Annual meeting, Aarhus, June 2011

'City branding and City sustainability'

Every year around June representatives from the departments International Affairs and specialists in certain policy fields meet in one of the cities for the annual meeting. In 2010 Aarhus hosted this event. Like every year it was an intensive programme with presentations and site visits. Seeing each other at least once a year strengthens the idea of the network and friendship. The main themes were City branding and City sustainability, and how the two themes relate. Every city gave a presentation as 'My city invites'.

Utrecht gave presentations about the ambition to become European Capital of Culture 2018 and about cycling in the city. That presentation was 'answered' by a presentation by Aarhus. The two cities like to profile themselves as 'cycling cites'. But with all bicycles in the city stalling them becomes a problem that's very familiar. The participants experienced cycling themselves on special Aarhus bikes. Edinburgh gave a presentation in the theme of Events and sustainability/city branding on "Greening Edinburgh Festivals and Cultural Venues". This was a good introduction for the  working visit by festivals from Utrecht in September.  

In Pakhus 27, a redeveloped warehouse at the Aarhus Docklands with an impressive model of Aarhus large waterfront project, Gent gave a presentation on 'Ghent – Towards a sustainable city'. The participants were introduced to the strategic approach how to grow towards a sustainable/climate neutral city, starting from the assets the city has at its disposal.

Again the annual meeting gave good opportunities to learn more about the hosting city, the partner cities and their knowledge and ambitions.