STAKEHOLDER WORKSHOP SAXONY-ANHALT EVENT REPORT - 18 SEPTEMBER 2012 IN MAGDEBURG, GERMANY -

STAKEHOLDER WORKSHOP SAXONY-ANHALT EVENT REPORT - 18 SEPTEMBER 2012 IN MAGDEBURG, GERMANY -

WELCOME SPEECH PRESIDENT OF THE TRANSROMANCIA ASSOCIATION Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to welcome you all to our first joint workshop in the content of the e-create project. A special welcome is addressed to today's speakers Ms. Jeannette Schroeder and Ms. Christiane Strohschneider from the City of Halberstadt as well as Mr. Martin Fricke from the IMG. The three of them are going to present their smartphone applications which have been identified as good practices to showcase the possibilities of the use of modern technologies in tourism. Being the president of the TRANSROMANICA Association and the Tourism Association of Saxony-Anhalt I know from my own experience how fast evolving the tourism industrie and especially the needs of the tourist are. One thing we are surely all aware of: Nowadays, the attractiveness of a tourism destination does not solely depend on cultural, historical or natural assets. In fact, it is of increasing importance how information and services are made available to the visitors. But how can we as tourism organizations comply with this trend? This questions is exactly what e-create is dealing with. Our aim is to strengthen service-oriented companies in the long term by making use of modern information and communication technologies. We would like to use this event today to introduce e-create to you and give you the opportunity to formulate your personal expectations towards the project. Participating in this workshop you did the first step in order to represent your own interests. This is exactly what we are looking for when it comes to the development of policy recommendations for post-2013 structural funds. Hence, let us work effectively in order to for you to find just the tools you need for your work in the tourism field and for the promotion of your products and services in the future funding period. For now, I wish us inspiring conversations and discussions, an effective and successful cooperation and especially results, that can be implemented efficiently not only within the e- CREATE project progression but also within your companies. Lars-Jörn Zimmer President of the TRANSROMANICA Association

CONTENTS 1. Facts and Figures 2. Workshop Overview 3. Plenary Session 4. Discussion Round 5. Workshop Round 6. Conclusion

1. FACTS AND FIGURES Saxony-Anhalt Guided tour through Halberstadt Saxony-Anhalt offers its visitors a wide range of memorable attractions, art and culture, lively historic cities, events, nature and relaxation. The state is dominated by vast rural areas where cultural tourism-related services are an important economic branch and a major catalyst for the diversification of business activities to reduce the dependence on agriculture. Workshop City: Magdeburg, Germany The city of Magdeburg is situated approx. 160 km south-west of Berlin. It is home to about 232,000 inhabitants. The city is situated at the river Elbe and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe. Cathedral of Magdeburg Conference Venue: InterCity Hotel The InterCity Hotel is a modern business class hotel which is situated in the city center of Magdeburg. In close proximity to the main station, it is easily reached by train, car or tram.. Conference room at the InterCity Hotel Magdeburg

2. WORKSHOP OVERVIEW TOTAL ATTENDANCE: 15 PARTICIPATING NATIONS: GERMANY PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS: TOURISM ASSOCIATIONS MUNICIPALITIES TOURISM INFORMATION OFFICES SME CHAMBER OF INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE POLITICIANS ICT EXPERTS E-CREATE PROJECT PARTNERS:

3. PLENARY SESSION Mr. Lars-Jörn Zimmer, President of the TRANSROMANICA Association and the Saxony- Anhalt tourism organization, opened the stakeholder workshop and welcomed all participants. He highlighted the importance of the project to local, rural areas especially in the field of tourism and pointed out that there is a need to follow the development within the field of new technologies in order to meet customers needs. Ms. Christin Prange presented the e-create project in detail to all participants and put particular emphasis on the relation between the international activities and the good practices coming from Saxony-Anhalt. Furthermore, she explained the objectives and proceedings concerning the development of an open-source application which is realized in the context of a pilot project. Afterwards, Ms.Jeannette Schroeder (Municipality of Halberstadt, Unternehmerbüro/Neue Medien) and Ms. Christiane Strohschneider (Halberstadt Information Office), took the floor. They introduced the Halberstadt App, which had been chosen as a good practice from Saxony-Anhalt by the e-create partnership. Finally, Mr. Martin Fricke (IMG) held his presentation about the Love-of-Nature-App, which had also been identified as an good practice.

4. DISCUSSION ROUND Following the presentations on the good practices, the workshop participants discussed about the backgrounds and development of the applications. The main issues that were debated on can be summarized as follows: Initial point and development of the idea of creating a marketing tool by using modern technologies Differences in functionality and content between the two examples Financial issues Two aspects have been identified as being crucial points when considering a project like the development of a smartphone application: The final product (in this case an app) must not create any additional expenditure in terms of time and effort once it is running. Therefore, in both cases it was a mayor criterion that the tool has to be linked to the CMS of the running website. Another factor that was discussed deeply is the target group analysis prior to the implementation of such a project as well as the balancing of the new tool with other (existing) marketing activities. Thanks to the presence of ICT experts, technological questions could be dealt with straight away. Mr. Sirko Scheffler (GM of the ICT service provider brain-scc) provides technical information supported by a presentation on his smartphone.

5. WORKSHOP ROUND During the workshop session in the afternoon, the participants developed an overview of unique selling propositions of a chosen destination or company. In the next step, they collected digital marketing tools, they already knew of. In the following discussions, to main issues have been focused on: the importance of the target group specific promotion of products and services the user friendliness of any provided tool The participants stated clear expectations towards the e-create project in order to strengthen the competitiveness of SME in the tourism sector: to demonstrate surplus values of modern technologies to SME to show SME how these technologies work A particular challenge is anticipated when it comes to getting managers of tourism companies (especially small ones with less than 15 employees) around one table for discussions and workshop sessions. A lack of time, financial sources and personnel have been identified as the reasons.

CONCLUSIONS Initiating a final round, the participants have been asked to formulate their personal expectations towards the e-create project, which can be summarized as follows: Networking and exchange of experiences and opinions Creation of a long-term surplus value for tourism destinations Support of technology development in general Creation of added value by combining offers of different suppliers Clear offer towards SME (that could include funding possibilities, training possibilities, etc.) For more information, visit: www.e-create-project.eu - simply follow our project on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn - get in contact: Workshop organizer: TRANSROMANICA Association Ms. Christin Prange, e-create Communication Manager Ph.: +49 391 73 84 350 e-mail: c.prange@transromanica.com Lead partner: Ministry of Regional Development and Transport Saxony-Anhalt Mr. Ken Gericke, e-create Project Coordinator Ph.: +49 391 567 7437 e-mail: ken.gericke@mlv.sachsen-anhalt.de