ISSS 2002

1^st virtual vernissage

Congress Centre ALDIS, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic

Press Release

09/01/2008

LORIS 2008--twinning cooperation between European towns and cities

Also we have to mention of special guests made the conference more interesting and dramatically increased its impact--Members of European Parliament Oldrich Vlasak and Milan Cabrnoch, Czech Minister of Interior Ivan Langer (in Eastern and Central Europe, ministries of interior are supervisors of execution of state government on municipal level), Minister of Justice Jiri Pospisil (the same applies here) and officers from Czech and Slovak ministry for regional development, finance and environment, who held expert presentations for representatives of municipalities regarding current status of their particular areas with respect to current and future plans of European authorities and also relatively to the development in the Central and Eastern European region.

LORIS conference was held in synergy with the ISSS conference--the biggest Czech national ICT conference, and V4DIS conference, event aimed at ICT in Visegrád 4 countries and surrounding area (Slovenia, Austria). This improved the impact of the project, as its results were presented to more than 2000 visitors of the ISSS and V4DIS conference.

Project profile and objectives

Local and Regional Information Society--LORIS

Character

International conference

Conference Languages

Czech and Slovak, simultaneous translation to Hungarian and Polish and vice versa

Lecturers

Otakar Divíšek, Lord Mayor, City of Hradec Kralove
Anna Dyttertova, Vice-Mayor, City of Bratislava
Milan Pešák, Councellor of the City of Prague
István Zacharias, City of Moldava nad Bodvou, SK
Csaba Madarasz, City of Budapest
Frantisek Kohanyi, City of Kosice
Andrzej Janicki, City of Warsaw
Peter Druga, BIC, City of Bratislava
Peter Borovsky, Comenius university of Bratislava
Ivan Seycek, Head of ICT dept., City of Prague
Josef Zelenka, University of Hradec Kralove
Jiri Peterka, City of Prague, Junior Erb award
Miroslav Drobny, Union of towns and cities of Slovakia
Jaroslav Solc, Union of Towns and Communities, CZ
Pavol Tarina, Governement plenipotentiary for ICT, SK
Rostislav Vondruska, Director of CzechTourism agency
Oldrich Vlasak, Member of EP, Director of CEMR
Milan Cabrnoch, Member of EP
and others

Target group

delegates of municipalities and local governments
ICT, IS and eTourism specialists from municipalities

Focus and objectives

To enable participants to meet and discuss the results of the past and prospects of future cooperation Comaprative presentation of the eGovernment developement in V4 countries
Introduction the participants to the work of European networks of municipalities
Stimulation of participation of twinning cities in European programs and projects supported by European Commission
Exchange of experience among twinned municipalities and involving key politicians and decision makers into the process of developing information society at local levels
Strenghtening of the awareness of European cultural and language diversity by the medium of supporting problems of eTourism at the municipal level

Organisers and partners

Project main organiser and co-oganiser

Vysocina Region
Association of the Czech @

Project support

European Commission--Directorate General for Education and Culture

Project partner

Triada Ltd.

Host cities

City of Prague
City of Hradec Králové

Evaluation

The main objective of the LORIS conference was to enable participants--twinning towns--to meet and discuss the results of the past and prospects of future cooperation. LORIS conference was, in general, aimed at the development of municipal information and communication society in all its aspects--eGovernment, eTourism, web services for citizens, municipal service systems and databases and more. There were presentations and discussions held by the conference participants on the grounds of practical experience of separate twinning cities with application of their respective ICT policy and other connecting policy instruments. Special emphasis was laid to cross-border projects of twinned towns and the development of eTourism as the way of presentation of twinned cities through their partners. Aimed at the development of ICT, LORIS conference also presented possibilities in broadband connections for municipalities and diverse digital services as the main preconditions for successful building of modern city with high-quality public services in support of quality life of its citizens.

There was also time and place to discuss new possibilities in broadband connections for municipalities and diverse digital services as the main preconditions for successful building of modern European city with high-quality public services in support of quality life of its citizens.

Other objectives, as described in application, were:

To introduce the participants to the work of European networks of municipalities in the area of development of information society and show possibilities of their participation in their work--representatives of the twinning towns--members of these networks introduced principles of their existence and rights and duties resulting out of the membership. These issues were later discussed during bilateral meetings of twinning towns.
To stimulate participation of twinning cities in European programs and projects supported by European Commission--this objective was reached through the introduction of succesful EU based projects and programs some of the twinning cities participated in. These presentation significantly raised participants’ awareness of possibilities opened in European Union in the thematical fields the conference was aimed on. Executive president of the Council of European Municipalities (CEMR) and Member of the European Parliament Oldrich Vlasak was one of the most prominent guests regarding this objective of the conference.
Exchange of experience among twinned municipalities. To involve key politicians and decision makers into the process of developing information society at local levels--we are proud that the most important Czech and Slovak politicians (e.g. President of Senate Premysl Sobotka, Minister of Interior Ivan Langer, Slovak Governmental plenipotentiary for ICT Pavol Tarina and others) and decision makers participated during the conference and met with top representatives of twinning cities (most importantly above mentioned Oldrich Vlasak, but also Lord Mayor of Hradec Kralove Otakar Divisek, Deputy Mayor of Bratislava Anna Dyttertova, Prague councellor Milan Pesak and others) not only from these two countries, but also their partners from other countries.
To strengthen awareness of European cultural and language diversity by the medium of supporting problems of eTourism at the municipal level, to underline the important role of the towns while taking into account that according to the statistic research up to 70% of tourists get information from the internet--problems of eTourism were discussed not only on municipal level, but representatives of national tourist agencies from Hungary , Czech and attended the conference and discussed with participants current possibilities of presentment of municipalities via Internet presentations, web pages and current Europe-wide reservation systems for tourists.

Number of lectures by skilled representatives of twinning cities were presented, referring exactly to the defined objectives and providing conference audience with necessary information. Workshops chaired by representatives of local governments and representatives of European networks on information society development were also part of the LORIS conference, it purpose was to secure the conference participants gaining as much new knowledge as possible. Conference lasted for three days and more than 300 visitors participated during the programme.

The LORIS 2008 conference afforded representatives of twinned towns and regions the opportunity to discuss the current situation as regards the development of information society in the wider Central European context and, owing to the active engagement of public administration representatives from the Visegrad region countries and several other European states, it significantly invigorated the dialogue about the main points of European policy pertaining to the use of information systems in public administration and society as a whole.

Representatives of twinned European towns attending the conference primarily discussed the further advancement of e-government at the local and regional level, the use of EU funds in the development of selected ICT projects, town-twinning and networking, as well as e-tourism. Enwidening of working partnerships as well as refreshing the old ones is, beside the offered possibilities for new cooperation, one of the successes of the LORIS conference.

But the programme of the conference LORIS 2008 did not consist only of discussions and meetings between towns, a special stress was laid also on examples of good practice and presentations of successful projects. In the project laboratory in the Elizabeth Hall there were presented examples of working town-twinning cooperation--between Bratislava, Budapest, Prague and Warsaw, between Slovakian Moldava nad Bodvou and Hungarian towns Encs and many others.

Wide coverage in the newspapers and national media was ensured in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and further on the www pages of participating twinning cities. The results were also disseminated through the European municipal networks, e. g. Global Cities Dialogue, ELANET, etc. by their members--cities participating during the LORIS conference.

TV coverage was provided by Czech TV for some parts of the conference. Pictures taken during the conference were broadcasted during the evening news as well as repeatedly aired on special news channel.

List of twinning cities

Bratislava (SK), Brno (CZ), Budapest (HU), Prague (CZ), Warsaw (PL)
Banska Bystrica (SK), Hradec Kralove (CZ), Wroclaw (PL)
Encs (HU), Karcag (HU), Moldava nad Bodvou (SK)
Ceske Budejovice (CZ), Nitra (SK)
Kosice (SK), Ostrava (CZ)