Trebbin hosted the latest TiF workshop

"We are on the right track!"

Trebbin - Branding a rural future[1]_560x420

A long the lines "Branding a rural future" the German TiF Partner Trebbin welcomed about 30 participants to a WP3 & WP4 workshop. Besides discussing how the partners will transform their cities and municipalities into vibrant and sustainable places, the participants from five different countries discussed the question "Are we on the right track?"

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Branding a rural future - workshop participants I.jpg

For those who arrive in the small city of Trebbin by train, it is quite hard to fall in love with this German town, situated in the State of Brandenburg, about 30 train- minutes away from Berlin’s city center. An old building, a quite long way to the city center - even longer with heavy baggage - and tricky pathway that makes you watch your feed not to stumble. That was the impression that about 25 TiF partners got when they arrived in Trebbin last week. But they did not come to complain, their purpose was to share ideas and to change something.

Trebbin’s mayor Thomas Berger, welcomed all TiF partners and experts to the workshop “Branding a rural future” in the Clauert House, named after the city’s most famous character Hans Clauert, who lived in 1500. Clauert was known for his shrewd ideas and is regarded as the Märkische Owlglass, the legendary impudent trickster of the Middle Age. Some of Clauert`s creative spirit is probably left in this house that Trebbin’s people use for events, festivals, concerts and conferences because the latest TiF workshop turned out to be a very fruitful event with challenging discussions and demanding presentations. There is not too much time left until the project will end next year. Keeping that in mind project manager Bjørn Frode Moen from the lead partner Notodden in Norway questioned “Are we on the right track?”

Thomas Berger used the chance to send greetings to Brandenburg’s Minister of Agriculture, Jörg Vogelsänger, whose department decided that the former TiF partner Havelland-Fläming planning region has to withdraw from the project. “Tell Mr. Vogelsänger how important TiF for our rural future is”, said Berger addressing Danny Eichelbaum, member of the state parliament, who took part in the meeting.

Before the TiF coordinators presented their achievements Knut Vareide from Telemark Research Institute presented his latest insights working with the “Attractiveness Barometer”. “You have to think in two dimensions”, suggested Vareide. Another important aspect was his advice to focus on your own country in an international context, an issue that he underestimated in recent years. But since young people are so flexible and open to move around in Europe it is necessary to think more global. At the end each partner has to find its own way because referring to the expert “surprisingly successful places do not follow trends.”

Michael Fuller Gee, EU-Expert in Architecture and Town Planning showed the audience different examples of urban transformation. Social innovation was one of the keywords. „If you don’t show people that you are actually doing something, nothing happens. People need to see that something is happening”, so Fuller Gee. That something could be e.g. a festival of ideas or a food festival - small but simple steps that create meeting points and involve citizens.

“We are not only thinking and informing each other, we are actually doing something", stated TiF coordinator and host Thomas Berger. What every partner has done so far was shown in different presentations that can be downloaded below. New ideas for Trebbin were presented by Berger. He introduced the Trebbin Hymn, a song about the small town that Berger understands as a tool for identification. “It creates a feeling of belonging together.” The next big project in Trebbin is the reconstruction of the old train station as it is a gate to Trebbin and the shortening of the way from the train station to the city center, e.g. by offering bike rental service. “We want to give our people the feeling that they are a part of this community. They are invited to take part in forming this new point of interest”, said Berger. His idea was appreciated by the project management and partners since they had seen the unappealing building.

“If we are going to learn from each other we need to know each other. That is what we managed to do in TiF. We can’t export our problems anymore. For global problems we need to find solutions locally”, explained Bjørn Frode Moen at the end of the workshop. The big question "Are we on the right track?" that the partners reasoned about during various plenary discussion answered the project manager as followes: "We all use different approaches but: We are on the right track!"

Recently the Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung announced the TiF workshop "Branding a rural future". Please find an online version of the article "Europe visits Trebbin" here. The newspaper also published an artcile in retrospect: "On the right track". Furthermore there is an article about the workshop in Die-Mark-Online: "Den Café-Latte-Faktor beachten".