One day, back in 2015, a small group from Arezzo Innovazione (Sara and Luigi), ELI-ALPS (Miki) and Resolvo (Jessica) met up in Jessica’s house (it had to be there, because her 2-year-old daughter that had a fever that day!). They met to discuss how they could learn from the incredible innovation support ecosystem in Barcelona. Despite the sick baby, that was a very productive meeting, and TRINNO was born!
Over five years later, a much bigger group of project partners and stakeholders met again at the TRINNO virtual Final Conference.
In TRINNO – Business ecosystem for TRadition and INNOvation, 4 regions (Tuscany, Csongrád County, Heart of Slovenia and North West Ireland) have developed Action Plans designed to help enterprises to apply the benefits of digital innovation to traditional sectors. They did so with the incredible support of the Advisory Partner University of Barcelona and a bit of help from Resolvo!
During the conference, TRINNO partners showed how they have interpreted the common challenge and designed local actions that are already enhancing their business support systems. There are real results, real changes being made thanks to this project.
But the Final Conference was even more than that!
To start with, TRINNO was not alone. We counted over 17 other Interreg Europe projects taking part and sharing their experiences with us.
TRINNO project officer Laurentiu David, from the Joint Secretariat, talked about the outcome of the Interreg Europe programme and about the future programming period. The Policy Learning Platform, with Elena Ferrario, Raluca Toma and Thorsten Kohlisch, had live chats to present they services and support activities.
And we danced! It seems unbelievable, but we actually danced with the help of Indepen-dance, a truly amazing no-profit Scottish association, working on inclusive dance. They let us move, cheer up, smile and forget we were having a virtual meeting because of a global pandemic.
We could not hug each other and toast properly, like we wanted to, but this interactive, fully packed (and a bit different!) virtual conference was an amazing send off for this close group that we now call our friends, a rare pearl of friendship within interregional cooperation.
