Boris Meggiorin
As a project manager for international relations as the Culture service of the Government of Catalonia, in 2009 I helped the production of the first Compendium for cultural policy in Catalonia, an initiative of the Council of Europe in cooperation of the Ericarts institute. A tool usually dedicated to countries, Catalonia was the first regional government to produce its own Compendium overviewing the evolution of culture and creative industries in Barcelona and its surrounding areas.
“Territorial Cooperation Fostering European Integration: Cities and Regions Linking across Borders” was the title of the first congress of Smart Cooperation taking place in A Coruña (Spain) in 2012.
My role was to support the organisation and the logistics of the event. More than 400 delegates from all over Europe enjoyed the knowledge sharing and networking programme on how to improve practices for effective cooperation between public authorities.
https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/fr/newsroom/events/2012/06/1st-congress-on-smart-cooperation
http://www.espaces-transfrontaliers.org/en/the-mot/evenements/first-congress-on-smart-cooperation/
“Crafting the future” was the theme of the conference, which focused on designers’ practical knowledge. How can the specific knowledge of designers be brought forward, articulated, made visible, and be understood and used in contexts like innovation, business development and social change?
The main hosting organisation, the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), hired TILLT, the innovation agency where I was working in 2013.
As part of the team taking care of international relations, my role was to support the action conceived by TILLT to promote the networking and the reflection of the delegates from all over Europe.
During the Gala Dinner, each table had a box with everyday household materials (such as sponges, tape, thread…) and the delegates sitting at the same table were asked to create, during the meal, a collaborative sculpture by using the objects provided and by representing their common feature.
In a night that was dedicated to the hybrid nature of each human, it was the perfect scheme to make the designers engage in a conversation about commonalities and roots.
For five years I had the chance to share my expertise as a guest teacher and virtual campus coordinator of the Master in Cultural Cooperation of the University of Barcelona(Spain).
My experience in European Union funding and in project coordination and financing proved to be a valuable resource for the students from Asia, Europe, and South America enrolling to this higher education programme in the Catalan capital.
The experience was extremely rewarding, thanks to the quality of exchanges with colleagues, and the interest of the students for an aspect that was often overlooked by other master degrees.
http://www.ub.edu/cultural/postgrau-en-cooperacio-i-gestio-cultural-internacional/?lang=en
In 2014, I was working at SAMOA, an Agency for urban regeneration on the Isle of Nantes (France). My colleague, Hélène Morteau, was finalising her PhD study on creative clusters and urban redevelopment while we were involved in the European Creative Industries Alliance. Among the tasks to perform, we had to exchange good practices and share the knowledge we were producing with our partners beyond the European continent.
We got in touch with the University of Chicago and its Cultural Policy Center , and we discovered that they were planning to expand their network in Europe, and namely in France.
This mutual interest resulted in the organisation of the 2015 Paris Convening of the University of Chicago on Urban Cultural Projects: Research, Practice, Policy.
During this time, world renowned experts met to discuss their findings about cultural projects in the urban environment.
My role, in addition to supporting the organisation, networking, and logistic effort, was to promote the urban redevelopment project of Nantes. This was a very good opportunity to reinforce its brand development.
The Regional Council of Pays de la Loire (France) built a strategic partnership with several universities, the University of Nantes among others, to create 13 thematic platforms working on Research, Training, and Innovation.
While working as a coordinator for the local Europe Direct Information Centre in Nantes (France), I was part of the Innovation programme devised by Alliance Europa, the platform devoted to the studies on the European Union and citizens’ rights and roles.
It supported their network, communication, and field studies throughout their first years of activities.