The 6th Interregional DEBUTING meeting was full of surprises
Last week, 12-13 June, it was time for the 6th interregional DEBUTING meeting, this time hosted in Gdańsk by our partner Pomorskie Voivodeship. The impressive surroundings together with the insightful programme and many surprises truly made the event unforgettable!
Interregional cooperation at policy level has a high potential for impact through improvement made following the experiences from different regions. As Karolina Lipińska, Innovation Architect at the Office of the Marshal of the Pomorskie Voivodeship said, this can only be made by the people around the "learning" table – just like us in the meeting.
The Gdańsk meeting, for many participants also the first visit to Poland, was a great showcase of the regional policy making. The event was filled with interesting discussions. One of these followed the welcoming words by Leszek Bonna, the Deputy Marshal of Pomorskie Voivodeship, on the importance of gender equality and inclusion in our regions around Europe.
But it was much more than just knowledge and experience that made the visit a success: a warm-hearted hospitality was shown in many ways. The programme consisted of two intensive days with workshops, presentations, good practices and much more. The surprises of the event included a local dance group and a smart specialization workshop where we also got to work with our hands on one of the local fields of specialization, amber.
“After almost 1,5 years of working together and visiting 6 out of the 12 regions, it is impressive to see the "magic of discovery" that visiting partners experience each time. With a rewarding feeling of a joint purpose of creating solutions to address gender equality, diversity and inclusion in companies, as necessary ingredients for competitive and sustainable industries in the regions” comments Lucia Seel, Project Manager of DEBUTING project.
“It is empowering to see progress being made by individual partners in their regions, as well as in joint efforts at partnership level to support each other to create the change considered necessary - through collaborative relationships that deepen with each meeting and in-between.” Seel continues.
The second day of the meeting took place in Gdańsk Technology park, including a tour and a visit to welding, 3D printing and robotics laboratories, where the students have the possibility to use the latest technology in their studies.
One of the highlights were the focus group discussions, one on gender value creation practices and another on gender budgeting, allowing us to deep dive in the topics, share ideas and learn from each other. In the focus group for gender value creation, led by Professor Natasza Kosakowska-Berezecka from the University of Gdańsk, we started to plan a campaign to increase knowledge on gender equality and inclusion, discussing the best ways to communicate these topics and raise interest. The other focus group, led by Manuel Almberg Missner from Karlstad University, continued where they were left off in Pamplona meeting on analyzing budgets from gender perspective.
What a visit indeed! You can find more information and pictures from our LinkedIn account. Thank you again to our amazing hosts in Gdańsk for everything!
Now we start to prepare for our next meeting, this time taking place in Ungheni, Moldova, in October.