On Thursday, November 9, we held a strategy day, where our partners met to discuss various strategic projects to be implemented by our members. During the day, participants took part in different workshops where they could brainstorm ideas and discuss them with each other.
This is what some of the participants thought:
Magnus Boman, from RISE and KTH, was one of the day's organizers and said that he takes a lot of new, interesting suggestions from the discussions.
- "I am very impressed. There are good suggestions from several relevant representatives. It is also interesting that flaws in the system are already emerging. I will take these with me further in my work.
Jeet Mistry works at WWF and according to him, WWF and Viable Cities have a relevant exchange.
- WWF already has a similar program, One Planet Cities, where we help cities with climate and energy issues. We want to join Viable Cities with the hope of providing an international perspective. We have a lot to learn from the rest of the world on these issues. In One planet cities we already have a platform with good data that we can use in Viable Cities - it would make it easier to identify the problems that exist. By meeting like this, we can concretize the next steps, which is important!
Catarina Naucler from Fortum, Mats Jonsson from NetPort Science Park and Lisa Redin from Umeå University found the day very rewarding.
- 'Some strategies are easier to discuss than others,' says Lisa Redin.
Furthermore, Catarina says that the discussions are very important but that the problems will not be solved for a while, but that the strategy day is the right way to go.
- It is a very good initiative to be able to come together, concretize the missions and change. Everyone agrees that we need to step up our game.
When Kerstin Åkerwall from Malmö City was asked what she takes away from the day, she replied that she takes away new energy.
- There have been many different perspectives on the problems we have discussed, and it has given me many new ideas. It has been an uplifting day and I feel very energetic and optimistic.
