DeRC 2011 Outline

DeRC 2011 Outline and Invitation

Ljubljana, Monday-Tuesday, September 19-20, 2011

The Danube eRegion Conference (DeRC) is a response to the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. It is organized as a follow-up event of three meetings of the Inter-Municipality Initiative: Cross-border eCollaboration in the Danube eRegion launched in early 2011. The meetings of the Slovenia’s group were in the University of Maribor (February 10), Town Municipality of Novo mesto (April 21) and University of Primorska in Koper (June 9, 2011). The initiative is based on an expectation that experimenting (prototyping) in innovative ways of cross-border eCollaboration will accelerate new eSolutions & eServices to be developed and implemented sooner. They will contribute to a higher competitiveness of the participating organizations, the countries, and the region as a whole, as well as to a better life of their citizens.

Opportunities for eCollaboration of state & local governments, businesses, ICT providers and the universities will be discussed in the conference. Joint research & development projects in the region will be suggested and the participants invited to jointly prepare in time to respond to the related national and/or EU calls for project proposals. The working language of the conference is English.

It is assumed that by using the eTechnologies, the cross-border macro eRegions can be enabled to collaborate in innovative and holistic “e” ways. For example, the Nordic – Slovene Meeting on Innovative Cross-Border eRegion Development, Ljubljana, February 3, 2009, (Résumé). In 2010, two meetings have been organized in the European Parliament proposing the inter-eRegions collaboration in the directions West-East and North-South (European Initiative Danube Region on the eSilk & eAmber Roads).

An example of the cross-border eCollaboration is the Alpe Adria Danube universities INitiative – ALADIN created in 2002. Since than, the ALADIN group was growing and engaging in many aspects of eBusiness teaching and research, as well as joint EU projects. For several years, ALADIN has initiated numerous workshops, conference’s panels and meetings suggesting a need and readiness for an accelerated cross-border eCollaboration in Central Europe. In April 2010, the group has published its position paper EU Strategy for the Danube Region, proposing open innovation approach in the Living Labs environment with a special attention to the SMEs. The signatories of the document were the representatives of the following universities: Bucharest, BW Munich, Corvinus, Dubrovnik, Graz, Košice, Maribor, Novi Sad, Primorska, Rijeka, Ruse, Sofia, Trento, Trieste.

It is expected that organizations representing state & local government, companies, ICT providers, and universities in the countries of the Danube eRegion will participate in the conference. For example, in Slovenia the following organizations are currently engaged in the initiative:

Town Municipalities (Ljubljana, Maribor, Murska Sobota, Novo mesto, Ptuj);
Regional Chambers of Commerce (Koper, Krško, Maribor, Murska Sobota, Novo mesto, TRC Koroška);
Companies (Intereuropa d.d. Koper, Gorenje d.d. Velenje);
Organizers of major international events (Maribor 2012 Public Institute – European Capital of Culture, Maribor Festival);
ICT providers (Bankart, Geodetic Institute of Slovenia, Mobitel, Postal Services of Slovenia, SAP Ljubljana, SRC.SI);
Supporters – National Administrations (Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology);
National Assembly Deputies;
Universities (Maribor, Primorska).

Prototypes of eSolutions and eServices are an important innovative methodological component of the initiative. They will be presented in the conference. Objectives of the prototypes development and testing are the following: innovativeness, user-centricity, simplicity, low-cost accessibility, web sites connectivity, multi lingual options, experimenting with eSolutions and eServices in the Living Lab environment. Purposes of the prototypes are the following: support to major cultural and sport events, support to cross-border eBusiness of SMEs, support to major disaster eResponse, openness to the organizations in other countries, experience and best practice exchange with the organizations in other countries.

Program will be published: at the conference’s website.

You are kindly invited to attend the conference!

Contact Person
Dr Jože Gričar, Professor Emeritus, University of Maribor, Gricar@FOV.Uni-Mb.si

eCenter.FOV.Uni-Mb.si/Gricareregion.eu

Program Coordinator, Inter-Municipality Initiative: Cross-border eCollaboration in the Danube eRegion