the meeting were mainly non-profit organizations, but the town of Savonlinna and the National Board of Antiquities were also represented.
The meeting was opened with the presentation of the project manager and the financial/communication manager. After that the project manager presented shortly the concept of the Interreg Europe programme and the Local Flavours project itself.
In the next step the stakeholders introduced themselves to others. Then they were given a questionnaire in order to collect general data about the organizations and their involvement in projects which relate to cultural heritage. They could also indicate, if they have any ideas for new projects, previous experience in projects with cultural heritage or if they are looking for new partners for co-operation.
The rest of the event was used for free discussion, which proved to be very fruitful. It turned out that several representants are actually dealing with the same issues. After finding this out, tangible measures can be taken to join the similar and parallel activities of different operators. This way the elaboration of same issues will be more effective and productive. Some similarities with the international project partners were surprisingly discovered already now, which is a good basis for knowledge exchange. The project team will continue to inform the stakeholders about the upcoming events, co-operation possibilities etc.
