International conference LORIS 2007

01/17/2007

Within the anniversary 10^th year of a prestigious conference Internet in Public Administration and Self-government that takes place in the days of 2--3 April 2007 in the Aldis Congress Centre in Hradec Kralove, there will be held another year of the international conference LORIS (Local and Regional Information Society), whose main organizer is Vysocina Region and which is co-financed by the European Commission within TT programme. There will meet deputies of twinning towns of European initiative i2010 here (European Information Society for growth and employment), which further develops the so called Lisbon strategy. The key themes of a two-day programme will not lack discussions about development of e-government on the local and regional level, using resources of the EU for development of some ICT projects, town-twinning and networking or development of e-tourism. The conference will also significantly contribute to elaboration of cooperation of partner towns and regions of the whole Europe, to which there belongs the capital Prague, the city of Hradec Kralove or Vysocina Region.

The main task of the meeting is to enable the deputies of the twinning towns discussion with representatives of the European Commission and that is mainly about aims of the initiative i2010 and its implementation on the local level. The conference will intensify a dialogue concerning the main points of European policy and in close synergy with the conference EISCO 2007, held by the organizations ELANET and CEMR (The Council of European Municipalities and Regions), it will outline a further direction, which will be taken by this initiative in future. Participants of the conference will also accept a declaration compiling practical experience of each twinning town together with implementation of this policy and related resources.

"The international conference LORIS yearly presents a unique opportunity mainly to exchange international experience," says Milos Vystrcil, hetman of Vysocina Region. "A close connection with the national conference ISSS and in the last four years also with a working meeting of Visegrad countries V4DIS enables to concentrate a whole number of personalities, experts, visions as well as examples from the practice in one place in a few days. This is then logically profitable for all, who partake in creating of information society not only in the Czech Republic, but also in a number of other European countries."

Approximately 2000 participants of parallelly held national conference ISSS will be acquainted with the results of the meeting as well as with the contens of the declaration of the international conference LORIS 2007. Information will be further distributed through the participating European initiatives and networks such as e.g. Telecities-Eurocities, ELANET-CEMR, ERIS@ or Global Cities Dialogue.

Most of the participants of the international conference LORIS 2007 will appear in the Czech Republic already on Saturday 31 March. For the Sunday afternoon there is prepared a sightseeing of Prague for them and just after the noon there will also take place a meeting with deputies of Prague municipal council. After the afternoon transfer to Hradec Kralove there will wait the first workshop and then a gala evening in the town theatre. Monday, the first official day of the conference, is already full of seminars, presentations and workshops and in the course of the evening gala programme the participants will wait in suspense announcement of the international competition EuroCrest for the best internet Web pages of towns, municipalities and regions in Europe. The international conference LORIS officially finishes after the Tuesday morning working programme.