Enlargement, Citizenship and Participation
This year’s conference was organised by David Martin, Secretary of the Swindon Salzgitter Twinning Association, with support from the European Union and Swindon Borough Council, and the active participation of Swindon’s Mayor, Peter Stoddart.
The event kicked off with a dinner at Steam, Swindon’s Railway Museum, on Thursday 30th September, invited guests included the High Sheriff of Wiltshire, and the German Ambassador, delegations from Salzgitter (Germany), Ocotal (Nicaragua), Imatra (Finland). The delegation from Torun was headed by Zbigniew Fiderewicz (the Vice President of Torun), Bogdan Major (Councillor and Chairman of the Committee for City Development, Cooperation and Promotion), Agnieszka Lisek (from the Department of Development and European Integration), Henryk Tomaszewski (from the International Programmes Office at Niclaus Copernicus University) and Romuald Po?lednik (Polish British Foundation at International House). Members from the Swindon Torun Group also attended, including Stan Pajak, Chris Bulzacki and Sylwia Sitek.
The Conference began with the opening of the Twin Towns Exhibition at Steam, which featured Panoramas of Toru? by photographer Marek Czarnecki.
There were presentations from representatives of participating towns, Toru? Vice President referred to the rich history of Toru?, it’s development plans and booming tourist industry, a film was shown giving an overview of Torun.
Daryl Jones, Senior Economic Development Officer at Swindon Borough Council, discussed European Funding and how to apply for it. Swindon receives around £2 million each year from the European Social Fund, whilst farmers in Wiltshire receive around £35 million.
A workshop session was led by David Bruce from the University of West England www.tourism-research.org, and Julia Hasse from Germany, they presented the PREPARe wheel, a method to support a baseline and review process for activities between different local authorities, with a view to using this method in the context of twinning. Separate groups discussed issues of tourism, business development, municipal plans and youth and community exchanges. A temporary power cut in the building failed to interupt proceedings, delegates grappled with multiple languages, exchanged ideas about their respective experiences, sought to extend cooperation and plan for the developent of initiatives to qualify for additional European Funding.
In the evening, the Toru? delegation visited the Polish Community Centre, which has been thriving in Swindon for over fifty years.
Saturday was devoted to sight-seeing around Swindon, and a trip was organised to Avebury, the site of ancient burial grounds and stone circle.
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In the evening, everyone attended a concert by the Swindon Pegasus Band at the Wyvern Theatre, after which a reception was held for final farewells.
The Twin Towns Exhibition continues at Steam until the 24th October 2004.
Tags: conference, exhibition, Twinning