From June 27th to June 29th, delegations from all project partners met in Parma to take part in the final Capacity Building Workshop, an occasion to openly share every RAP, increase capacity in green financing, review best practices and gain insights on other partners' work in the field of the energy transition. We are glad to remark that this event was not online this time!
Parma’s team from the Energy and EU funding departments of Parma City Council welcomed participants to the municipality where they could visit the hall of the City Council, drink some water, and get a break from the extremely warm temperatures. During the visit, project partners were introduced to the game “Bites of Parma”, an ice-breaking activity in which every project partner group received a list of city sights and typical dishes that can be found in Parma. The goal was to take as many photos as possible and collect a selfie with each dish and sight.
With the arrival of all members of the event, POTEnT group hit the way towards the south of Parma by taking photos of city sights, to arrive at a pizza place located close to the fortress of Parma, a mighty defensive fortress built by the Dukes of Parma, the second largest green space in the city.
On Tuesday 28th, participants met at Complesso Monastico del San Paolo, a hub in which the majority of the interregional learning activities were held. The daily session was “Rethinking Marginal projects”: an interactive work session focused on finding alternative funding sources for subsidiary projects that may be financed in the future.
Jeremy Draper, from the Municipality of Milton Keynes, brought the experience of the Carbon Offset Fund as a vehicle to promote a sustainability mindset at all levels of society, especially in the developers ‘one. In the afternoon session, participants moved to the municipality offices to follow a presentation from Professor Lucia Poletti on “Microcredit” and how to finance people living in vulnerable solutions. The association (Microcredito) leveraged participants’ interest and many questions were raised. How to gain trust from bank institutions? How to select the right people to finance? And more in detail, how can microcredits boost local energy transition? A lot of interesting answers came out from this session!
After a long and fruitful day of interregional learning, it was time to try some special delicacies of the city of Parma, so almost 30 project partners went to the “Tribunale”, a popular tavern that used to be a court some centuries ago.
On Wednesday 29th, the final session was held. The day started with a short presentation of each Regional Action Plan. Actions, strategies, and milestones of each RAP were therefore discussed and reviewed. This session pushed participants to know more about each other, investigate alternative approaches and connect with other cities. To conclude, a PMG presentation and a review of the best photos taken by partners these days finalized the meeting.
Convivial moments, handshakes, curiosity, friendship, and interregional learning were the key elements of these days. Finally, after many limitations, and events online, partners’ representatives could meet, talk, and discuss in a more spontaneous and open manner. Finally, the interregional cooperation can continue, despite the resilience shown in the pandemic period, to share good practices and inspire other cities.
However, don’t forget that POTEnT is not finished, it is now time to monitor RAP implementation and organize Project Final Conference! See you soon!
