4th PROWAD LINK partner meeting held virtually

27 April 2020 - Published by Harald Marencic

A three-day meeting with lots of room for personal exchange and getting to know the Lower Saxon part of the Wadden Sea World Heritage – that was the plan for the 4th meeting of the Prowad Link project partners this April. However, due to the current COVID19 situation, the meeting had to be moved online and 25 representatives of the 14 partner organisations from five countries joined from the safety of their home offices.

On 21 to 22 April 2020, the project partners held six intense sessions on the current status of the project and its activities. An important aspect of the discussions: how to move forward in times of corona.

While some deliverables of the project are already done or far enough to be concluded without delay, the 16 of 42 will be affected by the current situation, starting with co-creation workshops that had to be cancelled already. Further and more importantly, Prowad Link’s main target group – small and medium-sized enterprises – is heavily affected. Thus, the partners discussed how to treat the crisis as an opportunity to give support with hands-on recommendations, webinars and by enabling the exchange of experiences on how entrepreneurs deal with the current situation across the pilot regions. The partners agreed to adapt the project work plan to the new situation in order to reach the goals with revised activities and use World Heritage as an opportunity to support sustainable growth transnationally.

The next partner meeting will be held in Geiranger, World Heritage Western Norwegian Fjords, in the beginning of November 2020.